Start thinking about numbers and they can become large very quickly. The diameter of the universe is about 8.8×1023 km and the largest number with a name—googolplex, 1010100—outranks it enormously. Although that colossal ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 10, 2019
4
935
A team of evolutionary biologists, led by Dr. Rui Diogo at Howard University, and writing in the journal Development, have demonstrated that numerous atavistic limb muscles—known to be present in many limbed animals but ...
Evolution
Oct 1, 2019
6
572
If it's thoughts of zombies that keep you awake at night, you shouldn't be worried about zombie humans; it's the carpenter ants (Camponotus castaneus) that should concern you most. When infected by a specialised fungus (Ophiocordyceps ...
Ecology
Jul 18, 2019
0
17
Most mammalian new mums are fiercely protective of their precious offspring; even 5-8 m long southern right whale calves are vulnerable to attack by voracious killer whales. Mia Nielsen from Aarhus University, Denmark, explains ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 11, 2019
0
0
Wandering through the Harvard campus one day in 2015, graduate student Andrew Yegian recalls how something unusual caught his eye. "I noticed a person running with straight arms," he explains. This really stood out for Yegian, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 10, 2019
0
0
Frogs aren't meant to be able to store a mental map in their brains. 20 years ago, Lainy Day from the University of Mississippi, USA, tested the place memory of amphibians and lizards, but none appeared capable of forming ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 11, 2019
0
2
If you look at a snail's shell, the chances are it will coil to the right. But, occasionally, you might find an unlucky one that twists in the opposite direction—as fans of Jeremy thelefty snail will remember, these snails ...
Plants & Animals
May 14, 2019
0
4
You can't always count on finding water above ground in Australia. Some rivers flow through the sand beneath their beds and arid calcite crusts in Western Australia seal off water trapped in permeable rocks beneath. Yet, ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 4, 2019
0
8
No one really knows why pods of whales spontaneously drive themselves aground. Military sonar may be one culprit, and the need to train and test submarine tracking technology in open water could put the US Navy in conflict ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2019
0
56
Yuuki Watanabe has always been fascinated by speed and power. As a child, he recalls being transfixed by the raw strength of great white sharks (Carcharadon carcharias). 'They look cool' says Watanabe, from the National Institute ...
Ecology
Feb 19, 2019
0
6
