Biology

Is Plant ‘Intelligence’ Just a Human Fantasy?

Although plants make up over 80% of the biomass on Earth, for centuries they have been thought of as inanimate and passive things. Researchers even coined the term “plant blindness” to refer to a cognitive bias that literally makes our brains zone out plants in our view and underestimate their importance. But as research into…

Tech News Sofia Quaglia

Paleontologists Predict What Future Animals Might Look Like

It’s a bit unorthodox, reaching out to those who spend their lives studying the past and asking them to predict the future. But these paleontologists were happy to take on our assignment: Could you apply what you know about how life has changed over time to guess what species might be like millions of years…

Biology Jeanne Timmons

I Just Remembered That I Ate a Murder Hornet Once

When I first saw an image of the Asian giant hornet, now famously referred to as the “Murder Hornet,” my first thought was “I’d probably eat that.” My second thought was, “wait, I probably have.” Asian giant hornets are exactly what they sound like: big hornets that are native to East, South, and Southeast Asia.…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

It Could Take Decades for the Ocean Floor to Recover From Deep Sea Mining

A new study has found that the impacts of deep sea mining are still felt a quarter of a century later. As the need for metals like copper, nickel, and cobalt mount, some have looked to harvest them from a vast field of metal-rich rocks called polymetallic nodules in the Pacific. Yet there haven’t been…

Earther Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Viruses Make Us Question What It Means to Be Alive

As the world struggles to contain covid-19, we’re reminded of the ways viruses aren’t like other organisms. In fact, these tenacious microbes defy traditional notions of life itself. Fewer things are scarier than an unrelenting invisible enemy, but such is our predicament in the ongoing battle against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. This ain’t…

Health George Dvorsky

This Freaky Spiral Thing Is Alive

More than 2,000 feet beneath the ocean surface, an otherworldly, 50-foot-wide marine organism floats… and feeds. The Schmidt Ocean Institute recently shared a video on Twitter of this impressive siphonophore, a compound organism in the Cnidaria phylum (a grouping that includes jellyfish and sea anemone). At 50 feet across, this spiral-shaped specimen could be the…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

How an 18th Century Explorer Can Help Us Understand the Algorithms Taking Over Our World

We are in the midst of a Cambrian explosion of algorithms. Roughly 540 million years ago, the fossil record tells us that the planet experienced a dramatic diversification of animal life, producing the ancestors of most of the complex organisms that we’re familiar with today. The acceleration of innovation in algorithms and artificial intelligence similarly…

Tech News Giacomo Bagarella

Scientists Find Evidence of Deep-Sea Fish Migration Route

Marine biologists have found evidence of a previously unobserved deep-sea migration route more than 4,500 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, according to a new paper. The deep ocean is a vast and mysterious biome; 80 percent of it remains unmapped to this day. Scientists hope to better understand the ecology in this…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Make Breakthrough Toward Mapping All Cells in the Human Body

Researchers around the world are working to construct an atlas of all the different cells in the human body. A team in China has just released the results of a huge step toward that goal. The Human Cell Atlas is an international initiative to map all of the body’s 30-trillion-plus cells, their types, and how…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Life Is Thriving 2,600 Feet Beneath the Seafloor

You won’t see many living things above the ocean surface hundreds of miles southeast of Madagascar—an albatross or the occasional fishing vessel may break up the hours of solitude. But beneath the surface, lava from Earth’s mantle has uplifted a long, underwater mountain range with a flat top extending 5 kilometers above the seafloor. Its…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Put Trackers on Cats to Reveal the Extent of Their Ecological Destruction

Domestic cats are an ecological catastrophe, and a new study shows specifically how they enact their destruction. Studies have found that cats kill billions of native animals each year, but without knowing where the cats go, it’s hard to tell what their impact is and what exactly ends up as their prey. So scientists tracked…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Bizarre Discovery Reveals Chlamydia-Like Bacteria Beneath the Arctic Seafloor

A plethora of previously unknown bacterial strains related to chlamydia have been found in the unlikeliest of places: sediment under the Arctic seafloor. The discovery is posing new questions about this diverse and durable group of bacteria and how they came to infect humans and other animals. Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STD in…

Biology George Dvorsky

Hundreds of Critically Endangered Vultures Killed in Possible Poisoning

Nearly 1,000 vultures died in Guinea-Bissau from a possible poisoning, according to a Vulture Conservation Foundation release. The critically endangered hooded vulture was hit especially hard, the group said. Many vulture species in Africa are already on the brink of extinction due to intentional kills by poachers or from eating poisoned carrion. Though the exact…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Create Snapshot of How the New Coronavirus Latches Onto Human Cells

As countries attempt to contain the spread of the disease COVID-19 and the accompanying virus, SARS-CoV-2, scientists have produced a high-resolution image of how the virus attacks cells. The new coronavirus shares around 80 percent of its genome with SARS-CoV, the virus behind the 2003 SARS outbreak, and it attacks the same cellular receptor, called…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Prehistoric ‘Cat’ Skull Actually Belonged to an Ancestor of Modern Wolverines

A tiny skull mistakenly attributed to an ancient feline has been re-identified as belonging to an ancestor to modern weasels, wolverines, minks, and otters. Introducing Corumictis wolsani, the earliest known mustelid in North America, according to research published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Mustelids are a diverse family of carnivorous animals including weasels,…

Biology George Dvorsky

Cat Food Foils Scientists

Outdoor domestic cats are a conservation concern as invasive and effective predators that prey on wildlife around the world. Introduced cats are responsible for the extinction of at least 63 bird, reptile and mammal species in the past 500 years. Scientists had hoped to study the impact of cats on their environment by studying their…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Your Dog’s Ice-Cold Nose May Be a Sensor for Detecting Heat at Distance

The amazing canine nose is more impressive than we thought, demonstrating the ability to detect weak infrared radiation from a distance, according to new research. The rhinarium—the cold, wet, bare tip of a dog’s snout—is capable of sensing weak thermal radiation, according to new research published today in Scientific Reports. The canine nose, therefore, in…

Biology George Dvorsky

Solar Storms Could Confuse Whales and Cause Mass Strandings

Gray whales seem to strand themselves more often during solar storms, according to a new study. Researchers still don’t know exactly how whales navigate the ocean’s dark depths during their epic migrations, and it’s difficult to study them in action. But recently, scientists discovered that sperm whale strandings in Europe’s North Sea seemed to correlate…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

These Birds Learned to Avoid Yucky Food by Watching Videos on the Computer

Wild-caught birds in Finland seemingly learned to avoid certain foods by watching videos of other birds eating the snacks and reacting negatively, according to a new study. Some prey come in bright colors to advertise to predators that they’re poisonous and to attract and sicken naive predators. But if a new brightly colored animal enters…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Create Atomic-Level Image of the New Coronavirus’s Potential Achilles Heel

Scientists studying the new coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands of people in China have published an atomic-resolution image of the protein that the virus uses to gain access to cells. This feat, which was accomplished using a Nobel Prize-winning method, could aid in the development of treatments or vaccines. The novel coronavirus (officially…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Is Plant ‘Intelligence’ Just a Human Fantasy?

Paleontologists Predict What Future Animals Might Look Like

I Just Remembered That I Ate a Murder Hornet Once

It Could Take Decades for the Ocean Floor to Recover From Deep Sea Mining

Viruses Make Us Question What It Means to Be Alive

This Freaky Spiral Thing Is Alive

How an 18th Century Explorer Can Help Us Understand the Algorithms Taking Over Our World

Scientists Find Evidence of Deep-Sea Fish Migration Route

Scientists Make Breakthrough Toward Mapping All Cells in the Human Body

Life Is Thriving 2,600 Feet Beneath the Seafloor

Scientists Put Trackers on Cats to Reveal the Extent of Their Ecological Destruction

Bizarre Discovery Reveals Chlamydia-Like Bacteria Beneath the Arctic Seafloor

Hundreds of Critically Endangered Vultures Killed in Possible Poisoning

Scientists Create Snapshot of How the New Coronavirus Latches Onto Human Cells

Prehistoric ‘Cat’ Skull Actually Belonged to an Ancestor of Modern Wolverines

Cat Food Foils Scientists

Your Dog’s Ice-Cold Nose May Be a Sensor for Detecting Heat at Distance

Solar Storms Could Confuse Whales and Cause Mass Strandings

These Birds Learned to Avoid Yucky Food by Watching Videos on the Computer

Scientists Create Atomic-Level Image of the New Coronavirus’s Potential Achilles Heel

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