Life
- Materials Science
Analyze This: This material for 3-D printing is made by microbes
Bacteria with tweaked genes pump out proteins that can be used in a 3-D printer. With microbes in the mix, the living ink can make drugs or suck up chemicals.
- Animals
Rewilding returns lost species to strengthen ecosystems
Restoring the missing species can help undo human-caused problems by aiding forests, slowing climate change and reducing wildfires.
- Life
Explainer: What is an invasive species?
These foreign organisms hitchhike, spread widely and stir up trouble in native ecosystems.
- Animals
Scientists discover the first true millipede
The newfound deep-living species tunnels belowground using a whopping 1,306 legs!
- Health & Medicine
Let’s learn about snot
For humans, snot plays a key role in fighting off diseases. Other animals have found different uses for the slimy stuff.
- Animals
As the tropics warm, some birds are shrinking
Migratory birds are getting smaller as temperatures climb, studies had showed. New evidence shows dozens of tropical, nonmigratory species are, too.
- Climate
Can scientists develop an icy sanctuary for Arctic life?
The final refuge for summer sea ice may also protect the creatures that depend on it. Saving it is an ambitious goal with many hurdles.
- Animals
Let’s learn about chimpanzees and bonobos
Humankind’s closest cousins in the animal kingdom may look similar, but in terms of behavior, they’re polar opposites.
- Life
Scientists Say: Adaptation
This word refers to a feature of a living thing that helps it better survive in its environment — or the process of that feature evolving in a population.
- Fossils
‘Penis worms’ could have been the original hermits
These soft-bodied critters lived in abandoned shells about 500 million years ago, a new study suggests.
- Life
From icebergs to smoke, forecasting where dangers will drift
Smoke drifts. Fish eggs float downstream. Where such drifting things end up may seem a mystery. But research can predict where they’ll end up.
- Animals
A panda stands out at the zoo but blends in the wild
A panda may stand out among bamboo at the zoo, but in the wild, its black-and-white coloring camouflages it from predators. Learn more with this web comic.
