Life
- Animals
Tiger beetles weaponize sound to ward off bat predators
Some beetles make ultrasonic clicks that camouflage them as toxic tiger moths, warning hungry bats to stay away.
- Animals
Analyze This: When do cats move like liquids?
Cats flow through narrow openings but hesitate before short openings. That may help them avoid unseen danger in the wild.
- Brain
Could the magic of memory manipulation ever become real?
Someday, technology might be able to help people better hold onto memories or forget bad ones.
- Genetics
This young biologist looked for links between diet and dyslexia
Thermo Fisher JIC finalist Giselle Drewett wanted to know how lifestyle might influence a gene related to dyslexia.
- Chemistry
Some bacteria in wastewater can break down a common plastic
These microbes can break the carbon bonds that make PET plastics so hard to degrade. This type of plastic makes up almost one-third of plastic waste.
- Tech
Meet 5 types of robots with living body parts
Creature-machine mash-ups seem weird or even creepy. But biohybrids that make use of living tissue could be the future of robotics.
- Plants
Microbes give plants a way to make ‘meaty’ nutrients
Enzymes from animals helped a test plant make two nutrients essential for a balanced diet. Normally, those nutrients would only be found in meat.
- Animals
A surprising number of animals eat poop
A new tally finds more than 150 vertebrate species willing to snack on feces. Eating poop offers nutrients and other benefits.
- Chemistry
Let’s learn about chocolate
Humans have been making chocolate for millennia. Now scientists are investigating how to make this tasty treat more abundant and nutritious.
- Chemistry
Behold the world’s thinnest pasta
Made from white flour and formic acid, the nanofibers average just 370 nanometers across. That’s two-hundredths the thickness of a human hair.
- Brain
Scientists are exploring why some people don’t have a mind’s eye
A researcher with aphantasia is studying how different senses work together in the brain — and when they don’t.
- Animals
Meet some of the longest-lived animals
Think a 100-year-old person is old? Not compared to the world’s longest-lived animals — some of which have lifespans of thousands of years.
