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. Animals

    Great Galloping Crinoids: Lilylike sea animal takes a brisk walk

    A sea creature called a stalked crinoid may look as motionless as a flower on a stem but a video has revealed it practically jogging across the ocean floor. Video.

  2. Animals

    Cool Birds

    Emperor penguins go to such extremes to cope with life in Antarctica that they've inspired interesting science as well as a hit movie.

  3. Animals

    Proxy Vampire: Spider eats blood by catching mosquitoes

    Researchers studying food preferences among spiders report finding the first one with a taste for vertebrate blood.

  4. Animals

    Baited camera snaps first live giant squid

    For the first time, researchers have photographed a living giant squid in the wild.

  5. Dutch elm fungus turns tree into lure

    The fungus that causes Dutch elm disease makes an infected tree strengthen its odors, attracting beetles that carry the fungus on to the next tree.

  6. Animals

    Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death

    Honeybees that defend their colonies by killing wasps with body heat come within 5 degrees C of cooking themselves in the process.

  7. Plants

    Day-Glo Flowers: Some bright blooms naturally fluoresce

    Some common flowers fluoresce but the glow most likely has little effect on pollinators.

  8. Animals

    Perfect Match: Tied contest gives fish no hormone rush

    A male fish produces a burst of hormones as he fights off an intruder, but this surge isn't triggered simply by fighting.

  9. Animals

    Bumblebee 007: Bees can spy on others’ flower choices

    Bumblebees that watched their neighbors feast on unusual flowers often later checked out the same kinds of blossoms themselves, a behavior that amounts to social learning.

  10. Animals

    What’s That Knocking? Sound evidence offered for long-lost woodpecker

    Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology has released recordings from the woods of eastern Arkansas that researchers say could be the distinctive drumming and calls of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

  11. Animals

    Hey, kids, it’s time for drool

    A researcher has for the first time decoded a vibrational signal used by paper wasps.

  12. Animals

    When a chipmunk teases a rattlesnake

    Several of the Northeast's least ferocious forest creatures taunt rattlesnakes.