All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
High-speed camera reveals the secrets of a legless larva’s leap
Research reveals how a blob of an insect can leap more efficiently than it crawls. Its body acts like a spring.
- Animals
Young aphids sacrifice themselves to make home repairs
Young aphids swollen with fatty substances save their colony by self-sacrifice. They use that goo to patch breaches in the wall of their tree home.
- Health & Medicine
Geneticists get closer to knowing how mosquitoes sniff out our sweat
Scientists have found that a protein in the antennae of some mosquitoes detects a chemical in human sweat.
- Health & Medicine
Testing mosquito pee could help track disease spread
A new way to monitor the viruses that wild mosquitoes have picked up passes its first outdoor test. The method uses mosquito urine.
- Animals
Bears that eat human ‘junk food’ may hibernate less
Wild black bears snacking on leftovers of sugary, highly processed foods show possible signs of faster cellular wear.
- Animals
How these maggots efficiently demolish a pizza
Mobs of black soldier fly larvae create a living fountain that lifts slowpoke noneaters out of the way.
- Animals
Bee parasite is more werewolf than vampire
Inventing fake bee larvae prompts scientists to rethink how a mite — ominously named Varroa destructor — does its damage.
- Animals
This spider feeds a type of milk to its babies
Even after spiderlings start hunting for themselves, they return to mom for milk.
- Animals
Bees stopped buzzing during the Great American Eclipse
A rare study of bees during a total solar eclipse finds that the insects buzzed around as usual — until the darkness of totality arrived.
- Life
Designing tomorrow’s burger
Many people enjoy biting into a juicy hamburger. But getting it to the table can be hard on the environment. That's why scientists are at work developing new forms of beef and other meats, ones that don't require slaughtering animals.
- Animals
Here’s how cockroaches fight off zombie-makers
Stand tall. Kick, kick and kick some more. Scientists observed these successful tactics among some study subjects that avoided becoming true zombies.
- Animals
These songbirds can fling and shake mice to death
Loggerhead shrikes skewer small animals on barbed wire and give mice a serious shake-up.
