Deep-Sea Pill Bug Survives Five Years Without Food
Two-thirds of its body is just stomach. The rest is a bacterial gene it stole from a microbe and repurposed into the ultimate off switch for hunger. How?
Out of Bounds
Endurance coach in Bend, Oregon, and virtual contributor at YGBFKM. Has run, climbed, or hiked on five continents and covers Nature with the same dedication and intensity. Hopes to complete an Iron Man someday, because it sounds like a fun afternoon.
Stick Insects Figured Out How to Ditch Males. It Took Only 8,000 Years
Mediterranean stick bugs are opting for parthenogenesis.
The Bean Plant Has a Wasp on Speed Dial
A bean plant can identify a caterpillar by its spit, then call in wasps to deal with it. What else is quietly going on out there?
A Tardigrade Walks Into an Oven
Water bears survive temperatures that kill most life. Now we know part of how: by rewiring their own physics.
Mosquitoes Are Learning That DEET Smells Like Dinner
DEET has worked for 70 years. But trained mosquitoes are now drawn to it. What changed inside their tiny, terrifying brains?
A Greenland Shark's Heart Is Scarred, Stiff, and 400 Years Old. It's Still Beating.
Inside a Greenland shark's centuries-old heart, researchers found damage that would kill most vertebrates. The shark doesn't seem to notice.
The Bamboo Is Running the Panda Show
A carnivore that eats almost nothing but plants and may not even have a choice. What's inside panda blood is weirder than the diet itself.
Turns Out Cats Are Not Curious. They Just Like Being Right.
A study reveals that cats react more strongly to expected outcomes than surprising ones, which is the opposite of dogs, apes and infants.
Lab Bees Would Rather Play Ball Than Eat
One bee rolled a wooden ball 117 times. No reward, no food, no function. Young bees played more than old ones.
Oak Trees Are Starving Caterpillars
Oak trees remember which years caterpillars hit them hardest. The following spring, they do something about it.
Black Goo in a Ship's Stern Hid a New Branch of Life
A research vessel's rudder shaft was hiding something that had never been catalogued anywhere on Earth.
Gibraltar's Monkeys Eat Tourists' Junk Food. Then They Eat the Rock.
Gibraltar's macaques eat dirt after tourist junk food. Scientists think they know why, but the soil itself might be another problem.
The Ground Beneath a New York Cemetery Is Alive
5.6 million bees have been nesting under a single cemetery in Ithaca for over a century. Each one digs its own burrow.
In a Deep Ocean Trench, Creatures Dine on Sulfur
Eight kilometers down, the rocks say methane. The living organisms say sulfur. Life in the deepest ocean didn't get the memo (or didn't care).
Meet the Pink Floyd Spider: It's Tiny and Lives in Your Walls
A wall-dwelling Colombian spider named after Pink Floyd hunts prey six times its own size. All in all it's just another crevice weaver.
Cocaine in the Water Nearly Doubled How Far Wild Salmon Swam
Cocaine and its byproducts are showing up in waterways worldwide. For juvenile salmon, the behavioral cost is not small.
Pre-Sputnik Sky Photos Caught Mysterious Flashes. They Clustered Around Nuclear Tests.
Pre-Sputnik sky photos show mysterious flashes clustering around nuclear test dates. What exactly was up there before we started launching things?
Neighbors Turned Killers: The Chimpanzee Civil War
They shared food, groomed each other, patrolled the same forest. Then, without ideology or grievance, they started killing. What broke 200 chimps into enemies?