Life

  1. Animals

    Giant Antarctic sea spiders breathe really strangely

    Sea spiders have many bizarre body systems. Scientists have now discovered that they breathe and circulate oxygen in a way never seen before.

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  2. Life

    Scientists Say: Histology

    When scientists study the parts of an animal or plant, they are studying anatomy. When they need a microscope to see the details of that anatomy, they are studying histology.

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  3. Ecosystems

    Cool Jobs: Science deep beneath the waves

    These scientists probe the sea’s depths, its strange inhabitants, the movement of water and how life evolves in extremes.

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  4. Animals

    This tiny animal is apocalypse-proof

    Microscopic animals called water bears can survive nearly any kind of apocalypse, from asteroids and nuclear war to exploding stars.

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  5. Animals

    Humpbacks flap their flippers like underwater birds

    Surprising new video shows humpback whales flapping their front flippers to move their massive bodies toward their prey.

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  6. Animals

    Could a dragonfly’s wings be alive — and breathing?

    Highly magnified image showing what looks like breathing tubes suggests the morpho dragonfly’s wings may be unexpectedly alive.

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  7. Genetics

    Scientists hide a real movie within a germ’s DNA

    A gene-editing technology called CRISPR helped scientists encode a short movie in the DNA of E. coli bacteria.

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  8. Genetics

    Explainer: How CRISPR works

    Scientists are using a tool called CRISPR to edit DNA in all types of cells.

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  9. Animals

    Night lights have a dark side

    Artificial light at night not only affects our view of the night sky, but also has the ability to impair animal behaviors — and probably our health.

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  10. Animals

    Analyze This! Mosquito repellents that work

    Spray-on repellents are generally the best at keeping those blood suckers from making you their next meal, new data show.

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  11. Agriculture

    Scientists Say: Domestication

    Domestication is the process of deliberately taking a wild organism — a plant or animal for instance — and making it a part of our daily lives.

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  12. Animals

    Wildebeest drownings feed a river ecosystem for years

    Hundreds or thousands of wildebeests can drown at a time in the Mara River. Those carcasses, however, will feed a succession of other animals.

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