Animals
- 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
Aussie cockatoos use their beaks and claws to turn on water fountains
Parrots living in Sydney have learned how to turn on water fountains for a drink. It's the first such drinking strategy seen in the birds.
- Animals
How luna moths grow extravagant wings
Warm temperatures, not just predator pressure, may favor luna moths’ long bat-fooling streamers, a geographic analysis of iNaturalist pics shows.
- Animals
Genetics might save the rare, elusive saola — if it’s not already extinct
A new genetic study could help saolas survive by enabling better searches through environmental DNA. But some experts fear they may be extinct already.
- Animals
Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests
Common bedbugs experienced a dramatic jump in population size about 13,000 years ago, around the time humans congregated in the first cities.
- Life
The first cicada concert was 47 million years ago
A 47-million-year-old cicada fossil from Germany’s Messel Pit could teach us about the evolution of insect communication.
- Climate
Penguin poop gives Antarctic cloud formation a boost
Penguin poop provides ammonia for cloud formation in coastal Antarctica, potentially helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the region.
- Animals
Juvenile capuchins are kidnapping infants of another monkey species
Over 15 months on Jicarón Island, researchers saw five capuchin juveniles abduct 11 endangered howler monkey infants — all for no clear purpose.
- Animals
A ‘talking’ ape’s death signals the end of an era
Kanzi showed apes have the capacity for language, but in recent years scientists have questioned the ethics of ape experiments.
- Science & Society
Some science seems silly, but it’s still worthwhile
The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog contends that curiosity-driven research helps us understand the world and could lead to unexpected benefits.
- Genetics
What gene makes orange cats orange? Scientists figured it out
Researchers found the gene and genetic variation behind orange fur in most domestic cats, solving a decades-long mystery.
- Paleontology
This exquisite Archaeopteryx fossil reveals how flight took off in birds
Analyses unveiled never-before-seen feathers and bones from the first known bird, strengthening the case that Archaeopteryx could fly.
