All Stories by Darren Incorvaia
- Health & Medicine
A new gel stops mice from getting too drunk
The iron-milk substance can break down alcohol fast and protect against liver damage in mice. Scientists hope to test the gel in people next.
- Animals
Getting wild mosquitoes back to the lab alive takes a custom backpack
The new low-tech transportation method could help scientists in Africa assess if malaria-carrying mosquitoes are resistant to a common insecticide.
- Animals
This orangutan used a medicinal plant on his face wound
Rakus the orangutan appeared to be treating a cut to his face with a plant that’s also used in traditional human medicine.
- Animals
Hibernating bumblebee queens have a superpower: Surviving for days underwater
After some bumblebee queens were accidentally submerged in water and survived, researchers found them to be surprisingly tolerant of flooding.
- Animals
By fluttering its wings, this bird uses body language to tell its mate ‘after you’
New observations suggest that Japanese tits gesture to communicate complex messages — a rare ability in the animal kingdom and a first seen in birds.
- Animals
A decades-old mystery has been solved with the help of newfound bee species
Masked bees in Australia and French Polynesia have long-lost relatives in Fiji, suggesting that the bees’ ancestors island hopped.
- Plants
On hot summer days, this thistle is somehow cool to the touch
In hot Spanish summers, the thistle Carlina corymbosa is somehow able to cool itself substantially below air temperature.
- Plants
This weird fern is the first known plant that turns its dead leaves into new roots
Cyathea rojasiana tree ferns seem to thrive in Panama’s Quebrada Chorro forest by turning dead leaves into roots that seek out nutrient-rich soil.
- Life
Some honeybees in Italy regularly steal pollen off the backs of bumblebees
New observations suggest that honeybees stealing pollen from bumblebees may be a crime of opportunity, though documentation of it remains rare.
- Plants
This first-of-its-kind palm plant flowers and fruits entirely underground
Though rare, plants across 33 families are known for subterranean flowering or fruiting. This is the first example in a palm.
- Physics
Here’s how much fruit you can take from a display before it collapses
About 10 percent of the fruit in a tilted market display can be removed before it all crashes down, computer simulations show.
- Animals
These are our favorite animal stories of 2023
Spiders that make prey walk the plank, self-aware fish and a pouty T. rex are among the critters that enchanted the Science News staff.
