All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
What you need to know about ‘murder hornets’
Two new specimens of the world’s largest hornet have just turned up in the United States. Here’s what to make of them and other alien-hornet invaders.
- Animals
Bumblebees may bite leaves to spur plant blooming
In a pollen shortage, some bees nick holes in tomato leaves. This can speed up flowering and pollen production by weeks.
- Animals
Why elephants and armadillos might easily get drunk
Stories of drunken elephants may not be a myth. Differences in a gene for breaking down alcohol could explain how they get tipsy.
- Animals
Pandas use their heads as a kind of extra limb for climbing
Their short legs on a stout bear body mean pandas use a rare technique to climb up a tree.
- Climate
5 things to know about the climate-saving benefits of tree planting
A recent analysis of the benefits of massive efforts to plant more trees triggered a firestorm of controversy.
- 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.
