Ants Are Running a Moon-Based GPS
Bull ants navigate at night using a lunar compass that calculates the moon's position in real time.
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Latest Stories
A Mouse Eye Learned to Photosynthesize
NUS researchers put spinach extract inside mouse corneal cells to help dry eye. Restasis didn't keep up.
UFOs Over Ukraine's Front Lines. Russia Is the Official Guess.
A spherical object with cone-shaped protrusions hovered at 800 meters and didn't react to an approaching drone. Sound familiar? The U.S. military documented the same shape in 2013.
Pond Creature With No Brain and a Better Memory Than Your Neuroscience Textbook
Blocking protein synthesis, which is supposed to erase memory, made a single cell learn faster and remember longer.
A Ghost Galaxy Called Loki Is Lurking in the Milky Way
Ancient stars hiding in the galactic plane share identical chemistry but opposite orbits. Remnants of a galaxy the Milky Way devoured at the dawn of time.
A Neanderthal Had a Root Canal 50K+ Years Before Dentists
A 59,000-year-old tooth from a Siberian cave has just upended the the history of dentistry. Who was doing the drilling?
The Read on Testosterone and Cancer Just Changed
A decades-old assumption about hormones and tumor growth has a significant exception. The brain appears to play by completely different rules.
Oak Trees Are Starving Caterpillars
Oak trees remember which years caterpillars hit them hardest. The following spring, they do something about it.
Organ Doctors Called 'Useless' May Be Deciding When You Die
AI analysis of 27,000+ scans suggests the thymus never actually retired after puberty.
Different Virus Species Share a Language. They're Using It to Coordinate Attacks.
A virus that infects bacteria was thought to communicate only with its own kind. Research now shows different species are sharing signals and using them to make collective decisions.
This Bug Has a Passenger. The Passenger Is Flying the Bug.
A parasite spends its larval life hidden inside a stink bug. When it's time to leave, the host opens a door it has never opened before.
Humpback Whales Keep Gaping for No Apparent Reason
The most watched whale in the world has an unexplained habit. Scientists found it in tourist footage.
The Brain Doesn't Need Consciousness to Understand Language
The unconscious brain can process language and predict upcoming words.
Deadly Volcano Survivors Sparked a Weapons Revolution
A supervolcano 74,000 years ago was supposed to be humanity's extinction event. The people who survived came out with new technology.
The Big Bang Made Two Universes. We Got the One Going Forward.
A math-supported theory proposes that matter exists because the Big Bang created a mirror twin running in reverse. That twin may also explain dark energy.
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.
Dad's Gym Habits Ship With His Sperm
The sperm delivery story has a plot twist: it carries a molecular diary of recent lifestyle choices and kids get a copy.
Hellish Sulfur World Is Off the Charts
A planet 35 light-years away has a sulfur atmosphere that should have burned off billions of years ago. Astronomers had to create a new category to describe it.