Life
- Plants
New gene fights potato blight
Adding a gene from a wild potato to the varieties we eat could stop a devastating potato disease.
By Emily Sohn - Plants
City trees beat country trees
Cottonwood trees grow better in New York City than in rural places around the state.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Navigating by the light of the moon
A dung beetle is the first animal found to navigate by detecting a property of moonlight.
By Emily Sohn - Tech
Cell phones and possible health hazards
Radiation from some cell phones appears to kill brain cells in rats.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Ant invasions change the rules
Ant invaders may wreck the rules by which entire communities of their peers work.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Booby brothers and bullies
Baby brown boobies can be pretty rough and tough in the nest.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Fish nests with pizzazz
Fish known as three-spined sticklebacks go gaga over decorating their nests.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Better tools for techno crows
Certain crows can make tools and even refine their designs.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Lucky survival for black cats
A cat's black color may date back to a mutation that also protected the felines from diseases a long time ago.
By Emily Sohn - Environment
Less mixing can affect lake’s ecosystem
Warming a large lake can cut microorganism populations and disturb its food chain.
By Emily Sohn -
- Environment
The down side of keeping clean
Chemicals we use to clean and disinfect could be damaging the environment by killing off algae at the food chain's base.
By Emily Sohn