Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Animals
Let’s learn about parasites that create zombies
Some parasites turn their victims into mindless puppets that do the parasites’ bidding, even at the cost of their own lives.
- Animals
Analyze This: Octopuses may use favorite arms for grabbing meals
Understanding how octopuses control all their arms could provide clues for engineers building soft robots.
- Science & Society
What’s the fun in fear? Science explores the appeal of scary movies
On its face, the appeal of horror doesn’t make much sense. But scientists are starting to uncover who’s most likely to enjoy scary films and why.
- Animals
Sea creatures’ fishy scent protects them from deep-sea high pressures
TMAO’s water-wrangling ability protects a critter’s critical proteins — including muscle — from crushing under deep ocean pressures.
- Animals
This acrobatic spider flips for its food — literally
An acrobatic hunting trick lets the Australian ant-slayer spider catch prey twice its size, a new study shows.
- Animals
Award-winning photo captures ‘zombie’ fungus erupting from a fly
The winner of the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution photo competition captures the cycle of life and death in the Amazon rainforest in Peru.
- Humans
What does charred ancient poop reveal about early animal-raising?
Evidence from the dung may push the onset of animal raising back 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.
- Animals
Science is just starting to understand what animals feel
Animal-welfare researchers are studying the feelings and experiences of horses, octopuses and more.
- Health & Medicine
Examining Neandertal and Denisovan DNA wins a 2022 Nobel Prize
Svante Pääbo figured out how to examine the genetic material from these hominid ‘cousins’ of modern humans.
- Animals
Watch: This red fox is the first spotted fishing for its food
Big fish in shallow water were easy pickings for this red fox. It’s the first of its species known to fish.
- Animals
Several mammals use a South American tree as their pharmacy
Researchers in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest stumbled onto something very strange. They watched as animals “doctored” themselves with products from a tree.
- Animals
Some ecologists value parasites — and now want a plan to save them
Parasites get a bad rap as disease-causing, unwelcome guests on other organisms. But parasites are also imperiled, and scientists don’t want to lose them.
