Butterflies and moths have beautiful wings: The bright flare of an orange monarch, the vivid stripes of a swallowtail, the luminous green of a Luna moth. But some butterflies flutter on even more dramatic wings: Parts of ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 12, 2021
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26
A surprising study on the behavior of unrelated lizards demonstrates how evolution can lead to different species learning the same skills.
Evolution
Jul 2, 2021
1
195
China has announced a temporary ban on its fishing fleet—the world's biggest—from catching squid in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans after overfishing pushed populations to the brink of collapse.
Ecology
Jun 29, 2021
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14
A few males are enough to fertilize all the females. The number of males therefore has little bearing on a population's growth. However, they are important for purging bad mutations from the population. This is shown by a ...
Evolution
Jun 28, 2021
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16
A change of instructions in a computer program directs the computer to execute a different command. Similarly, synthetic biologists are learning the rules for how to direct the activities of human cells.
Biotechnology
Jun 23, 2021
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17
Rampant industrialization has caused our planet to warm at an unprecedented rate. Glaciers are melting away and sea levels are rising. Droughts last longer and are more devastating. Forest fires are more intense. Extreme, ...
Environment
Jun 23, 2021
0
12
Sour taste does not have the nearly universal appeal that sweet taste does. Slightly sour foods or drinks such as yogurt and lemon juice are yummy to many, but such highly sour foods as spoiled milk are yucky, even dangerous. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 18, 2021
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16
As dinosaurs lumbered through the humid cycad forests of ancient South America 180 million years ago, primeval lizards scurried, unnoticed, beneath their feet. Perhaps to avoid being trampled by their giant kin, some of these ...
Evolution
Jun 17, 2021
0
11
An algorithm can predict when narwhals hunt—a task once nearly impossible to gain insight into. Mathematicians and computer scientists at the University of Copenhagen, together with marine biologists in Greenland, have ...
Ecology
Jun 16, 2021
0
11
Surf's up! Gray reef sharks can't hang ten, but they're still pretty rad surfers.
Plants & Animals
Jun 14, 2021
0
11
