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Updated: 15 hours 51 min ago

Sleeping bumblebees can survive underwater for a week

Tue, 04/16/2024 - 19:01
A serendipitous lab accident revealed that hibernating bumblebee queens can make it through days of flooding, revealing that they are less vulnerable to extreme weather than previously thought
Categories: Fossils

Starfish have hundreds of feet but no brain – here's how they move

Tue, 04/16/2024 - 11:00
Starfish feet are coordinated purely through mechanical loading, enabling the animals to bounce rhythmically along the seabed without a central nervous system
Categories: Fossils

Tiny nematode worms can grow enormous mouths and become cannibals

Mon, 04/15/2024 - 15:27
One species of nematode worm turns into a kin-devouring nightmare if it grows up in a crowded environment with a poor diet
Categories: Fossils

Are panda sex lives being sabotaged by the wrong gut microbes?

Fri, 04/12/2024 - 16:46
Conservationists think tweaking pandas’ diets might shift their gut microbiomes in a way that could encourage them to mate
Categories: Fossils

See inside an endangered California condor egg just before it hatches

Fri, 04/12/2024 - 12:27
The hatching of the 250th California condor chick at the San Diego Zoo marks a notable milestone for a species that narrowly evaded extinction
Categories: Fossils

‘Peaceful’ male bonobos may actually be more aggressive than chimps

Fri, 04/12/2024 - 11:00
Bonobos have long been regarded as the peaceful ape, in sharp contrast with violent chimpanzees, but a study based on thousands of hours of observations suggests the real story is more nuanced
Categories: Fossils

A bacterium has evolved into a new cellular structure inside algae

Thu, 04/11/2024 - 14:00
A once-independent bacterium has evolved into an organelle that provides nitrogen to algal cells – an event so rare that there are only three other known cases
Categories: Fossils

The photographer who captured shots of nature daily for over a decade

Wed, 04/10/2024 - 13:00
Since 2012, Mary Jo Hoffman has taken one snap a day of the natural objects around her. She explains what lies behind two of them - and what the "art of noticing" has brought to her life
Categories: Fossils

Fractal pattern identified at molecular scale in nature for first time

Wed, 04/10/2024 - 11:00
An enzyme in a cyanobacterium can take the unusual form a triangle containing ever-smaller triangular gaps, making a fractal pattern
Categories: Fossils

Northern white rhino could be saved from extinction using frozen skin

Tue, 04/09/2024 - 10:01
We have enough genetic material to bring back the northern white rhino, but doing so won’t be easy
Categories: Fossils

Suppressing wildfires is harming California’s giant sequoia trees

Fri, 04/05/2024 - 15:23
California’s rare sequoias rely on high heat to disperse their seeds, and efforts to reduce the size of wildfires may be damaging their ability to reproduce
Categories: Fossils

Left-handed monkeys prompt rethink about evolution of right-handedness

Fri, 04/05/2024 - 10:00
A popular idea links primates living on the ground with a tendency for right-handedness, but findings from urban langurs in India cast doubt on the idea
Categories: Fossils

Climate change can disturb the accuracy of trees’ biological clocks

Wed, 04/03/2024 - 16:00
Trees use circadian genes to time photosynthesis and reproduction – but as temperatures rise, the clocks may not work as well
Categories: Fossils

Life’s vital chemistry may have begun in hot, cracked rock

Wed, 04/03/2024 - 11:00
Amino acids and other molecules important to the origin of life can be enriched within networks of rocky fractures, which would have been common on the early Earth
Categories: Fossils

Snakes show signs of self-recognition in a smell-based 'mirror test'

Tue, 04/02/2024 - 19:01
Garter snakes may recognise their own scent and react differently when it is altered, hinting at self-awareness in reptiles
Categories: Fossils

Why ivy growing on your walls may actually be beneficial

Wed, 03/27/2024 - 13:00
Long considered damaging to walls, a living coating of ivy can actually stabilise temperature and humidity and lower your energy bills, finds James Wong
Categories: Fossils

Is every species necessary or can we let some die out?

Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00
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?
Categories: Fossils

Horses used in therapy often avoid people if they are given a choice

Wed, 03/27/2024 - 01:00
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
Categories: Fossils

Birds make an 'after you' gesture to prompt their mate to enter nest

Mon, 03/25/2024 - 09:00
Japanese tits sometimes flutter their wings in an apparent gesture of encouraging their mate to enter their shared nest first
Categories: Fossils

Tiny deer from the dry valleys of Peru recognised as new species

Mon, 03/25/2024 - 05:00
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
Categories: Fossils

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