A beautiful menace is on the move in the United States. Polka-dotted, red-and-gray-winged insects are gliding along sidewalks, climbing on plants and crawling up buildings. Spotted youngsters are leaping away…
Category: Animals
This snail may hold a secret to human eye regeneration
A snail may hold the key to restoring vision for people with some eye diseases. Golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata) are freshwater snails from South America. Alice Accorsi became familiar…
The mystery of melting sea stars may finally be solved
A mysterious disease has been turning sea stars into goo since 2013. Now, there’s a leading suspect behind the killings — a bacterium called Vibrio pectenicida, researchers report August 4 in Nature Ecology &…
Some probiotics could feed, rather than fend off, infections
Probiotics aren’t universally gut-friendly, a study in mice suggests. At least one type of usually beneficial gut bacteria may invite an unwanted guest. A single dose of Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria,…
Some killer whales hunt in pairs to maximize their bounty
Grabbing a meal with a friend is way better than dining solo — and killer whales agree. The whales prefer to hunt for herring in pairs, researchers report July 3…
This desert beetle runs to cool off
In the hot dunes of Southern Africa’s Namib Desert, the black beetle Onymacris plana runs fast for its tiny size. Turns out, the speed not only helps the beetles find…
Some penguins save energy by riding ocean currents
Sometimes, the best thing for a penguin is to go with the flow. Magellanic penguins change their strategy for navigating home based on the strength of ocean currents, researchers report…
A dog’s taste for TV may depend on its temperament
Maybe your Pomeranian is a little too into The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Your pit bull says he likes mixed martial arts, but really, he’s curled up in a…
A newly discovered cell helps pythons poop out the bones of their prey
Burmese pythons and other carnivorous snakes are well-known for swallowing their prey whole. But what comes out the other end doesn’t resemble what went in. There’s not a bone to…
Greenland sled dog DNA is a window into the Arctic’s archaeological past
A millennium-long story about Greenland is written in the genes of the island’s sled dogs. A new genomic analysis, published July 10 in Science, suggests that humans (and their sled dogs)…
