Susan Milius

Susan Milius

Life Sciences Writer

Life sciences writer Susan Milius has been writing about botany, zoology and ecology for Science News since the last millennium. She worked at diverse publications before breaking into science writing and editing. After stints on the staffs of The Scientist, Science, International Wildlife and United Press International, she joined Science News. Three of Susan's articles have been selected to appear in editions of The Best American Science Writing.

All Stories by Susan Milius

  1. Animals

    Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins

    Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.

  2. Better Mosquito: Transgenic versions spread less malaria

    Genetic engineers for the first time have made a mosquito that's wonderfully bad at transmitting malaria.

  3. Animals

    Gator Feelings: Tough faces, more sensitive than ours

    Alligator and crocodile faces carry pressure receptors so responsive that they can detect ripples on the water's surface from a single falling drop.

  4. Animals

    No Tickling: Common caterpillars deploy defensive hair

    The caterpillars of the European cabbage butterfly have a chemical defense system that scientists haven't documented before.

  5. Rescue Rat: Could wired rodents save the day?

    Researchers have wired a rat's brain so that someone at a laptop computer can steer the animal through mazes and over rubble.

  6. Whazzits get their own insect order

    Insect specimens that have puzzled museum curators for decades turn out to represent a lineage so odd that scientists have named a new order just for them.

  7. European Union for Ants: Supercolony reigns from Italy to Portugal

    European researchers have documented the largest ant supercolony yet, a network of cooperating nests that stretches from Italy to the Atlantic.

  8. Animals

    Maneless lions live one guy per pride

    The male lions of Tsavo National Park don't grow manes but they're no wimps—they're the only male lions found so far that rule big prides of females alone, without help from some buddies.

  9. Animals

    Wild Hair

    The technique of studying animals through genetic analysis of their fur gained fame with a political furor over lynx, but scientists have applied the technique to many other animals.

  10. Ecosystems

    Climate Upsets: Big model predicts many new neighbors

    The biggest effects of climate change during the next 50 years may not be extinctions but major reshuffling of the species in local communities.

  11. Plants

    Trees dim the light on spring flowers

    Early spring flowers and the sugar maples they grow under use different alarm clocks to get going in the spring, which can make life hard for the flowers in northern forests.

  12. Agriculture

    Journal disowns transgene report

    The journal Nature now says it shouldn't have published a report that genetically engineered corn is leaking exotic genes into the traditional maize crops of Mexico.