Biology

CRISPR Scientist Gets Three Years of Jail Time For Creating Gene-Edited Babies

Disgraced Chinese scientist He Jiankui has been sentenced to three years in jail for creating the world’s first genetically modified human babies. The Nanshan District People’s Court of Shenzhen has sentenced He Jiankui to three years in prison and fined him 3 million yuan ($430,000) for violating a government ban on using gene-editing technologies to…

Biology George Dvorsky

Camera Traps Show Invasive Coyotes Heading Toward South America

North American coyotes don’t live in South America, but new research suggests that could change, should deforestation in Central America continue. North and South America have a long history of exchanging animal and plant species, a process that began around 3 million to 4 million years ago, when the Panamanian Isthmus joined the two continents.…

Biology George Dvorsky

Zoo Chimps Doing a ‘Conga Line’ Could Teach Us How Humans Evolved to Dance

A seemingly spontaneous conga line by a pair of captive chimpanzees might tell us something about how humans first learned to dance, scientists behind a new study say. For years, visitors to the Saint Louis Zoo occasionally spotted and filmed a perplexing display from two closely bonded female chimpanzees named Holly and Bahkahri: They would…

Biology Ed Cara

Scientists Sequence the Genome of America’s Famous Extinct Parakeet

Researchers have produced the first whole genome of the Carolina parakeet, a recently extinct parrot native to the United States. The bird’s DNA reveals that humans (and probably humans alone) brought about its abrupt extinction. The Carolina parakeet was one of only two parrots native to the U.S., but it went extinct in 1918, when…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Baby Orcas Are More Likely to Survive if They Live With Their Grandma

New research shows that post-menopausal orca grandmothers maintain an important role in their pods by boosting the survival rates of their grand-calves. Orca calves without postmenopausal grandmothers experience higher rates of mortality than other calves, especially when food is hard to come by, according to new research published earlier this week in Proceedings of the…

Biology George Dvorsky

New NYC Law Would Require New Buildings to Have Bird-Friendly Windows

Today, the New York City Council passed one of the country’s most comprehensive bird-safe glass laws yet. The law, Proposed Initiative 1482B, requires any new construction and certain renovations to use bird-safe materials designed to prevent bird-strike deaths. Advocates for the bill hope it will lead the way for similar laws in other communities. “New…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Watch the Trippy Winning Videos of Nikon’s Microscopic Film Contest

Feast your eyes on the incredible winners of the Nikon Small World in Motion contest, featuring tardigrade cannibalism, growing mouse embryos, and swimming coral polyps. This year marks the ninth annual Nikon Small World in Motion contest, an annual award that celebrates video taken with a microscope. This year’s first prize went to Philippe Laissue,…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

A Controversial DNA Database Used to Solve Crimes Has Gone Commercial

A third-party DNA database that began as a passion project and later became embroiled in an ongoing debate over genetic privacy has now gone commercial. This week, the San Diego-based forensics company Verogen announced its acquisition of the genealogy website GEDmatch. But it’s anyone’s guess as to how the shift in ownership will affect its…

Biology Ed Cara

Famous Foxes Bred for Tameness Weren’t Actually Wild in the First Place, Claims Controversial New Paper

Decades ago, a Soviet geneticist purposely bred foxes to make them extra tame, an experiment that produced a host of unanticipated physical changes in the animals. It’s one of the most famous experiments in genetics, but it might not have gone down in the way we were told. A new opinion paper argues these foxes…

Biology George Dvorsky

Amber Fossils Reveal Lice-Like Bugs Crawling in Dinosaur Feathers

Ancient insects similar to modern lice parasitized dinosaurs by feasting on their feathers, as evidenced by a pair of fascinating new amber fossils. Modern birds are sometimes infested by feather-chewing and feather-feeding lice, and as new research published today in Nature Communications shows, their Mesozoic predecessors had a similar problem. The new paper, led by…

Biology George Dvorsky

Newly Discovered Widow Spider Lays Bright Purple Eggs

Scientists have discovered a spider living in South Africa that’s truly a sight to behold. The arachnids feature a scarlet, exclamation mark-shaped blotch on their backs, along with a white squiggle pattern that creates the vague shape of a human face, mouth agape in horror. Oh, and they lay bright purple eggs. The South African…

Biology Jake Buehler

Invasive Mice Seen Attacking Adult Albatrosses on Breeding Colony for the First Time

The United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has recorded the first known instance of invasive mice preying on the adult albatrosses, according to a press release. Past research has documented Gough Island’s invasive mice preying on albatross chicks. But this is is the first times on record that mice have been…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Found Frozen and Almost Perfectly Preserved in Permafrost, this 18,000-Year-Old Puppy Could Be a Huge Deal

The DNA of an exquisitely preserved puppy found in Siberia doesn’t appear to fit the profile of a dog or a wolf, which means the specimen might be something in between. The frozen puppy, found near Yakutsk in eastern Siberia, was just two months old when it died, reports CNN. Scientists from the Centre for…

Biology George Dvorsky

This Newly Discovered Cretaceous Mammal Had Really Freaky Ears

Paleontologists in China have discovered the fossilized remains of a rodent-like creature that featured an auditory system unlike anything seen before. Introducing Jeholbaatar kielanae, a vole-like mammal that lived approximately 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Its well-preserved fossil was pulled from the Jiufotang Formation in China’s Liaoning Province, and then analyzed by…

Biology George Dvorsky

Humans Alone Were Responsible for This Big Atlantic Seabird’s Extinction, New Evidence Shows

One of the northern hemisphere’s most famous extinct birds could have disappeared at the hands of humans and humans alone. A nearly 3-foot-tall flightless bird called the great auk was once abundant in the north Atlantic Ocean, from the U.S. Atlantic Coast north to Greenland and Iceland and throughout European waters. It looked like a…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

First Measurements of a Blue Whale’s Heart Rate Are a Glimpse Into the Biology of Extremes

For the first time ever, marine biologists have recorded the heart rate of a blue whale in the wild—the results of which even surprised the scientists. New research published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to provide a heart rate profile for free-ranging blue whales. The resulting data shows…

Biology George Dvorsky

Good Boy, Bad Driver

A Labrador retriever had a dizzying adventure in a Florida cul-de-sac on Thursday after getting stuck in a car that that spun in circles like a dog chasing it’s own tail. Port St. Lucie police told a NBC local affiliate that the pooch’s owner stepped out of the car but left the engine running. Then…

Biology Jennings Brown

I Have to Tell You Something Very Important About Honeybees

I simply must inform you of this crucial bee fact: When bees get trapped in water, they use their wings as hydrofoils to surf back to the safety of land. While bees can float, they cannot fly with wet wings, and worse, they aren’t strong enough to free their wings from the water’s surface. That…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Need 10,000 Dog Volunteers for Very Important Research

Calling all good boys and girls: This week, researchers debuted a citizen science project that’s hoping to enlist 10,000 furry friends to better study aging in both dogs and people. And they’re asking pet owners across the U.S. to volunteer their pups to participate. The Dog Aging Project, or DAP, is a collaboration between researchers…

Biology Ed Cara

Stunning Fossil Discovery Uncovers the Second-Most Primitive Flying Bird

Paleontologists in Japan have uncovered the fossilized remains of a 120-million-year-old flying dinosaur that’s seriously shaking up the bird family tree. Many of you have likely heard of Archaeopteryx—a winged, long-tailed dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period some 160 million to 140 million years ago. This creature, with its flight and tail feathers,…

Biology George Dvorsky

CRISPR Scientist Gets Three Years of Jail Time For Creating Gene-Edited Babies

Camera Traps Show Invasive Coyotes Heading Toward South America

Zoo Chimps Doing a ‘Conga Line’ Could Teach Us How Humans Evolved to Dance

Scientists Sequence the Genome of America’s Famous Extinct Parakeet

Baby Orcas Are More Likely to Survive if They Live With Their Grandma

New NYC Law Would Require New Buildings to Have Bird-Friendly Windows

Watch the Trippy Winning Videos of Nikon’s Microscopic Film Contest

A Controversial DNA Database Used to Solve Crimes Has Gone Commercial

Famous Foxes Bred for Tameness Weren’t Actually Wild in the First Place, Claims Controversial New Paper

Amber Fossils Reveal Lice-Like Bugs Crawling in Dinosaur Feathers

Newly Discovered Widow Spider Lays Bright Purple Eggs

Invasive Mice Seen Attacking Adult Albatrosses on Breeding Colony for the First Time

Found Frozen and Almost Perfectly Preserved in Permafrost, this 18,000-Year-Old Puppy Could Be a Huge Deal

This Newly Discovered Cretaceous Mammal Had Really Freaky Ears

Humans Alone Were Responsible for This Big Atlantic Seabird’s Extinction, New Evidence Shows

First Measurements of a Blue Whale’s Heart Rate Are a Glimpse Into the Biology of Extremes

Good Boy, Bad Driver

I Have to Tell You Something Very Important About Honeybees

Scientists Need 10,000 Dog Volunteers for Very Important Research

Stunning Fossil Discovery Uncovers the Second-Most Primitive Flying Bird

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Amazon Slashes 50% Off Keurig K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker, Now a Budget Alternative to Breville and Nespresso Espresso Machines

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

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