All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Little push turns snail lefties to righties
Bumping an early embryo’s cells can switch the direction of its spiral.
- Life
Fecal architecture is beetle armor
Predators have a hard time getting through the layers of excrement some beetle moms give their young.
- Agriculture
Nation by nation, evidence thin that boosting crop yields conserves land
Intensifying agriculture may not necessarily return farmland to nature without policy help.
-
Botanical Whales
Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too.
- Animals
Classic view of leaf-cutter ants overlooked nitrogen-fixing partner
A fresh look at a fungus-insect partnership that biologists have studied for more than a century uncovers a role for bacteria.
- Life
Killer bees aren’t so smart
Brains are probably not what powers the invasive bee’s takeover from European honeybees
- Ecosystems
Impatiens plants are more patient with siblings
Streamside wildflower holds back on leaf competition when roots meet close kin
- Animals
Textbook case of color-changing spider reopened
Female crab spiders switch colors to match flowers but may not fool their prey
- Animals
Scent of alarm identifies male bed bugs
When mistaken for females, the guys release an alarming pheromone.
- Life
Spiders love sweet smell of blood perfume
For on spider species, feeding on blood-gorged mosquitoes adds charm to a mate
-
A partnership apart
DNA in hand, scientists dissect and redefine the iconic lichen mutualism.
- Life
Humpback whale alters song if another one sings along
Acoustical study of male songs shows first evidence of the whales responding musically to each other.
