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. Humans

    R&D budget should ease biomed envy

    President Clinton's science budget for 2001 proposes to narrow a gap that's yawned in recent years between lusher funding for biomedicine and leaner support for the physical sciences.

  2. Animals

    When Ants Squeak

    In the past 20 years, researchers studying sound communication in ants have discovered a sort of ant-ernet, zinging with messages about lost relatives, great food, free rides for hitchhikers, caterpillars in search of ant partners, and impending doom.

  3. Animals

    Bees log flight distances, train with maps

    After decades of work, scientists crack two problems of how bees navigate: reading bee odometers and mapping training flights.

  4. Plants

    Why tulips can’t dance

    An elliptical stem gives daffodils an unusual liveliness in the wind compared with tulips.

  5. Ecosystems

    Males live longer with all-year mating

    Male butterflies live longer in Madeira, where females are available year-round, than in Sweden, where females mature in one burst.

  6. Earth

    Just how much do U.S. roads matter?

    A Harvard researcher calculates that roads directly influence the ecology of a fifth of U.S. land area.

  7. Animals

    Why don’t racing horses fry their brains?

    Lumpy sacs bulging out of a horse's auditory tubes may solve the mystery of how such an athletic animal keeps its brain from overheating during exercise.

  8. Evolution may not be slow or random

    Studies of fruit flies taking over the New World and stickleback fish adapting to Canadian lakes suggest that evolution can proceed quickly and take predictable paths.

  9. Animals

    Redder is healthier in squawking birds

    When barn swallow nestlings open wide for food, their parents may be looking for the healthiest throats.

  10. Animals

    Butterfly ears suggest a bat influence

    Researchers have found the first bat-detecting ear in a butterfly and suggest that the threat of bats triggered the evolution of some moths into butterflies.

  11. Infected butterflies reverse sex roles

    In butterfly populations afflicted by male-killing bacteria, females gather in frantic swarms to mate.

  12. Handsome blue tit dads have more sons

    A female blue tit with a particularly dashing mate is more likely to have sons than is a female matched with a ho-hum guy.