All Stories by Susan Milius
- Plants
Meat-eating pitcher plants raise deathtraps to an art
The carnivorous California pitcher plant ensnares its dinner using a medley of techniques.
- Ecosystems
Long-ignored, high-flying arthropods could make up largest land migrations
Forget birds. 3.5 trillion insects, spiders and mites a year fly over the southern United Kingdom.
- Climate
Arctic kelp forests may create summer refuges from ocean acidification
Long summer daylight revs up carbon capture in Arctic kelp forests, offering a little relief from acidifying ocean water.
- Climate
Year in review: Sea ice loss will shake up ecosystems
Researchers are studying the complex biological consequences of polar melting and opening Arctic passageways.
- Animals
Why crested penguins lay mismatched eggs
After long migratory swims, crested penguins lay one small and one larger egg.
- Ecosystems
Losing tropical forest might raise risks of human skin ulcers, deformed bones
Bacteria that cause Buruli ulcer in people flourish with tropical deforestation.
- Animals
First spider superdads discovered
Male spiders first known to give up solitary life for offspring care, often as a single parent.
- Animals
Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching
Guppies, dogs, chickens, crows, spiders — lots of animals have number sense without knowing numbers.
- Plants
Bacteria help carnivorous plants drown their prey
Pitcher plant drowning traps are more difficult for an insect to escape when bacteria colonize them.
- Animals
An echidna’s to-do list: Sleep. Eat. Dig up Australia.
Short-beaked echidna’s to-do list looks good for a continent losing other digging mammals.
- Plants
Tweaking how plants manage a crisis boosts photosynthesis
Shortening plants’ recovery time after blasts of excessive light can boost crop growth.
- Animals
Skimpy sea ice linked to reindeer starvation on land
Unseasonably scant sea ice may feed rain storms inland that lead to ice catastrophes that kill Yamal reindeer and threaten herders’ way of life.
