Biology

Can snakes really be charmed by music?

No. The charm has nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the charmer waving a pungi, a reed instrument carved out of a gourd, in the snake’s face. Snakes don’t have external ears and can perceive little more than low-frequency rumbles. But when they see something threatening, they rise up in…

io9 Ryan Bradley - Popular Science

Meet The Mouth That Lives On The Ocean Floor (And In Your Nightmares)

Meet the predatory tunicate (Megalodicopia hians), a sea squirt that is unique for its predatory feeding style. Whereas other tunicates nourish themselves by filter feeding, the predatory tunicate waits around until some delicious minuscule marine life swims into its hood. That is when the horror begins. Despite its simple appearance, the hermaphroditic, five-inch-wide predatory tunicate…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

The ferrets whose eyes were wired to be ears

In an effort to test the plasticity of the brain, scientists a decade ago decided to scramble a ferret’s brain so that its eyes were hooked up to its auditory cortex. So clearly the ferret was blind, right? Wrong. Find out about the experiment that lead scientists to understand exactly how adaptable our brains can…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The “Winner Effect” and How to Stop It

Across the world scientists have been organizing animal fight clubs to study the Winner Effect. Winning early, easy battles causes animals to become more aggressive, and to win more often against heavily-favored opponents. This effect isn’t just psychological; it’s associated with physiological changes. And scientists have recently figured out how to reverse the effect. It…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

These bacteria are controlled by magnetic fields

Magnetotactic bacteria were first discovered back in 1975. They’re microbes that orient themselves along magnetic fields, thanks to their compartments of tiny magnetic nanocrystals called magnetesomes (the orange circles in the picture above), which force the bacteria into magnetic alignment. Unlike larger animals that navigate along magnetic fields, these bacteria can’t control their actions –…

io9 Tim Barribeau

New evidence that children start forming solid memories when they are 2 years old

What’s your earliest accurate memory? Chances are, it occurred after your third birthday, and until recently, scientists assumed that this was because children do not form accurate memories until the ages of three or four. But a new study from New Zealand suggests that children can correctly recall experiences from when they were two years…

io9 Sophie Bushwick

How elephants evolved a sixth toe

While an elephant’s foot may seem to be a cylinder, it’s actually a fully pentadactyl cluster of toes, smooshed together into a small space. If you look at a skeleton of their appendages, an elephant is resting its immense weight on five digits, with a soft, fleshy pad rounding out the rear of the foot.…

io9 Tim Barribeau

The cure for leukemia might be found in fish oil

One of the most difficult forms of cancer to cure is a type of leukemia known as chronic myelogenous leukemia. While current treatments can keep it at bay, the cancer’s drug-resistant stem cells mean a relapse is potentially always imminent. To get rid of CML once and for all, we need a treatment that can…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

An Uplifting Dolphin Story. Literally.

Science writer Paul F. Norris recently wrote this moving essay for AnimalWise about the surprisingly playful relationships forged between bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales. The piece offers up some great insights on the subtle nature of interspecies communication, and serves as a compelling reminder to all creatures to share in life’s simple pleasures I’ve always…

io9 Paul F. Norris -- AnimalWise

How a predator bird and its prey came together to fight a common enemy

Kestrels and jackdaws are natural enemies. Jackdaws are scavengers that will gladly steal and eat kestrel eggs, while kestrels are aggressive birds that will fight anybody. And yet, somehow, these two would-be foes have carved out a shockingly efficient truce. Researchers at the University of Palermo in Italy and Canada’s University of Manitoba noticed that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Frankincense is on its way to extinction

Myrrh and frankincense have bewildered countless generations of children who have no idea what they are, nor why they’d be given as a present to the baby Jesus in the Biblical myth that’s celebrated on Christmas. Now, future generations will be even more confused, because Balthazar’s present of frankincense may be on its way to…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Watch this African Bullfrog exact sweet, sweet revenge on its goading owners

It took this bullfrog all of 20 seconds to deduce that the insects crawling around on the screen of its owner’s cell phone weren’t insects at all, but rather digital projections of bugs, used to make a mockery of its keen hunting instincts. And as this video clearly demonstrates, African Bullfrogs — dignified creatures that…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Holy hell, is it harrowing to be groomed by baby mountain gorillas

During a stay in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park, John (the fellow who made this video) found himself groomed by a curious gang of juvenile mountain gorillas. Sounds like a hoot, but this all occurred under the watchful gaze of a silverback. [Via MeFi]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Why is the U.S. government trying to control the contents of scientific journals?

One of the most important duties of a peer-reviewed research journal is to not only feature discoveries at the frontiers of science, but to provide other researchers with the information necessary to build upon said discoveries in a meaningful way. Now, the development of two highly virulent strains of H5N1 — the deadly bird flu…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why the hottest chilies grow in the wettest places

What makes some chili peppers burn while others are mild? Biologists already knew that hot peppers evolved their fiery flavor to drive away a seed-eating fungus. So why aren’t the mild chilies prey to this fungus? A new study suggests that hot versus mild depends on the amount of water where the chilies grow. The…

io9 Sophie Bushwick

Why Genetic Determinism Is Bad for Humans

Do you prefer to run in packs or operate as a loner? Your answer is determined by your genes, a new study claims. It’s a big shift in social behavior theory, since scientists previously thought the environment determined social behavior. For example, scientists thought that where food was sparsely spread around, primates would live in…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski

How vaccinating half the population might protect everyone

How do you stop the spread of a disease most effectively? By vaccinating all children, or only half? A new Dutch study suggests that the counterintuitive solution for halting HPV is to vaccinate only girls. How can protecting fewer children actually protect more? Human papillomavirus, or HPV, can and does infect both men and women,…

io9 Sophie Bushwick

New DNA test will reveal if you’re part Neanderthal

Genome analysts at 23andMe have devised a new way to reveal the secrets inside your DNA. Their latest test will reveal how many of your genes come from Neanderthals. Be warned: some people have a lot of Neanderthal in them. It’s now confirmed that early humans and Neanderthals interbred, and this practice was widespread enough…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Breakthrough: A new drug that could cure everything from colds to HIV

Our most powerful antibiotics can kill many different kinds of bacterial infections at once, but we’re still searching for a single all-purpose drug that kills viruses. We may have just discovered it. Technically speaking, any drug that is used to treat a virus is known as an antiviral, and we use them to treat HIV,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How to kill cockroaches by offering them sex

Researchers who synthesized an artificial sex pheromone have just discovered that it’s most useful application so far is . . . killing cockroaches? Female cockroaches, specifically the wood cockroach Parcoblatta lata, communicate their willingness to mate by releasing a hormone that can travel long distances to attract males. A research team from North Carolina State…

io9 Sophie Bushwick

Can snakes really be charmed by music?

Meet The Mouth That Lives On The Ocean Floor (And In Your Nightmares)

The ferrets whose eyes were wired to be ears

The “Winner Effect” and How to Stop It

These bacteria are controlled by magnetic fields

New evidence that children start forming solid memories when they are 2 years old

How elephants evolved a sixth toe

The cure for leukemia might be found in fish oil

An Uplifting Dolphin Story. Literally.

How a predator bird and its prey came together to fight a common enemy

Frankincense is on its way to extinction

Watch this African Bullfrog exact sweet, sweet revenge on its goading owners

Holy hell, is it harrowing to be groomed by baby mountain gorillas

Why is the U.S. government trying to control the contents of scientific journals?

Why the hottest chilies grow in the wettest places

Why Genetic Determinism Is Bad for Humans

How vaccinating half the population might protect everyone

New DNA test will reveal if you’re part Neanderthal

Breakthrough: A new drug that could cure everything from colds to HIV

How to kill cockroaches by offering them sex

Andy Weir Apologizes After ‘Star Trek’ Comment Backlash

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