Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

  1. Animals

    Some spikes in malaria cases may be tied to amphibian die-offs

    Amphibian deaths from a fungal disease may have led to more mosquitoes — and an increase in malaria cases in Costa Rica and Panama.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    How wriggling, blood-eating parasitic worms alter the body

    Parasitic worms eat blood and make people sick, but they may also help prevent or treat some diseases.

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  3. Fossils

    Dinosaur ‘mummies’ may not be as rare as once thought

    Bite marks found on a fossilized dino show that skin can be preserved even when a carcass is not immediately smothered by sediment.

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  4. Animals

    Let’s learn about parasites that create zombies

    Some parasites turn their victims into mindless puppets that do the parasites’ bidding, even at the cost of their own lives.

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  5. Animals

    Analyze This: Octopuses may use favorite arms for grabbing meals

    Understanding how octopuses control all their arms could provide clues for engineers building soft robots.

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  6. Science & Society

    What’s the fun in fear? Science explores the appeal of scary movies

    On its face, the appeal of horror doesn’t make much sense. But scientists are starting to uncover who’s most likely to enjoy scary films and why.

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  7. Animals

    Sea creatures’ fishy scent protects them from deep-sea high pressures  

    TMAO’s water-wrangling ability protects a critter’s critical proteins — including muscle — from crushing under deep ocean pressures.

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  8. Animals

    This acrobatic spider flips for its food — literally

    An acrobatic hunting trick lets the Australian ant-slayer spider catch prey twice its size, a new study shows.

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  9. Animals

    Award-winning photo captures ‘zombie’ fungus erupting from a fly

    The winner of the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution photo competition captures the cycle of life and death in the Amazon rainforest in Peru.

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  10. Humans

    What does charred ancient poop reveal about early animal-raising?

    Evidence from the dung may push the onset of animal raising back 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.

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  11. Animals

    Science is just starting to understand what animals feel

    Animal-welfare researchers are studying the feelings and experiences of horses, octopuses and more.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Examining Neandertal and Denisovan DNA wins a 2022 Nobel Prize

    Svante Pääbo figured out how to examine the genetic material from these hominid ‘cousins’ of modern humans.

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