New Research

Bully or Bystander? It Could Be in the Genes

New study says bullying may be nature, not nurture

Serpentine columbine may use dead bugs to lure in spiders to do its dirty work, researchers report.

This Plant Murders Bugs and Decorates Itself With Their Dead Bodies

Talk about a roundabout defense strategy

Go Ahead, Wise Guy: Sarcasm Makes People More Creative

It’s science, duh

Mystery Solved: Why Puddles Don't Go On Forever

The picture of proper puddle behavior had a few missing pieces

Hamsters seem to have a more optimistic outlook when they have access to creature comforts.

Hamsters Are Optimists When They Live in Comfy Cages

Pet hamsters that enjoy habitats full of toys and fluffy bedding make more upbeat decisions than those in stark enclosures

The first known photograph of Drosera magnifica.

No One Knew This Plant Existed Until It Was Posted to Facebook

What's the emoji for "scientific discovery"?

Pluto may be home to a hazy atmosphere, nitrogen glaciers and possibly even an underground ocean.

There's Flowing Ice on Pluto

And maybe an underground ocean

Dating human remains (such as this 800-year old skeleton found in Bulgaria) often relies on radiocarbon dating

Climate Change Might Break Carbon Dating

Fossil fuel emissions mess with the ratio of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere

Hair ice found in Skåne County, Sweden.

Here’s How a Strange Phenomenon Called ‘Hair Ice’ Forms on Dead Trees

The white ice filaments look a lot like cotton candy

Who Were the First People to Eat Chickens?

A find in Israel shows evidence of chicken consumption from as early as 400 B.C.E.

A stone etching on the grave of crewmember Lt. John Irving depicts the dire conditions that the Franklin expedition faced when they reached the Canadian Arctic.

Franklin’s Doomed Arctic Expedition Ended in Gruesome Cannibalism

New bone analysis suggests crew resorted to eating flesh, then marrow

The fragments comprise two parchment leaves, written in Hijazi script on sheep or goat skin.

Carbon Dating Reveals One of the Oldest Known Copies of the Quran

Manuscript fragments found in U.K. library were written between 568 and 645

Your Pupils May Expand When You Daydream

But researchers aren’t totally sure why or how the two are connected

Brain tissue infected with Naegleria fowleri glows green.

Brain-Eating Amoebas May Kill You With Help from Your Own Immune System

The amoeba’s presence in the brain triggers swelling that may do more harm than good

The tasty bruschetta in the study.

Great Appetizers Can Spoil the Main Meal

The contrast is key

A graphical abstract from the paper shows the bat approaching its pitcher plant partner.

This Plant Calls to Bats So They Will Poop in it

Specially shaped reflectors bounce back the squeaks of echolocating bats

Boa constrictors seem to deliver death not through suffocation, but by cutting off blood flow to the heart and brain.

Boa Constrictors Kill By Stopping Blood Circulation

The popular belief that boas and other constricting snakes deal death by suffocation seems to be a flawed assumption

Brazil's Surui people, like the man pictured above, share ancestry with indigenous Australians, new evidence suggests.

A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians

The new genetic analysis takes aim at the theory that just one founding group settled the Americas

Think Ocean Water is Gross? Sand Is Way Grosser

New research shows that microbes take longer to decay in sand than at sea

The Oldest Fossilized Animal Sperm Comes From a Worm That Lived 50 Million Years Ago

The discovery points to a new way that microscopic critters might be preserved in the fossil record

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