Biology

Ask biologist Marlene Zuk anything you want about human evolution

Marlene Zuk is an evolutionary biologist, and the author of the new book Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live. It’s a cogent and funny look at common myths about human evolution. Today she’s here from 12-1 PM Pacific Time to talk to you about evolution. You can read…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

How Pesticides Pushed Cockroaches Into Rapid Evolution

In the 1980s, manufactures began making cockroach baits that combined sweet glucose with deadly insecticides. By 1993, many cockroach populations somehow developed an aversion to the bait. Now, 20 years later, scientists finally understand how the roaches beat these traps. It turns out that this glucose actually sets off the bitter receptors in the insects’…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro

This Fungus Is Growing All Over Your Body

Your body is covered in tiny fungal ecosystems. No, really, it is. And now, for the first time, scientists have mapped the places where fungus grows the most on your skin. Fungal richness varies across your body, but the most diverse communities of these microbes live on your feet. In recent years, scientists have devoted…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro

We’ve Found the Molecule That Causes Itchiness

Researchers have discovered the molecular link between the cells in skin that sense itching and the nerve cells that relay the perception of that itch to the brain. Take that molecule away, and the itchy sensation vanishes. So far, the molecules, cells and circuitry in question have been identified in mice, but this discovery stands…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Humans may soon regenerate damaged body parts like salamanders

Australian researchers have isolated an immune system cell in salamanders which helps it regenerate missing limbs and damaged organs — and they suspect the same thing could work in humans, too. Salamanders, or axolotls, are unique among vertebrates in that they’ve got remarkable regenerative powers. Adults can literally regrow and restore function to any part…

io9 George Dvorsky

True facts about the aye-aye, wielder of the most alien hand on earth

We’ve always thought aye-ayes looked like a little like horrendously malformed koalas. In fact, they’re actually lemurs — lemurs with the freakiest fingers we’ve ever seen. In this, the latest in Ze Frank’s outstanding “True Facts about _______” nature series, we investigate the aye-aye, its nightmarishly awesome middle digit, and, well, its general weirdness. [Via…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why Did Penguins Stop Flying?

Researchers from the University of Manitoba have shown that birds can either be very good at flying or swimming, but not both. And they’ve been studying a very awkward seabird to prove it. Animals that can fly really have it good. Flight allows for quick getaways, aerial view hunting, expanded territorial ranges, and the ability…

io9 George Dvorsky

7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction

Today, many scientists believe we are on the cusp of a sixth mass extinction which could wipe out most life on Earth as we know it. Here are seven signs that they could be right. Image of Australian wildfires from space, via NASA A mass extinction happens when over 75 percent of all species on…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Carnivorous plant doesn’t have time for any of that junk DNA

In the human genome, only about 2% of our DNA are genes involved in coding the proteins essential to our existence. The other 98% is noncoding DNA, often called junk DNA because there’s no clear purpose for it. That name might seem a bit pejorative, but a new study of the bladderwort genome suggests it’s…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Malaria Makes Mosquitoes Meaner

Without mosquitoes, malaria wouldn’t be able to infect humans. But in addition to hitching a ride, it now appears that the parasite also alters insect behavior — making infected mosquitoes thirstier for human blood. Like, a lot thirstier. According to a new study led by James Logan, mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae) carrying the malaria parasite (Plasmodium…

io9 George Dvorsky

Scientists Use Cloning to Create Embryonic Stem Cells

It’s a major scientific breakthrough, and it could lead to new treatments for diseases like Parkinson’s and diabetes — but this development also takes us one step closer to human reproductive cloning. The howls of outrage have already begun. This achievement is literally 16 years in the making. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned…

io9 George Dvorsky

Some of the World’s Rarest (and Strangest) Creatures

The world is full of wonders that few humans have ever seen. Even now, with the human race spreading across the planet and occupying every corner of the globe, there are living creatures so unusual, that few have laid eyes on them. Here are some of the most uncanny. Laotian Rock Rat (Laonastes aenigmamus), the…

io9 Vincze Miklós

How did feathers evolve?

Today we have birds. Millions and millions of years ago we had feathered dinosaurs. What happened in between? In this recently posted TEDEd video, science journalist Carl Zimmer explains 200-million years of feather-evolution in just three minutes, with the help of some fine animation work by Armella Leung. Check out the rest of the lesson…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Three “gorgeously ugly” fish looking for mate before they go extinct

The Mangarahara cichlid is a fish native to the rivers of Madagascar — or, at least, it was. It’s thought that the fish has gone extinct in the wild, and the only three survivors are in a pair of European zoos. But these three fish are all male, old, ugly… and liable to kill any…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Which animal can hear the highest-pitched sounds?

As anyone with a dog whistle knows, the range of human hearing is hardly anything to get excited about. But when it comes to picking up extremely high frequencies, there’s one particular creature that even dogs can’t compete with. The animal is the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella. And get this — it can hear…

io9 George Dvorsky

You won’t believe how many cicadas are about to envelop the East Coast

No, really. Take a wild guess how many. The cicada onslaught grows nigh. Already the sex-crazed insects have begun burrowing their tiny bodies from out the depths of America’s southern soils, where ground temperatures have already reached a steady 64 degrees. But soon, the cicadas’ northerly relatives will reach the end of their 17-year dormancy…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The long-running mystery of why birds seemingly change sex

It’s not often you do a search on a scientific subject and come up with a journal from 1888, but people were puzzled by this mystery for a while: Female birds, usually once they’ve reached a sufficiently advanced age, can suddenly grow male plumage and take on male behaviors. I read in a book that,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Bone-eating worms are f*cking awesome. Here’s why.

Osedax mucofloris is one of my all-time favorite sea creatures. Why? Osedax mucofloris literally translates to “bone-eating snot-flower,” which, let’s face it, is pretty much the greatest scientific name ever. There are plenty of other reasons to love Osedax. Over on Deep Sea News, Craig McClain has an awesome top 10 list of why these…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Rare Caterpillar Resembles Donald Trump’s Hair

A recently videotaped caterpillar bears an uncanny resemblance to bigwig Donald Trump‘s hair. The insect, a rare yellow-colored caterpillar of the flannel moth, now has the nickname “Donald Trump Caterpillar.” Wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer and conservation biologist Phil Torres spotted the caterpillar in an Amazon rainforest, according to a Daily Mail report. The two men…

io9 Jennifer Viegas – Discovery News

Incredible Pictures of Early Science Labs

If you love mad science, you are about to be ecstatic. In these amazing historic images of laboratories — many over a century old — you can see the crazy, brilliant scientific instruments of another age. French scientist Jollivet Castelot in his laboratory, 1880 Pictured above. (via Henry Guttmann/Getty Images) The Alchemist by David Teniers…

io9 Vincze Miklós

Ask biologist Marlene Zuk anything you want about human evolution

How Pesticides Pushed Cockroaches Into Rapid Evolution

This Fungus Is Growing All Over Your Body

We’ve Found the Molecule That Causes Itchiness

Humans may soon regenerate damaged body parts like salamanders

True facts about the aye-aye, wielder of the most alien hand on earth

Why Did Penguins Stop Flying?

7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction

Carnivorous plant doesn’t have time for any of that junk DNA

Malaria Makes Mosquitoes Meaner

Scientists Use Cloning to Create Embryonic Stem Cells

Some of the World’s Rarest (and Strangest) Creatures

How did feathers evolve?

Three “gorgeously ugly” fish looking for mate before they go extinct

Which animal can hear the highest-pitched sounds?

You won’t believe how many cicadas are about to envelop the East Coast

The long-running mystery of why birds seemingly change sex

Bone-eating worms are f*cking awesome. Here’s why.

Rare Caterpillar Resembles Donald Trump’s Hair

Incredible Pictures of Early Science Labs

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