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,…
Category: Life
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…
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,…
