Biology

Caterpillar Metamorphosis Looks Even More Alien When You Speed It Up

Oregon’s endangered silverspot butterflies typically pupate into chrysalises over the course of several hours, in a nocturnal process rarely observed by humans. But in this time-lapse footage, members of the Oregon Zoo’s butterfly lab have combined over 15,000 photographs to compress the transformation into a matter of seconds. Read more about the Oregon Zoo’s silverspot…

A New Species Of Water Bear Has Been Discovered In Antarctica

Introducing Mopsechiniscus franciscae, a new species of tardigrade — one of the hardiest creatures known to science. It’s the first time this genus has been discovered as far south as Antarctica, a find that hints at this remarkable animal’s ancient roots. Also known as moss piglets, tardigrades are microscopic animals typically found in moss and…

The Astounding And Horrific World As Seen Under A Microscope

There’s a stunning new photo gallery called Life: Magnified that’s currently on display at Washington’s Dulles International Airport’s Gateway Gallery. Here’s a sampling of the gallery’s best images — from the hairs on a gecko’s feet to the viruses that make our lives miserable. All captions via National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Photo credits…

Why Do Some Turtles Have the Option To Breathe Through Their Anuses?

Nature has a juvenile sense of humor. That, at first, seems like the only explanation for why certain turtles, among them the Australian Fitzroy river turtle and the North American eastern painted turtle, breathe through the back end. Both turtles can breathe through their mouths if they so chose. And yet, when scientists placed a…

Why Do We Still Have Pubic Hair?

It’s a biological mystery that has perplexed humanity through the ages – especially in recent times when so many of us go to such great lengths to remove it. What useful purpose could pubic and armpit hair possibly serve? Is it just Mother Nature playing a sick joke on us? Does she own stock in…

The Science of Building the Perfect Pig

Passing fields of soy, corn and towering bleach-white windmills fanning out across windy plains, I arrive early one morning somewhere between Chicago and Indianapolis at a place that promises “sow much fun”. The Pig Adventure, housing 3,000 sows and producing 80,000 piglets per year, sits alongside a 36,000-cow Dairy Adventure, with murmurings of further adventures…

Are We Undergoing a Major Shift in How We Treat Animals?

Karen Joy Fowler just won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, about a girl whose psychologist father rears her and a baby chimp as “sisters.” Recently she talked about why she’s hopeful that humans will begin treating animals better. https://gizmodo.com/this-book-is-a-masterpiece-about-sisters-who-are-a-scie-510163738 In a conversation with science fiction writer Jeff…

Color Visions and Philosophical Zombies

Ever heard of the philosophical zombie? It’s a philosophical concept that rarely translates into physiology – until now. A case of false color-blindness makes us wonder: What’s the difference between seeing something and knowing that you’re seeing something? Philosophical zombies are a matter of debate in the philosophical community. Start with the concept of a…

This Baby May Be The First To Be Born With Its Genome Fully Sequenced

A child delivered last week in California could well be the first healthy baby born in the United States “with his entire genetic makeup deciphered in advance,” according to MIT Technology Review. The child’s father is grad student, science writer and erstwhile Discover blogger Razib Khan (pictured here with his son), who Tech Review’s Antonio…

This Iguana Comes Running Like A Dog When Its Owner Calls

This (gigantic) Iguana’s name is Buddy. Buddy has more charisma than 80% of cats I’ve interacted with. [Dave Durham via Laughing Squid]

Animals That Doubled Their Expected Lifespan

In the Mediterranean there is a meadow of sea grass thought to be over 100,000 years old. In the White Mountains of California, there stands a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that researchers estimate is 5,063 years old. But plants aren’t the only organisms that know how to grow old. Here are nineteen Methuselahs of the…

The Many, Many Ways You Can Crash A Plane Without Ever Realizing It

Want to get on an airplane? You might change your mind after reading this. It turns out that hurtling through the air messes with your senses. Sometimes it messes with them so much that you can be crashing without ever knowing anything is wrong. Flying Messes With Physics Einstein said his most important breakthrough was…

In a crushing blow to the egos of clever corvids everywhere, a group of Caledonian crows has been outwitted in a causality test by a bunch of human babies. “It’s a rare failure,” writes Khadim Shubber over atWired, “but it appears they are unable to interpret cause and effect to create new solutions without direct…

In Defense of Raccoons

Raccoons, Procyon lotor, confused scientists for a really long time. The first written record of the species – at least as far as the West was concerned – came as a result of Christopher Columbus’s expedition into the Americas. Native Americans obviously knew of the raccoon, and it’s likely that the word raccoon entered into…

Science in Fantasy Novels Is More Accurate Than in Science Fiction

Supposedly the thing that characterizes science fiction as a genre is its interest in, well, science. And yet a lot of the very best treatments of science in novels lately have been in works that are classified as fantasy. Image by Todd Lockwood from the cover of Marie Brennan’s Voyage of the Basilisk Of course…

In Defense of Raccoons

Raccoons have a bad reputation. They eat our trash. They give us rabies. They raid our crops. They invade our attics. But, c’mon. They’re also amazing. Here are all the reasons why raccoons deserve our attention — if not always our respect. Photo by Paxon Woelber, via Wikimedia Commons

Now You Can Do an Ocean Acidification Experiment at Home!

Ocean scientist Andrew David Thaler has cooked up a clever DIY science project that lets people simulate the effects of ocean acidification using supplies that are available in their own homes. Of course, you will need a carbonic acid reactor (better known as a soda stream). “As this experiment continues, it will develop into a…

Why Is Canada’s Wolf Population Splitting Into Two Groups?

Chester Starr of the Heiltsuk First Nation knows that the wolves of British Columbia come in two varieties: timber wolves on the mainland and coastal wolves on the islands. Genetic research has finally confirmed what Starr’s tribe has always known. It was Starr’s “traditional ecological knowledge” that initially inspired Polish Academy of Sciences researcher Astrid…

Why Stepping On LEGO Hurts So Much

Right up there with how the gun on the original Duck Hunt game worked, why it hurts so much to step on a Lego brick is one of the questions we’re asked the most, so it’s high time we answered it. As anyone who’s done it knows, stepping on a Lego block is something akin…

Yes, Humans Are Animals — So Just Get Over Yourselves, Homo sapiens

Even though you are reading this on a sophisticated electronic device, you are an animal. That’s the most radical idea to come out of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking studies of evolution, and even today, it still freaks people out. Photo by Carleigh, via Humans Hugging Dogs I know this because last week I wrote an article…