Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Retaking Flight: Some insects that didn’t use it didn’t lose it
Stick insects may have done what biologists once thought was impossible: lose something as complicated as a wing in the course of evolution but recover it millions of years later.
- Ecosystems
Why didn’t the beetle cross the road?
Beetle populations confined to specific forest areas by roads seem to have lost some of their genetic diversity.
- Animals
Stalking Larvae: How an ancient sea creature grows up
Scientists have finally observed living larvae of a sea lily, an ancient marine invertebrate related to starfish.
- Animals
Camelid Comeback
The future of vicuñas in South America and wild camels in Asia hinges on decisions being made now about their management.
- Animals
Homing Lobsters: Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate
Spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation.
- Animals
Ant Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
- Animals
Ant Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
- Paleontology
New fossil weighs in on primate origins
A 55-million-year-old primate skeleton found in Wyoming indicates that the common ancestor of modern monkeys, apes, and people was built primarily for hanging tightly onto tree branches.
- Paleontology
New fossil weighs in on primate origins
A 55-million-year-old primate skeleton found in Wyoming indicates that the common ancestor of modern monkeys, apes, and people was built primarily for hanging tightly onto tree branches.
- Ecosystems
Trust That Bird? A bit of future-think lets jays cooperate
A blue jay will cooperate with a buddy for mutual gain in food despite opportunities to betray the partnership.
- Animals
Frogs Play Tree: Male tunes his call to specific tree hole
Borneo's tree-hole frog may come as close to playing a musical instrument as any wild animal does. [With audio file.]
- Animals
Hawkmoths can still see colors at night
For the first time, scientists have found detailed evidence than an animal—a hawkmoth—can see color by starlight.
