All Stories by Susan Milius
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The Lives of Pandas
On a tight energy budget, newborns no bigger than chipmunks grow into roly-poly superstars.
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Flood’s rising? Quick, start peeing!
Malaysian ants that nest in giant bamboo fight floods by sipping from water rising inside and then dashing outdoors to pee.
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Warblers make species in a ring
Genetic and song analyses of the greenish warblers in forests around the Tibetan Plateau suggest the birds represent a long-sought evolutionary quirk called a ring species.
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First gene-altered primate beats the odds
Oregon researchers have slipped a jellyfish gene into a rhesus monkey to create the first genetically modified primate.
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Film solves mystery of sleepwalking coral
For the first time, bewildered researchers realized that a bootlace-size eunicid worm can move chunks of coral around, perhaps explaining how some coral reefs get started.
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New ant species plunders other ants’ farms
A newly discovered Megalomyrmex ant specializes in raiding the nest gardens of fungus-cultivating ant species.
- Plants
Botany under the Mistletoe
Twisters, spitters, and other flowery thoughts for romantic moments.
- Animals
Birds may inherit their taste for the town
Tests switching cliff swallow nestlings to colonies of different sizes suggest the birds inherit their preference for group size.
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Great tits inherit egg spots from mom
An unusual study of eggshell spots suggests that there may be a gene for spottiness on the great tit's female sex chromosome.
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Nightlife: Marsupial meets mistletoe
A tiny marsupial in Argentina turns out to disperse mistletoe seeds, a job once presumed to be for the birds.
- Earth
Wafting pesticides taint far-flung frogs
Agricultural pesticides blowing into California's wilderness areas have played a role in mysterious declines in frog populations.
- Animals
Will Mr. Bowerbird Fall for a Robot?
Push a button and she turns her head. But can she turn his?
