Animals
- Plants
Earthworm invaders may be stressing out some maples
Worms are great for soil when ecosystems have evolved with them. But in earthworm-free places, like parts of the U.S. Upper Midwest, they can cause problems for plants and animals.
- Animals
Pumpkin toadlets can’t hear themselves talk
Tiny orange frogs make soft chirping sounds in the forests of Brazil. Their ears, however, cannot hear them, a new study finds.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Vampire
Human vampires are found only in fiction. But vampire bats and moths are the real thing. These animals love the taste of blood, and some can’t live without it.
- Animals
Sucking blood isn’t an easy life, even for vampires
Real vampires include bats, insects and even birds. And they’ve had to develop novel ways of dealing with a diet of blood.
- Chemistry
Why are cicadas such clumsy fliers?
Chemical clues in the cicada’s wing may help explain why the bulky insect is a lousy flier.
- Animals
To become Australians, these spiders crossed an ocean
The ancestors of a species of trapdoor spider must have survived a journey from Africa, a new genetic analysis finds.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Dung
This word is used to refer to animal poop. You know, manure. Crap. Feces.
- Life
Cool Jobs: Puzzling over proteins to study life and death
Scientists are using proteins to understand dinosaur family trees, to fight malnutrition with a peanut-butter mix in Africa and to make “Google maps” of human cells.
- Environment
Light pollution can foil plant-insect hookups
An experiment in remote European meadows shows that light pollution at night can affect the pollination of flowers — even into sunlight hours.
- Animals
Poop-eating gulls can be pain in the butt for seal pups
The birds can harm baby fur seals as they try to dine on fresh parasites in the pups’ feces.
- Animals
Three simple rules guide fire ants in building towers
Fire ants build towers of ants to protect themselves during a flood. New research reveals the simple rules that guide how they do this, no foreman needed.
- Ecosystems
As trees come down, some hidden homes are disappearing
Animals such as frogs, toucans and possums live in tree hollows. But as people have cut down trees, a wildlife housing shortage has developed in some places.
