Biology

The Virus that Destroyed the Dutch Economy

Famously, the tulip speculation that happened in the late 1600s brought down the Dutch economy. But did you know that it wasn’t botany that brought down Holland, it was virology? The thing that sent speculators into despair wasn’t a flower, but a virus. Tulip speculation was rampant in Holland in the 1600s. Brought over from…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Stunning video shows the anatomy of a water beetle

This cool video, showing the anatomy of a small aquatic beetle called Dryops from the inside, won the Best Film of the Year Award at the SkyScan Micro CT Meeting in Brussels. These images were created via microtomography, which uses x-rays to generate micron-resolution cross-section images of a 3D object to recreate a virtual model…

io9 Charles Choi

Meet a crafty fish who spends all day pretending to be sea grass

Meet the robust ghost pipefish (Solenostomus cyanopterus), a 15-centimeter-long creature found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. As you can see in the above video, this fish camouflages itself face-down as sea grass when disturbed. What a thrilling existence! And like its relations, those fabulous seahorses, this species is considered to be semi-monogamous. Diver…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

This is what the inside of an elephant looks like

For a segment for the Inside Nature’s Giants television series several years ago, Dr. John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College had the pleasure of documenting the dissection of an extremely dead elephant. He took photographs of this not-for-the-squeamish event, which involved invigorating smells and guts the size of bean bag chairs: It was pretty…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Could controlling oxygen help us regenerate bones?

Let’s face it, humans aren’t too good at the whole “regenerating limbs” thing. In fact, the only way we can regrow bones is if we only lose the tip of one of our fingers or toes. But what makes that loss different to any other part of the body? Research being presented at the American…

io9 Tim Barribeau

How Women’s Eyes Are Different From Men’s

The idea that men and women see the world in different ways may be physically true… at least a little bit. It turns out the pupil — the black spot where light comes into the eye — appears wider in women than men, findings that could turn out to be linked with beauty and attraction.…

io9 Charles Choi

What do prairie dogs have words for?

Prairie dogs may have the most extensive vocabulary of any animal other than humans. They can actually distinguish, linguistically, between a short human in a blue shirt and a tall human in a yellow shirt. Find out what prairie dogs talk about, and whether or not they like the color of your shirt. Since prairie…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Birds spotted growing plants for prettiness

Bowerbirds are the incredible creatures renowned for the artlike displays the males craft to attract the females. Looking for all the world like an Andy Goldsworthy work, the intricately crafted cathedrals of twigs, scattered with colored petals are astonishing displays of craft. The birds have long been known to hunt down objects of a certain…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Glowing bellies actually help tiny sharks to hide from predators

You might think a stomach that lights up would be a liability when you’re trying to avoid getting eaten — but the glowing bellies of tiny sharks are helpful in camouflaging them from predators lurking below, researchers say. The smalleye pygmy shark (Squaliolus aliae), which lives in coastal waters of the southeastern Indian and west…

io9 Charles Choi

Could some of humanity’s deadliest viruses have come from eating bats?

Bats can scare people — apparently enough to inspire Bruce Wayne to dress up as one to fight crime. And now, researchers are increasingly discovering what might be good reason to fear bats — they could be the source of a dizzying array of lethal viruses. And it could be our own fault. At least…

io9 Charles Choi

And now, a frog sitting like a human being

Said the cameraman of this curiously placid bullfrog, “The video was shot entirely fortuitously. The frog is OK. There is no nails, no glue, animal abuse, etc. Later, she jumped off the bench and galloped away to the water.” Cue “The Michigan Rag,” and so forth. Hat tip to Hatman for suggesting this moment of…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Why Everybody’s Wrong About the G-Spot

The female G-spot is a much-discussed phenomenon. For every anecdotal report of its existence, there’s a denier. Sadly, for once science doesn’t really seem to help settle the matter either, with plenty of past reports suggesting its existence or otherwise. Today, the internet is awash with reports that a new study proves the G-spot is…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

The harvest mouse is nature’s most adorable acrobat

The Harvest Mouse, aka Micromys minutus, measures just two-to-three inches in length, and weighs about half as much as your typical house mouse. But M. minutus — which makes its home in wheat fields, reed beds, and other forms of tall vegetation — has a unique and enviable skill that its more domestic cousins simply…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Using Leeches to Track the World’s Rarest Animals

The Grizzly Bear, the Snow Leopard, the Orangutan—these animals were once thought to be mere folklore before their existences were proven with hard, biological evidence. Now, one research team wants to harvest the same evidence from the world’s wilds using a natural collection network of leeches. Monitoring wildlife is both an essential aspect of any…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day

Yesterday was the 42nd celebration of Earth Day, which was started in 1970 to help educate people about environmental issues and demonstrate public support for conservation science. With that in mind, Surprising Science‘s Joseph Stromberg thought it a good time to recap the most surprising, awe-inspiring and alarming things that we have learned about the…

io9 Joseph Stromberg - Surprising Science

A male seahorse giving birth resembles a horrible pregnant shotgun

We recently looked at the abstract adorableness of seahorse mating. In reality, the birthing process has the visual punch of an orgasm combined with an ungodly case of diarrhea. Here are some happy parents from The Deep aquarium in Hull, England blasting a few hundred babies into the world. For those of you who require…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Watch a video of the first known all-white adult killer whale

Everybody, meet Iceberg. Iceberg looks and behaves like a lot of other killer whales, with one very big exception: Iceberg is entirely white. In fact, researchers say he’s the only all-white, adult orca to ever be observed. A group of Russian scientists and students co-led by conservationist Erich Hoyt recently spotted Iceberg off the coast…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This Is the World’s First Adult White Killer Whale

Say hello to Iceberg. Spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia, he is the first ever entirely white adult killer whale to be observed. While there have been examples of white whales in the past—including one orca with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972 when it was…

Biology Jamie Condliffe

This flamboyant creature is half mollusk, half discotheque

Meet Ctenoides ales, a bivalve that also goes by the names “electric flame scallop” and “fire clam.” This invertebrate — which can be found off the coast of the Pacific Rim around Indonesia and Japan — manipulates the highly reflective tissue on its mantle in a wave-like motion, which gives the impression that an electrical…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Kids narrate Planet Earth, and adorableness ensues

This one pretty much does what it says on the tin. Dayvun Abbenburgle would be proud. [Joe Sabia for BBC America via boingboing]

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Virus that Destroyed the Dutch Economy

Stunning video shows the anatomy of a water beetle

Meet a crafty fish who spends all day pretending to be sea grass

This is what the inside of an elephant looks like

Could controlling oxygen help us regenerate bones?

How Women’s Eyes Are Different From Men’s

What do prairie dogs have words for?

Birds spotted growing plants for prettiness

Glowing bellies actually help tiny sharks to hide from predators

Could some of humanity’s deadliest viruses have come from eating bats?

And now, a frog sitting like a human being

Why Everybody’s Wrong About the G-Spot

The harvest mouse is nature’s most adorable acrobat

Using Leeches to Track the World’s Rarest Animals

10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day

A male seahorse giving birth resembles a horrible pregnant shotgun

Watch a video of the first known all-white adult killer whale

This Is the World’s First Adult White Killer Whale

This flamboyant creature is half mollusk, half discotheque

Kids narrate Planet Earth, and adorableness ensues

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