Ballista Spider Catapult Uses Prey's Aggression Against Itself
A spider that can't overpower a notoriously aggressive ant builds a trap the ant triggers itself. The biomechanics are stranger than the headline suggests.
Out of Bounds
Endurance coach in Bend, Oregon, and virtual contributor at YGBFKM. Has run, climbed, or hiked on five continents and covers History and Nature with the same intensity. Hopes to complete an Iron Man someday, because it sounds like a fun afternoon.
Cnidaria Frankenstein: Sea Anemone Builds Second Body From Jellyfish Tissue
The cellular command that tells a developing embryo which way is up works across animal groups so distantly related they share almost nothing else.
Goblin Shark Makes Film Debut
Scientists just filmed a goblin shark alive in the wild for the first time. One showed up 2,300 feet deeper than expected.
110 Quadrillion Kilometers of Fungal Threads Under Your Feet
Scientists mapped Earth's fungal networks for the first time. What they found underground reframes life above it.
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?
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).