Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
Males live longer with all-year mating
Male butterflies live longer in Madeira, where females are available year-round, than in Sweden, where females mature in one burst.
- Plants
Why tulips can’t dance
An elliptical stem gives daffodils an unusual liveliness in the wind compared with tulips.
- Animals
When Ants Squeak
In the past 20 years, researchers studying sound communication in ants have discovered a sort of ant-ernet, zinging with messages about lost relatives, great food, free rides for hitchhikers, caterpillars in search of ant partners, and impending doom.
- Animals
Bees log flight distances, train with maps
After decades of work, scientists crack two problems of how bees navigate: reading bee odometers and mapping training flights.
- Animals
Slithering on Air: Flying snakes glide through the treetops
The paradise tree snake flies by flattening its body and slithering through the air.
- Animals
Strong Medicine: Over-the-counter remedy snags snakes
Acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—vanquishes brown tree snakes, the bane of Guam.
- Ecosystems
Pfiesteria’s Bite: Microbe may kill fish by skinning, not poisoning
At least one kind of Pfiesteria—accused of killing fish and threatening human health—does not produce a toxin but kills by eating holes in fish's skin, some researchers say.
- Plants
Recent tree scourge poses garden threat
Lab tests suggest that a lethal disease of oak trees in California and Oregon could strike some popular garden shrubs in the rhododendron family.
- Plants
Disease outpacing control in largest chestnut patch left
An unusual test of a biological control for the blight that's killing American chestnuts doesn't look good in the largest remaining patch.
- Animals
Hyena androgens exact high cost
Blocking androgens for spotted hyenas before they're born shows that the exposure of a female fetus to male hormones normally takes a heavy physical toll when females bear their own pups.
- Animals
Deer littermates have different dads
Twin fawns may not have the same dad—the first time multiple paternity has turned up in a large, free-ranging hoofed mammal.
- Plants
Bleeding Trees: Microbial suspect named in beech deaths
A microbe related to the one that caused the Irish potato famine may be killing majestic old beech trees in the northeastern United States.
