A crying baby, a screaming adult, a teenager whose voice cracks — people could have sounded this shrill all the time, a new study suggests, if not for a crucial…
Category: Life
Zoo gorillas use a weird new call that sounds like a sneezy cough
Sukari the gorilla can grunt. She can hum. She can grumble. Now, scientists report, the gorilla’s got a new way to express herself. Sukari can “snough.” She and other zoo…
Sea sponges launch slow-motion snot rockets to clean their pores
The next time you spot a sea sponge, say “gesundheit!” Some sponges regularly “sneeze” to clear debris from their porous bodies. As filter feeders, sponges draw in water through inlet…
Relocated beavers helped mitigate some effects of climate change
In the upper reaches of the Skykomish River in Washington state, a pioneering team of civil engineers is keeping things cool. Relocated beavers boosted water storage and lowered stream temperatures,…
Scientists turned dead spiders into robots
Scientists have literally reanimated dead spiders to do their bidding. In a new field dubbed “necrobotics,” researchers converted the corpses of wolf spiders into grippers that can manipulate objects. All…
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Call it cellular life support for dead pigs. A complex web of pumps, sensors and artificial fluid can move oxygen, nutrients and drugs into pigs’ bodies, preserving cells in organs…
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
By his count, Michel Roccati is on his third life, at least. In the first, he was a fit young man riding his motorcycle around Italy. A 2017 crash in…
How slow and steady lionfish win the race against fast prey
Lionfish certainly aren’t the fastest predators on the reef, but new research suggests that they can catch swift prey through pure tenacity, gliding slowly in pursuit until the perfect moment…
Whale sharks may be the world’s largest omnivores
As Mark Meekan bobbed among swells in the Indian Ocean, he spotted a giant shadowy figure moving through the water. The tropical fish biologist dove to meet the gentle giant …
Tiny amoebas move faster when carrying cargo than without
Microbes enlisted to carry tiny loads travel faster with cargo attached than on their own. That’s the surprising finding of a study of the carrying capacity of single-cell amoebas. The…
