New Scientist

Long considered damaging to walls, a living coating of ivy can actually stabilise temperature and humidity and lower your energy bills, finds James Wong

There are thousands of species at risk of extinction, and we can’t save them all – how do conservationists think about which ones to focus on?

Horses show signs of stress if people touch them while they are tethered, but they appear much less anxious if they are able to walk away

Japanese tits sometimes flutter their wings in an apparent gesture of encouraging their mate to enter their shared nest first

A 38-centimetre-tall deer, found in an arid region in the central Andes, is the first new deer species found in South America for over 60 years

Pet dogs have different patterns of brain activity when they are shown an object that doesn’t match the word they hear, suggesting they have a mental representation of what words mean

Feasting on family members may be an unorthodox way for ant queens to keep their fledgling colonies from being overrun by lethal fungi

Together, a dark-hued male crab spider and a larger, paler female resemble a flower, in what researchers suspect is the first case of cooperative mimicry

The exceptionally long white hairs on the newly named longhorn beetle Excastra albopilosa may deceive predators into thinking it’s covered in fungus

A pair of blue tits were seen nesting in a tree cavity that was also inhabited by about 25 greater noctule bats, which commonly eat blue tits, but the birds lived to tell the tale

A dolphin that lived in the Amazon 16 million years ago grew to a length of 3.5 metres – larger than any other freshwater dolphin

Ten years’ worth of observations of a wild chimpanzee community show that most adults stop playing when food is short, but not mothers and their young

These stunning photographs, taken by botanist Chris Thorogood, chart the quest to protect species of Rafflesia, which are on the brink of extinction in the Philippines

There is more lurking below the surface of Arrakis than sandworms. Dune author Frank Herbert had a keen interest in fungi, and so should we, says Corrado Nai

A ‘gene drive’ that spreads through plant populations could be used to wipe out pests such as superweeds, or to help save species by making them resistant to heat or disease

Populations of moths living in urban places may have evolved smaller wings to limit how much bright city lights disrupt their lives

Since their introduction in the 1800s, giant sequoia trees in the UK have grown up to 55 metres tall and capture 85 kilograms of carbon a year on average

Some studies have claimed that plants emit sounds when stressed and might perceive the distress calls of other plants, but a review finds the evidence is lacking

When the moon hides the sun in a total solar eclipse, some animals seem to think that it is briefly nighttime, while others pace anxiously or even gaze up at the sky

Unlike most other animals, the cave-dwelling Mexican tetra doesn’t get a fatty liver when it is malnourished – and its secrets could lead to medical benefits for other species