Meet Balrog The Deep Cave Cricket
No natural caves. A 82 foot deep man-made tunnel. Thirty-seven insects clinging to the walls, named to honor Tolkien.
Nature
Bomb Fish
Flatfish pulled from the North Sea are turning up with cancer in their tissue. The cause isn't a mystery. It's TNT. And the casings holding it in are still corroding.
Tiny Wrens Turn Giant on Scottish Isles
Four isolated island populations of wrens evolved independently. Same winds, same weather, so why are some wrens ending up twice the size of their mainland relatives?
Stick Insects Figured Out How to Ditch Males. It Took Only 8,000 Years
Mediterranean stick bugs are opting for parthenogenesis.
A New Snake Species Was Named "Unbelievable." The Taxonomists Were Not Wrong.
A newly described snake in China has a tail that looks exactly like its own head. That's not even the most surprising thing about how scientists found it.
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.
Belugas Pass the Mirror Test. The Mirror Test Has a Problem.
Two belugas. One mirror. Twenty-five years of unanalyzed footage. And now a debate about whether the test itself knows what it's testing.
A Tadpole Tail Turns Orange When a Dragonfly Shows Up
The tadpole, like Pooh, is of very little brain. So how does it know exactly which predator is watching and which body part to sacrifice?
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?
The Wolves of Chernobyl Are Evolving Resistance to Cancer
Wolves in a radioactive no-man's land are thriving at seven times normal density. Their genomes show cancer-resistance adaptations no lab has ever produced.
When the World Was on Fire, Some Plants Decided to Work the Night Shift
They had no bark, no flowers, no seeds. But 252 million years ago, these ancient plants rewired their photosynthesis and inherited a scorched Earth. How did they know?
Pigeon Navigation Runs on Averaging. Nobody's Following the Leader.
Researchers tested seven strategies to explain how pigeon flocks get better at navigation across generations. The winner required no intelligence whatsoever.
Hello and Thanks for All the Fish
Dolphins have been hunting cooperatively with humans for centuries. Now researchers have documented another cross-species partnership; the other partner is a killer whale.
Rice Death Trap Spikes Pests
Rice plants have been luring caterpillars to their death. Once again, nature is schooling us on how to handle pests.
Sugar Maple Has Defined Michigan's Forests for Centuries. Its Own Seedlings Are Replacing It.
Michigan has more sugar maples than any state in the country. Something is already replacing them. It's been growing in the understory for 25 years.
You Have Genes That Regrow Limbs. The Trick Is Flipping the ON Switch.
Researchers found a shared genetic switch across three species that controls limb regrowth and used it to partially restore that ability in mice via gene therapy.
Sulfur Mollies Battle as One Body. Birds Calculate New Angles of Attack.
No individual fish makes the decision to dart; the entire shoal does. Birds hunting them developed work arounds. What does collective intelligence look like with no central brain?