1,565 results
- Animals
These ants build tall nest hills to help show the way home
Desert ants living in the harsh, flat salt pans of Tunisia create towering anthills to aid with navigating the near-featureless terrain.
- Plants
Ancient trees’ gnarled, twisted shapes provide irreplaceable habitats
Traits that help trees live for hundreds of years also foster forest life, one reason why old growth forest conservation is crucial.
- Ecosystems
Marjorie Weber explores plant-protecting ants and other wonders of evolution
Cooperation across the tree of life is an understudied driver of evolution and biodiversity, Marjorie Weber says.
- Health & Medicine
Honeybees can “smell” lung cancer
Bees can detect the scent of lung cancer in lab-grown cells and synthetic breath. One day, bees may be used to screen people’s breath for cancer.
- Earth
A weaker magnetic field may have paved the way for marine life to go big
Decreased protection from cosmic radiation may have increased oxygen levels in the atmosphere and oceans, allowing animals to grow larger.
- Animals
Invasive yellow crazy ants create male ‘chimeras’ to reproduce
Yellow crazy ants are first known species where chimerism is required in males: Each of their cells holds DNA from just one of two genetic lineages.
- Genetics
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’
A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.
- Animals
The Sonoran Desert toad can alter your mind — it’s not the only animal
Their psychedelic and other potentially mind-bending compounds didn't evolve to give people a trip.
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The animal kingdom never ceases to amaze
Editor in chief Nancy Shute revels in the wonder of animals, from psychedelic toads to extinct pterosaurs.
- Science & Society
Here are 10 early-career scientists you should know about in 2023
Researchers on this year's SN 10: Scientists to Watch list are shaping our future and our understanding of ourselves.
- Life
Fungi don’t turn humans into zombies. But The Last of Us gets some science right
Fungi like those in the post-apocalyptic TV show are real. But humans’ body temperature and brain chemistry may protect us from zombifying fungi.
- Tech
This robot automatically tucks its limbs to squeeze through spaces
Inspired by ants, a robot with telescoping legs can crawl under low ceilings, climb over steps and move on grass, loose rock and mulch.
