New Scientist

Social media is adamant that you can fertilise your houseplants with milk, but I'll be saving mine for a hot drink, says James Wong

This astonishing image may look like a deep-sea monster, with its big teeth and gaping mouth, but the humpback anglerfish is really no bigger than your hand

Researchers trained a hawk outfitted with microphones to fly through a swarm of 600,000 bats, revealing how they can hear their own voice in a crowd

In recent years, China recalled pandas from three out of four US zoos that had the bears, signalling diplomatic tensions between the two countries – but this year China has offered two new pairs of giant pandas

A rare sighting of a giant pangolin revives hopes for the species' survival in West Africa, despite threats from poaching and deforestation

A rare fossil skull provides strong evidence that the Dromornithidae, an extinct group of Australian flightless birds, were related to geese and ducks

Efforts to remove animal traps and discourage poaching in Vietnamese protected areas have been partly effective, but conservationists say other approaches are needed to safeguard threatened species

Queen Asian hornets found in East Sussex this year are a genetic match to a 2023 nest, suggesting the invasive species is becoming established in the UK

A small fern found only on a few Pacific islands has more than 100 metres of DNA in every single cell, more than any other organism that we know of

Humans from many cultures tend to associate the nonsense words “bouba” and “kiki” with different shapes – and now it seems that 3-day-old chicks have the same inclinations

Feedback wonders if previous research into 'courtship behaviours of ostriches' in the UK will be taken into account by the owner of a new ostrich farm in New Hampshire

Ponds have long been neglected by science, but we can't overlook these diverse and important nature hotspots any more, say Jeremy Biggs and Penny Williams

A set of Australian fossils offers a rare glimpse of the ancient relatives of platypuses and echidnas that lived alongside the dinosaurs 100 million years ago

On Yakushima island, sika deer might have forced flora to shrink as small as a tenth of the size of their mainland counterparts

Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre, now on view at London’s Natural History Museum, showcases the extraordinary qualities of Earth’s “ultimate survivors”

As newer homes are built or older homes are renovated, empty attic spaces are disappearing – this eliminates a vital refuge for birds and bats during a biodiversity crisis

A dose of caffeine helped ants locate a sweet reward 30 per cent faster, suggesting the drug boosts learning in the insects

Male proboscis monkeys use their enormous noses to make loud trumpeting sounds, and the organ’s size advertises their health and status to prospective mates and rivals

Feedback is delighted to learn that there is a better approach to distinguishing different types of fanged frogs than just looking at them

The big puma fungus hasn't been seen since it was discovered in 1982 in Chile’s Nahuelbuta mountains – now an expedition has finally rediscovered these tiny, elusive mushrooms