Life
- Microbes
This microbe turns into a ‘Hulk’ that eats its own kind
The shape-shifting transformation of Euplotes gigatrox may reveal how early life learned to act in complex ways.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Amphisbaenian
Little is known about these elusive soil-dwellers that resemble both worms and snakes.
- Animals
Songs prep unhatched finches’ brains for a hot world
Adult finches make “heat calls” to their eggs when temps rise. Exposure to those songs trigger chicks' developing brains to change in ways that better handle heat.
- Life
Fog — it’s alive!
Low-lying fog clouds host living microbes. That may be good news, because some of them can remove toxic air pollutants, such as formaldehyde.
- Animals
Analyze This: How sea slugs get their flashy colors
Crystals beneath the skin of nudibranchs, also called sea slugs, allow the creatures to make an array of intense hues with just one material.
- Plants
A geometric pattern lurks in Chinese money plant leaves
Tiny water-oozing pores appear to shape the leaves’ veins into a “Voronoi diagram.”
- Microbes
Dormant microbes from Ötzi the Iceman’s body can grow in the lab
These cold-loving yeasts may be thousands of years old. They also suggest the mummy’s remains may not be completely frozen in time.
- Animals
King cobras may be riding trains across India [COMIC]
The snakes may be tempted onboard by tasty rodents — but train rides can carry cobras far from their forest habitats.
- Animals
Chatty cats and talking dogs could one day ‘speak’ in our language
Scientists are making advances in decoding animal sounds. That might someday make animal translators a possibility.
- Microbes
Fuzzy microbes may fuel cows’ methane burps
Production of this potent greenhouse gas is triggered by a newfound feature of these microbes — one with a funny name: hydrogenobody.
- Animals
Here’s how ‘singing’ mice belt out their tiny tunes
Balloon-like air sacs in the mice's throats create whistling songs. No other animal is known to make calls in this way.
- Brain
VR can train the human brain to treat wings like real limbs
Virtual "flying" coaching, based on bird flight, took only a week. Afterward, participants’ brains seemed to view VR wings almost like true limbs.
