Video
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Flamingos create precise water vortices in a shrimp-hunting frenzy
Nashville Zoo flamingos reveal the oddball birds generate many types of vortices to eat. The swirls could be an inspiration to human engineers.
- Animals
This tool-wielding assassin turns its prey’s defenses into a trap
This assassin bug's ability to use a tool — bees’ resin — could shed light on how the ability evolved in other animals.
- Astronomy
A gas cloud 5,500 times as massive as the sun lurks nearby
At 300 light-years away, the interstellar cloud is the closest of its kind ever found to Earth and the largest apparent single structure in the sky.
- Tech
A new 3-D display lets you reach in and touch virtual objects
These hands-on displays might be used to create more immersive video games, educational tools and museum exhibits.
- Animals
This caterpillar wears the body parts of insect prey
Dubbed the “bone collector,” this caterpillar found on a Hawaiian island disguises itself while stalking spider webs for trapped insects to eat.
- Animals
Bats wearing tiny mics reveal how the fliers avoid rush hour collisions
As thousands of bats launch nightly hunting, the cacophony of a dense crowd should stymie echolocation, a so-called “cocktail party nightmare.”
- Animals
The story of dire wolves goes beyond de-extinction
Some question whether the pups are really dire wolves, or just genetically tweaked gray wolves. But the technology could be used to help at-risk animals.
- Earth
More details about the Myanmar earthquake are emerging
A phenomenon called liquefaction, which causes the ground to slump like quicksand, led to significant damage after the Myanmar earthquake. The risk of aftershock remains high.
- Plants
Watch live plant cells build their cell walls
Imaging wall-less plant cells every six minutes for 24 hours revealed how the cells build their protective barriers.
- Physics
Calls to restart nuclear weapons tests stir dismay and debate among scientists
Many scientists say “subcritical” experiments and computer simulations make nuclear weapons testing unnecessary.
- Animals
You might be reading your dog’s moods wrong
A dog's physical cues often take a back seat to environmental ones, skewing humans' perceptions, a small study suggests.
- Neuroscience
Parrots and humans share a brain mechanism for speech
Brain activity in vocalizing budgerigar parrots showed a pattern that harkened to those found in the brains of people.
