WASHINGTON — Microbiologists are used to looking at gross pictures and hearing scary statistics. So when a moderator of a session on emerging fungal infections at the ASM Microbe meeting…
Category: Animals
How real is the Cyclops in ‘The Odyssey’?
The iconic one-eyed monster coming to movie screens in July in The Odyssey might have more in common with tiny water critters than with humans.
Songs prep the brains of finches yet to hatch for a hot world
Zebra finches sing their young into biological preparedness for hot weather, all before they even leave the egg. As the heat punishes sun-crisped Australian woodlands, the adult birds make a…
Frozen squirrel poop hints at sights and smells of Ice Age ecosystems
Ancient squirrel poo doesn’t stink. At least not at first. But that changes when you begin to break down the pellets. Melting them made it clear that they were not…
These birds clack their wing bones together to woo mates at night
A series of sharp cracks splits the nighttime air in a forest in the Andean foothills. But this isn’t the sound of boots snapping twigs underfoot. It’s a bird. Male…
Honeybees and shrimp are now getting vaccinated
A shrimp vaccine for commercial use could protect the environment and prove vaccines aren’t just for vertebrates.
This tiny, blue octopus is new to science
Nearly 1,800 meters beneath the surface of the Pacific, a remotely operated submersible was creeping along the slope of a Galápagos seamount when its camera caught a tiny, dark blue…
Bumblebees can solve problems on their own
Bumblebees faced with a challenge know how to play ball. Buff-tailed bumblebees can figure out on their own how to use a ball as a ladder to nab sugar from…
A secret to making a queen bee may lie in the wax around it
A queen bee may be shaped by more than its famous royal diet. The wax of the peanut-shaped chamber where the queen develops has distinct physical and chemical properties that…
Homing pigeons may use a surprising navigation mechanism
Click here for our video on what happens when scientists release homing pigeons with disabled magnetic immune cells. Homing pigeons don’t rely on gut instinct to return to the roost.…
