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. Paleontology

    Overlooked fossil spread first feathers

    A new look at a fossil that had been lying in a drawer in Moscow for nearly 30 years has uncovered the oldest known feathered animal.

  2. Old lemming puzzle gets new answer

    A novel analysis suggests food supply variations as the answer to the decades-old puzzle of what makes lemming populations boom and bust.

  3. Biodiversity may lessen Lyme disease

    A survey of Lyme disease rates suggests that a greater diversity of small mammals and lizards may help keep the rates down.

  4. Agriculture

    Bt corn variety OK for black swallowtails

    The first published field study of butterflies and genetically altered corn finds no harm to black swallowtail caterpillars from a common corn variety.

  5. Animals

    The whole beehive gets a fever…

    When bee larvae are fighting off disease, the nest temperature rises, so the whole hive gets a fever.

  6. Invader ants win by losing diversity

    The Argentine ants that are trouncing U.S. species derive much of their takeover power, oddly enough, from losing genetic diversity.

  7. Dolphins bray when chasing down a fish

    The first high-resolution analysis of which dolphin is making which sound suggests that hunters blurt out a low-frequency, donkeylike sound that may startle prey into freezing for an instant or attract other dolphins.

  8. Spider real estate wars: Wake up early

    Big spiders in a colony get prime real estate day after day by spinning webs early.

  9. Red Snow, Green Snow

    It's truly spring when those last white drifts go technicolor as algae bloom in the snow.

  10. Bdelloids: No sex for over 40 million years

    Researchers find the strongest evidence yet for creatures that have evolved asexually for millions of years.

  11. Animals

    Female owls: First to advertise good genes

    Swiss researchers find the first case of a female flashing ornaments that advertise her gene quality to choosy males.

  12. Family success prompts tit divorces

    For the first time, researchers have shown that bird pairs are more likely to divorce after raising young than after losing a nest of offspring.