Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Woodpecker video is challenged and defended
The video released last spring as evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker exists may show a common pileated woodpecker, some critics say.
- Animals
Can You Hear Me Now? Frogs in roaring streams use ultrasonic calls
A small frog living beside Chinese hot springs may be the first amphibian known to use ultrasound in its calls.
- Plants
Small difference factored big in rice domestication
A change in a single letter of a rice plant's genetic code gave it the ability to hold onto grains until harvest.
- Paleontology
Out of the Shadows
An ongoing flurry of fossil finds is triggering a reevaluation of how early mammals and their close kin eked out an existence during the Age of Dinosaurs.
- Ecosystems
Light All Night
New digital images demonstrate that artificial light from urban areas penetrates deep into some of America's most remote wild places, where it may disrupt ecosystems that have evolved with a nightly quota of darkness.
- Ecosystems
Caviar Caveats
Caviar may become harder to find as a new trade ban goes into effect that's aimed at giving the most prized sturgeon a much-needed break from overfishing for their roe.
- Animals
Cannibal Power: Mormon crickets swarm to eat and not be eaten
What keeps the great swarms of Mormon crickets rolling across the landscape may be a combination of nutritional deficits and the risk of getting cannibalized.
- Ecosystems
Corals don’t spread far from their birthplaces
Creating a marine protected area might offer only limited benefits to vulnerable corals, because viable coral larvae don't appear to spread far from their points of origin.
- Ecosystems
Saving Sturgeon
Sturgeon species around the world are in trouble, which is why humans will increasingly be stepping in to give them a big assist.
- Animals
Killer Flatworm: New species hunts with puffer fish toxin
A newly described marine flatworm from Guam hunts with the same toxin that a puffer fish uses. With video.
- Ecosystems
Forest Field Trip
Take a hike in the woods of Kentucky in this electronic field trip. The site offers an overview of forest ecology and management for grades 4 to 8. It includes video clips, an interactive game, a slideshow about the American chestnut, information about forest careers and tree products, activity pages, and a teacher’s guide. Go […]
- Animals
Males as Nannies? First test for wasps’ hidden baby-care skills
Young male wasps, in the absence of females, can care for larvae.
