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 …
Category: Life
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…
Electrical bacteria may help clean oil spills and curb methane emissions
The small motorboat anchors in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Shrieks of wintering birds assault the vessel’s five crew members, all clad in bright orange flotation suits. One of…
Like bees of the sea, crustaceans ‘pollinate’ seaweed
When it comes to reproduction, one type of red algae gets by with a little help from its friends: small sea crustaceans that transport sex cells between male and female…
‘Murder hornets’ have a new common name: Northern giant hornet
What’s been called a “murder hornet” or “Asian giant hornet” now has a somewhat official, maybe kinder, name. Meet the northern giant hornet. That’s what the Entomological Society of America,…
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Ancient Europeans may have evolved an ability to digest milk thanks to periodic famines and disease outbreaks. Europeans avidly tapped into milk drinking starting around 9,000 years ago, when dairying…
Moths pollinate clover flowers at night, after bees have gone home
Bees aren’t the only insects pollinating red clover. Moths do about a third of the flower visits after dark, new research suggests. The findings, detailed in the July Biology Letters,…
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
A previously undetected Homo sapiens population inhabited what’s now southwestern China around 14,000 years ago and contributed to the ancestry of ancient Americans. This far-ranging Asian group’s evolutionary identity has…
Herminia Pasantes discovered how taurine helps brain cells regulate their size
When Herminia Pasantes Ordóñez was about 14 years old, in 1950, she heard her mother tell her father that she would never find a husband. Pasantes had to wear thick…
Native Grass Alternatives to Lawns
By Audrey Pongs There are few things more American than the concept of expansive lawns. We love our dutiful blades of grass, all lined up and trimmed, just waiting to…
