Invasive species can wreak havoc on local ecosystems. Cleaning up that biological wreckage comes at a big price. These invaders, often thrust into new environments unintentionally (or intentionally, to combat…
Category: Life
Weather radar shows 30 metric tons of grasshoppers swarmed Las Vegas one night
The dazzling lights of Las Vegas are meant to attract. And on one summer night, they did just that, luring millions of grasshoppers— a whopping 30.2 metric tons’ worth. That…
How kelp forests off California are responding to an urchin takeover
Joshua Smith has been diving in kelp forests in Monterey Bay along the central coast of California since 2012. Back then, he says, things looked very different. Being underwater was…
Simple hand-built structures can help streams survive wildfires and drought
Wearing waders and work gloves, three dozen employees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service stood at a small creek amid the dry sagebrush of southeastern Idaho.…
A robot arm toting a Venus flytrap can grab delicate objects
A new robotic grabber is ripped straight from the plant world. The device, made with a severed piece of a Venus flytrap, can grasp tiny, delicate objects, researchers report January…
Rats with poisonous hairdos live surprisingly sociable private lives
Crested rats don’t just chew tree bark that’s poisonous enough to kill an elephant. The rabbit-sized rodents dribble and lick the toxic drool into their long rat fluff for a…
These plants seem like they’re trying to hide from people
Fritillaria plants should be simple to spot. The usually bright green plants often stand alone amid the jumbled scree that tops the Himalayan and Hengduan mountains in southwestern China —…
Farming on Mars will be a lot harder than ‘The Martian’ made it seem
In the film The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) survives being stranded on the Red Planet by farming potatoes in Martian dirt fertilized with feces. Future Mars…
How passion, luck and sweat saved some of North America’s rarest plants
No plant should have to end this way. North America’s various beach plums bear purple-blue, cherry-sized fruits that make for a beloved New England jelly. The small trees’ tolerance for…
Male elephant seals aim to get huge or die trying
If you’re a male northern elephant seal, your car-sized bulk is crucial to your genetic legacy, since only a fraction of the very largest males will have access to mates.…
