Physiology

Animals

Blowflies use drool to keep their cool

Personal air conditioning the blowfly way: Dangle a droplet of saliva and then reswallow.

Animals

Robot fish shows how the deepest vertebrate in the sea takes the pressure

Tests with a robot snailfish reveal why the deep-sea fish has mysterious goo in its body.

Animals

Specialized protein helps these ground squirrels resist the cold

A less active cold-sensing protein explains, in part, why some hibernating ground squirrels are more tolerant of chilly conditions than the animals’ nonhibernating kin.

Animals

Narwhals react to certain dangers in a really strange way

After escaping a net, narwhals significantly lower their heart rate while diving quickly to get away from humans.

Animals

Rough lessons can lessen the pull of human scent on a mosquito

A form of aversion therapy for mosquitoes shows they can connect human scent to a bad experience.

Neuroscience

Alzheimer’s protein can travel from blood to build up in the brain

Experiments in mice show Alzheimer’s protein can travel from the blood of an affected mouse to the brain of a healthy animal.

Animals

This sea slug makes its prey do half the food catching

Nudibranchs’ stolen meals blur classic predator-prey levels.

Animals

Scary as they are, few vampires have a backbone

Researchers speculate on why there are so few vampires among vertebrates.

Animals

Being a vampire can be brutal. Here’s how bloodsuckers get by.

Blood-sucking animals have specialized physiology and other tools to live on a diet rich in protein and lacking in some nutrients.

Life

Cracking the body clock code wins trio a Nobel Prize

Circadian clock researchers take home the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Paleontology

Woolly rhinos may have grown strange extra ribs before going extinct

Ribs attached to neck bones could have signaled trouble for woolly rhinos, a new study suggests.

Animals

Bones reveal what it was like to grow up dodo

Scientists take a first look at the inside of dodo bones.