Holding an antenna above his head, Jeff Lewis crept through an evergreen forest in the Cascade mountains, southeast of Seattle. As he navigated fallen fir logs and dripping ferns, he…
Category: Life
How dormant bacteria spores sense when it’s time to come back to life
Bacteria go to extremes to handle hard times: They hunker down, building a fortress-like shell around their DNA and turning off all signs of life. And yet, when times improve,…
Pterosaurs may have evolved from tiny, fast-running reptiles
A mysterious ground-dwelling reptile unearthed in a Scottish sandstone over 100 years ago turns out to be part of a famous flying family. Tiny Scleromochlus taylori was a close relative…
Video captures young mosquitoes launching their heads to eat other mosquitoes
A kind of teenager mosquito can suddenly shoot its head forward from its body — stretching its neck into a skinny cord — to bite into another youngster. And that’s…
‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives
If you look at parts of the circulatory system of whales and dolphins, you might think that you are looking at a Jackson Pollock painting, not blood vessels. These cetaceans…
‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives
If you look at parts of the circulatory system of whales and dolphins, you might think that you are looking at a Jackson Pollock painting, not blood vessels. These cetaceans…
This spider literally flips for its food
For one tiny Australian spider, somersaulting is the secret to taking on ants twice its size. Ants — armed with powerful jaws and sometimes chemical weapons — are so dangerous…
Emily Jacobs wants to know how sex hormones sculpt the brain
When Emily Jacobs embarked on a career studying the brain in the early 2000s, a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, was having a moment. “Just like we…
Marcos Simões-Costa asks how cells in the embryo get their identities
Growing up in Brazil, Marcos Simões-Costa often visited his grandparents’ farm in the Amazon. That immersion in nature — squawking toucans and all — sparked his fascination with science and…
Ancient fish fossils highlight the strangeness of our vertebrate ancestors
My, what small teeth they had. A newfound treasure trove of ancient fish fossils unearthed in southern China is opening a window into the earliest history of jawed vertebrates —…
