Animals
- Tech
Meet 5 types of robots with living body parts
Creature-machine mash-ups seem weird or even creepy. But biohybrids that make use of living tissue could be the future of robotics.
- Animals
A surprising number of animals eat poop
A new tally finds more than 150 vertebrate species willing to snack on feces. Eating poop offers nutrients and other benefits.
- Animals
Meet some of the longest-lived animals
Think a 100-year-old person is old? Not compared to the world’s longest-lived animals — some of which have lifespans of thousands of years.
- Tech
Bird-inspired airplane wings could boost flight performance
Rows of flaps inspired by a bird wings’ feathers improve airfoil performance to boost lift and reduce drag.
- Animals
Let’s learn about octopuses
These clever, color-changing cephalopods live all over the world.
- Animals
Wayward baby puffins get help from a community-led Puffling Patrol
Fitted with ID tags or tracking devices, birds from one Iceland colony give scientists an eye into puffins’ largely unknown lives at sea.
- Animals
Putting vampire bats on treadmills revealed an energy-burning quirk
A mini gym for bats shows that vampire bats burn amino acids, rather than the carbs or fats other mammals rely on during exercise.
- Animals
These healthy fish have bacteria in their brains
The bodies of most animals keep germs, usually linked to disease, out of their brains. But some fish that host microbes seem to do just fine.
- Chemistry
Teen chemist uncovers potentially harmful preservatives in pet food
Thermo Fisher JIC finalist Mackensey Wilson measured levels of a chemical called BHT in three pet food brands.
- Animals
To clear loops, Sonic the Hedgehog must hit the right speed
Most animals don’t run through loops. Sonic would need the physics behind roller coasters and race cars to clear one.
- Animals
Giant rat border agents could help put a stop to wildlife poaching
African giant pouched rats have been trained to ferret out elephant ivory, pangolin scales and more. They could be put to work preventing smuggling.
- Animals
To keep their pools clean, some tadpoles don’t poop for weeks
Eiffinger’s tree frog tadpoles store their solid waste in an intestinal pouch. This releases less toxic ammonia into their watery cribs.
