Animals
- Materials Science
Analyze This: A new fabric mimics polar bears’ pelts for warmth
With layers that work like polar bears’ skin and fur, a material absorbs light and keeps it from escaping.
- Fossils
This ancient bird rocked a head like a T. rex
This bird from 120 million years ago had a head like a dinosaur and a body more like today’s birds.
- Fossils
Ancient jellyfish? Upside down this one looks like something else
A new look at an ancient sea animal called Essexella suggests it may have been a type of burrowing sea anemone, not a floating jelly.
By Meghan Rosen - Tech
A device spots and counts honeybees hosting a dangerous parasite
At Regeneron ISEF, three teens debuted an infrared system to detect honeybees carrying mites. It can show beekeepers when a colony needs to be treated.
- Brain
Scientists Say: Connectome
A connectome is a diagram of the cellular highways that carry information in the brain.
- Animals
Rats can bop their heads to a musical beat
Rats’ rhythmic response to human music doesn’t mean they like to dance. But it may shed light on how brains evolved to perceive rhythm.
- Ecosystems
Scientists Say: Food web
All the species in an ecosystem and the feeding relationships between them get summed up with this handy picture.
- Brain
Scientists mapped every nerve cell in this insect brain
Researchers have built a “connectivity map” of all the nerve cells in the larval fruit fly brain and how they link together.
- Health & Medicine
Humans might be able to hibernate during space travel
Scientists are studying how animals hibernate and developing new technologies to help humans sleep through space travel.
- Animals
How to tell if cats are having fun — or if fur is flying
Quietly wrestling cats may be hard at play. But if they’re chasing and yowling, you might have a cat fight on your hands.
- Animals
People and animals sometimes team up to hunt for food
Dolphins working with people to catch fish recently made a big splash. But humans have a long history of cooperating with other animals.
- Animals
Pokémon ‘evolution’ looks more like metamorphosis
Pokémon “evolve” into larger, more powerful forms within seconds, but this evolution more closely resembles another biological process — metamorphosis.