Life
- Animals
Wolf species shake-up
A genetic study says red wolves and eastern wolves may really be mixtures of coyotes and gray wolves, not distinct species.
- Genetics
How fake sugar can lead to overeating
Scientists have found that fruit flies and mice eat more after consuming food laced with a popular fake sugar.
- Earth
Something in plastics may be weakening kids’ teeth
The body can confuse some pollutants for a natural hormone. Researchers in France now find such pollutant exposures in childhood may lead cells to make defective tooth enamel.
- Earth
Non-scents: Pollution can confuse pollinators’ sniffers
New research uses computers to predict how much longer it takes bees and other pollinating insects to sniff out lunch in a polluted environment.
- Animals
Plants, animals adapt to city living
Cities have turned into experiments in evolution for both plants and animals, from the taste of clover to the stickiness of lizards’ toes.
- Genetics
Scientists Say: DNA sequencing
All of us have our own individual DNA. Now, scientists can determine what each individual strand is made of — a process called DNA sequencing.
- Animals
End of Latin America’s Zika epidemic is in sight
A computer simulation suggests the Zika epidemic in Latin America is peaking and may not strike hard again for up to three decades.
- Animals
GM mosquitoes cut rate of viral disease in Brazil
Adults males carrying the altered gene cannot father young that survive to adulthood. That’s when they suck blood — and can transmit disease.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Crepuscular
Day creatures are diurnal. Night creatures are nocturnal. Animals active at twilight get a special name.
- Climate
Climate closing the gender gap for this mountain flower
Among valerian plants, males like it hotter than the females do. So a warming climate has been speeding their migration up once-cool mountainsides.
- Animals
Frigate birds spend months without landing
Frigate birds can fly non-stop for months. They stay in the air with the help of upward-moving airflows, a new study finds.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Venomous
A poison-arrow frog is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is not. What’s the difference? It’s how their poisons are delivered.
