Animals
- Tech
Meet robots on a mission to help birds
A new generation of bird-like robots is helping people better understand and protect the wild animals that inspired them.
- Health & Medicine
Doctors found a snake parasite in a woman’s brain — still alive
This worm typically infects pythons. Though this is its first known infection in humans, other types of worms also can infect the human brain.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Vertebrate
Animals with spines, or vertebrates, come in all shapes and sizes.
- Animals
Let’s learn about vampire bats
Vampire bats rarely bite people, instead preferring to feed on animals like cows and horses.
- Animals
Adult corals have been frozen and revived for the first time
Living corals could be frozen for safekeeping. Scientists could later revive them to restore reef ecosystems that are withering in warming seas.
- Animals
Where does Godzilla get his atomic breath?
Some secrets of the kaiju’s atomic breath can be explained with creative applications of physics and biology.
- Physics
‘Feathering’ helps explain Gentoos’ record-breaking swim speed
Videos and computer analyses reveal the secrets of the penguins’ superspeed. The results could inspire future underwater vehicles.
- Animals
This massive ancient whale may be the heaviest animal ever known
Called Perucetus colossus, it may have tipped the scales at up to 340 metric tons — more than today’s blue whales.
- Animals
This egg-eater may have the biggest gulp of any snake its size
Slither aside, Burmese pythons. This little African snake has a truly outsized swallow.
- Brain
A rat’s playfulness relies on cells in one part of its brain
Certain cells here control its behavior. Studying this circuitry could also help us understand depression in people.
- Animals
A new technique creates glowing whole-body maps of mice
Removing cholesterol from mouse bodies lets fluorescent proteins seep into every tissue. That has helped researchers map entire body parts.
- Animals
Toothed whales use their noses to whistle and click
Much as people do, toothed whales, such as dolphins and sperm whales, make noises in three different vocal registers.
