Biology
When It’s Okay to Kill 80,000 Wild Goats
The Galapagos recently finished exterminating 80,000 invasive goats from the island.
July 31, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
Teaching Molecular Biology with Watercolors
Molecular biology professor David Goodsell is just as skilled with a microscope as with a paint brush and creates festive hand-drawn watercolors to illustrate the inner workings of bacteria, viruses and human cells.
July 31, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
If Humans Are Ever Going to See Alien Life, Here’s Where It Will Happen
Scientists are all atwitter over Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons and one of the most likely places in our solar system to harbor life.
July 30, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
Shark Teeth Have Built-in Toothpaste
Sharks may have the healthiest teeth in the animal kingdom.
July 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Loud Sex Will Get You Eaten By Bats (If You’re a Fly)
Flies now join likes of Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Tristan and Isolde, determined but doomed star-crossed lovers who would do anything - including die - for love.
July 25, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Invasion of Flying Ants Is at Hand
Britain prepares to welcome their new flying ant overlords.
July 24, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
It Is Too Hot For African Elephants… In Canada
Three elephants were supposed to fly from Toronto the California at the end of next week, but the weather is just too hot for these African animals.
July 23, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
These Adorable Lemurs Are On the Verge of Extinction
Lemurs are the most threatened group of vertebrates on the planet.
July 16, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Fetal Genome Sequenced Without Help From Daddy
Researchers now need only a blood sample from a pregnant mother to construct a fetus' entire genome.
July 16, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Blame Your Chicken Dinner for That Persistant Urinary Tract Infection
E. coli, the most common cause of urinary tract infections, has been growing resistant to antibiotics, and chickens may be to blame.
July 12, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Teach Yourself to Be Synesthetic: Hear Colors, See Sounds
A new study suggests that people may be able to teach themselves to have synesthetic experiences.
July 11, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Blood-Eating Parasite Named for Late Reggae Artist Bob Marley
Bob Marley, one of the most prominent flag-bearers of reggae music, has achieved a certain air of immortality—a legacy recently extended by marine biologist Paul Sikkel's decision to name a new species of Carribean crustacean after the late songwriter.
July 11, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Is There a Gene That Makes People Stupid?
Rather than looking for the genetic regions responsible for a person's high IQ, maybe we should be looking for the opposite: the root of stupidity.
July 10, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Do Animals Perceive the World?
Scientists demonstrate how animals view the world, and why their vision influences the way they look.
July 09, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Synthetic Bacteria Could Turn Ocean Garbage into One Big Island
Entrepreneurial students from University College London are striving to create tropical paradises made from ocean garbage. The aim of the project is to collect tiny pieces of plastic trash floating in the ocean, then stick them all together to create islands of artificial habitat.
July 09, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
New Gene Provides Link Between Stress and Depression
It’s not news that stress and depression are linked. It is news, however, that the gene neuritin plays a part in the toxic stress-depression relationship. Scientific American’s Scicurious blogs on a new PNAS study: All of the clinical antidepressants that are currently on the market work through one specific mechanism: they increase the levels of certain [...]
July 08, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
U.S. & Europe are Hotspots for Deadly Emerging Diseases
“A hot virus from the rainforest lives within a 24 hour plane flight from every city on earth,” Richard Preston wrote in The Hot Zone. It turns out, however, that the places most likely to usher in the next deadly outbreak are in fact the cities of the United States and Western Europe. At least [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Frog Daddy Raises Babies in Throat, Spits Them Out When Ready
“A baby is the beginning of something special – usually dinner.” For more of that preciousness, check out this NatGeo video on male Darwinian frogs, found in South America. Babies grow up in daddy’s vocal sack, and when they outgrow the parental homestead, they’re coughed up like so many amphibious hairballs. More from Smithsonian.com: Rare [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Are Millennials Too Strung Out on Antidepressants to Even Know Who They Are?
The Prozac Nation-raised youth of the 1990s has grown up, and today’s teens are even more heavily medicated than their predecessors two decades before. But what is the emotional price of taking antidepressants or attention-deficit hyperactivity medications for years on end – especially during a person’s most formative stages of adolescence? In an essay based [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Stick Bugs Have Sex for Two Months Straight
Yes. They can. Two-plus months. Or, more specifically, 79 days, says pseudonymous entomologist--blogger Bug Girl
July 03, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
