Rachel Nuwer

Rachel Nuwer

 

Rachel Nuwer is a freelance science writer based in Brooklyn.

Like Ants, Small Backpackers Are Adept at Carrying Proportionally Heavier Loads

The weight a person or animal can carry does not increase uniformly with size

Newest King Tut Theory: He Suffered Severe Disorders From Inbreeding

Problems included a club foot that prevented him from walking unaided

Plants Can Sense When Insects Are Eating Them

Plants can sense munching vibrations that insects make, and respond accordingly with heightened defenses

Prozac Doesn't Make Birds Happy

Birds on Prozac lose their appetite and libido

A pair of fuzzy alpaca.

Why the Alpaca Has No Humps

The camel cousin evolved fluff instead of fat because it was able to linger in an evolutionary slow lane, suggest newly sequenced genomes

Astronaut Mae Jemison in the Spacelab in 1992.

The Case for Sending Women to Mars

Because women are smaller than men, they're cheaper to send into space

Ex-Nazis Received Social Security Payments From America

Dozens of former Nazis are suspected of collecting millions in Social Security in return for exiting the country

An artist's impression of an antiarch mating scene.

A Very Ancient Group of Jawed Fish Were Having Surprisingly Intimate Intercourse

Many fish later ditched this clumsy method in favor of external fertilization

Your Microbes Get Jet Lagged, Too

When bacteria's circadian rhythm is disrupted, they become worse at their jobs

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This Umbrella Creates an Air “Force Field” to Keep Rain Away

The umbrellas are still in the testing phase but are expected to ship out by next December

A corridor leading to the infectious disease ward at Ellis Island's defunct hospital.

Ellis Island Is Opening an Abandoned Hospital to the Public for the First Time in 60 Years

There are 29 abandoned buildings in all, several of which visitors can explore

A hazmat crew cleans the steps outside the Dallas apartment of a health care worker who tested positive for Ebola.

How Do You Clean Up an Ebola Patient’s Home?

Decontaminating biohazard sites can be a tough job, but the hardest microbe to wash away may not be what you think

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This Photographer Set Out on a Quest to Rediscover the World's Lost Species of Frogs

Some of the subjects are new to science, others haven't been seen in 15 to 160 years

A Dallas resident in a neighborhood where one of the persons diagnosed with Ebola lives peers out of her window.

Unbelievable Reactions People Have Had to the Ebola Outbreak

For some, the disease is a chance to make money; for others, it brings out racism

A critically endangered black rhino in Namibia.

In an Effort to Stop Poaching, Namibia Will Remove All of Its Rhinos’ Horns

That extreme measure will likely not be enough to stop the killing, however, so the country is also bolstering its anti-poaching patrols

An Australian banded stilt in Victoria.

These Extreme Desert Nomads Set Records for Migrating Birds

Australian banded stilts use mysterious cues to know when to head toward ephemeral lakes in the country’s otherwise dry interior

Zooplankton and Krill "Pee" Helps Determine Ocean Chemistry

Tiny marine life's expelled ammonia fuels important chemical reactions

In the U.K., Posting Nude Pictures of Another Person Is About to Become a Jailable Offense

This year, 28 states introduced or proposed legislation pertaining to revenge porn, though many are still pending

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Here's What Happens When a Hawk And a Drone Fight

This raptor was not ok with a quadcopter fronting on its turf

"Vampire Grave" in Bulgaria Holds a Skeleton With a Stake Through Its Heart

The skeleton likely fell victim to vampire hysteria that gripped Eastern Europe until relatively recently

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