Biology

Fish hatcheries super-charge the speed of evolution

When we domesticate animals, we alter their evolutionary development to favor the traits that we find most desirable. Usually, that process takes hundreds, even thousands of years. But fish hatcheries can scramble a species’ genetics in a single generation. In fish hatcheries, thousands of young are born in a tightly enclosed space, a situation utterly…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

All multi-cellular life might be descended from a parasitic invasion

Eons ago, two single-celled organisms, a bacterium and an archaeon, combined to form the first complex cell. This symbiosis gave birth to all multi-cellular organisms, but new evidence suggests this wasn’t about cooperation. That bacterium was actually a parasite. Two billion years ago, an archaeon swallowed a bacterium, and for whatever reason it forgot to…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

You cannot resist the charms of the rare pygmy hippo, caught on tape

The BBC has posted this footage of the rare pygmy hippo, taken by a zoologists’ group camera trap in Libera. Soak in the cuteness as it delicately chomps its way through the midnight underbrush. These little/big creatures are currently considered an endangered species.

io9 Annalee Newitz

A baby’s cuteness is determined by your reproductive hormones

If you’re tying to figure out how cute a baby is, you had better ask a premenopausal woman: they’re scientifically proven to have the highest cuteness sensitivity. Yes, this experiment involved coming up with an objective scale of baby cuteness. Back in 2009, researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland decided to test…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Please, don’t drink this frog smoothie for your erection problems

While traveling in Peru last year, London filmmaker and amphibian aficionado Lucy Cooke witness firsthand how the critically endangered Titicaca Water Frog (Telmotobius Culeus, which happens to be Latin for “aquatic scrotum”) was being liquified for aphrodisiac smoothies in downtown Lima. Explains Cooke: I’ve heard that the Titicaca frogs, along with other Telmatobius species, are…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Watching two Japanese swimming crabs have sex is insanely dramatic

One would not think that the sight of two swimming crabs (Portunus pelagicus) making whoopie would be an earth-shattering occasion. After all, this is a species that spends a hearty portion of its existence buried in mud. But when you slap some overly dramatic music over their amour, their reproductive habits become pure sensual crustacean…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Democracy needs ignorant people, says science

You might think that democracies work best when people care and know about the key issues. But a new study argues that for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people blindly siding with the majority. That’s the argument put forward by Princeton researcher Iain Couzin and his team, who make…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Meet the Agta, a tribe where a quarter of men have been attacked by giant snakes

When Thomas Headland first met the world’s longest snake, he was on the way to the toilet. He was living in the Philippine rainforest with a group of hunter-gatherers called the Agta. On the walk to the outhouse behind his hut, he stumbled across a reticulated python curled up on the trail. “The hairs on…

io9 Ed Yong - Discover

Supernormal Stimuli: Using Nature To Destroy Itself

Supernormal stimuli make birds ignore their eggs (and then their chicks), cause fish to fight dummies (while live competitors go uncontested), and can drive humans back to sugary snacks. Find out how these special stimuli use just the right trigger to make an animal destroy itself. We assume that creatures evolved by making the best…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

World’s largest river dolphin looks pretty in pink

Meet the Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), also known as the boto, or, if you believe Amazonian folklore, dad. Legend has it that the dolphin can transform itself into a handsome young man, who is a willing dance and conversation partner for village women. The enchanted dolphin is blamed – somewhat conveniently, it has to…

io9 Rowan Hooper - New Scientist

Why do you have so much less fur than other primates?

As far as primates go, we humans are pretty darn bald. We don’t have the thick layer of fur of most of our brothers and sisters — and the reason for this has been a subject of much evolutionary debate. Our body hair is densely packed, but incredibly fine. But while it won’t keep us…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Where do lab animals come from? And how guilty should we feel about them?

Most drugs, therapies, or experiments, will have gone through animal testing at one point or another. The ethics of this have been debated — but what are the practicalities? What are the lives, the origins, and the potentials, of laboratory animals? There are two kinds of lab animals; Class A and Class B. Class B…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Are baby rhino squeals annoying or adorable? You decide.

I’ll be honest, the first time I watched this I almost couldn’t handle the cuteness, but after watching it a few times I’m beginning to lean towards team annoying. Either way, I can’t say I ever would have expected that sound to come from a baby rhinoceros. A baby Koala, maybe. But not a baby…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Modern humans may have evolved 200,000 years earlier than we thought

For early hominid hunters, there was no greater prize than an elephant. Kill just one of those, and a tribe could eat well for days. But when the elephants suddenly disappeared, something remarkable happened: Our hominid ancestors became more intelligent. Homo erectus was particularly fond of eating elephants, and it isn’t hard to see why.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

This alien-looking fish just rewrote the book on developmental genetics

If you were to suggest that members of Elasmobranchii — the subclass of cartilaginous fishes that includes sharks, rays, and skates — look incredibly different from us humans, I doubt that many people would argue the point. In fact, one look at the alien-like skeleton of Leucoraja erinacea, the species of skate pictured up top,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

In Utah, thousands of birds are mistaking pavement for water and plunging to their deaths

This is so awful. For the last several days, thousands of migrating grebes — a freshwater diving bird — have been hurtling to their doom in parking lots, football fields, and other flat, snow-covered regions throughout southern Utah; apparently, the birds have been mistaking the surfaces for ponds. “The storm clouds over the top of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What do colorblind people see?

Science fiction is often used to show us the world through impossibly alien eyes. But there are fully human people who see the world in an alien way (to the rest of us) via current biological means. One of the most everyday versions of this is basic colorblindness. But what do people really see, when…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Risks (and Benefits) of Donating Your Eggs

Smart? Good genes? Need Money? You’ve probably seen the advertisements in campus magazines, and fliers nailed to trees, offering thousands of dollars to women who are willing to donate their eggs. But is it worth doing? For example, is egg donation painful? What are the long term effects? And just how much money can you…

io9 Keith Veronese

Ant species uses chemical warfare to kill termites from afar

You don’t want to mess with the African ant species Crematogaster striatula — and neither do other insects. This species has a built-in “gas gun” that can paralyze its enemies, giving them a secret weapon in their endless war against termites. This particular species emits powerful, poisonous chemicals from its stinger. The worker ants emit…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

We (literally) smell way better than Neanderthals did

This isn’t about odor — honestly, if the species that invented indoor plumbing doesn’t smell better, we’re in serious trouble. But we have a far better sense of smell than Neanderthals did, and that reveals some crucial differences in our brains. Markus Bastir and Antonio Rosas of the Spanish Natural Science Museum (CSIC) used high-tech…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Fish hatcheries super-charge the speed of evolution

All multi-cellular life might be descended from a parasitic invasion

You cannot resist the charms of the rare pygmy hippo, caught on tape

A baby’s cuteness is determined by your reproductive hormones

Please, don’t drink this frog smoothie for your erection problems

Watching two Japanese swimming crabs have sex is insanely dramatic

Democracy needs ignorant people, says science

Meet the Agta, a tribe where a quarter of men have been attacked by giant snakes

Supernormal Stimuli: Using Nature To Destroy Itself

World’s largest river dolphin looks pretty in pink

Why do you have so much less fur than other primates?

Where do lab animals come from? And how guilty should we feel about them?

Are baby rhino squeals annoying or adorable? You decide.

Modern humans may have evolved 200,000 years earlier than we thought

This alien-looking fish just rewrote the book on developmental genetics

In Utah, thousands of birds are mistaking pavement for water and plunging to their deaths

What do colorblind people see?

The Risks (and Benefits) of Donating Your Eggs

Ant species uses chemical warfare to kill termites from afar

We (literally) smell way better than Neanderthals did

A $1 Samsung Galaxy Smartphone Lands at Mint Mobile With Unlimited Data at 50% Off in a Clearance Push

Your Wimpy Workouts Aren’t Cutting It, Scientists Say

Anker Prime Power Bank Drops to an All-Time Low (200W, 20,100mAh, 3-Port) as Amazon Clears Out Remaining Spring Sale Stock

Students Are Now Renting Smart Glasses to Cheat on Exams

Roborock F25 GT Cordless Vacuum and Mop Hits Its Lowest Price in Spring Sale, 20,000Pa Cleaning Power Without the Premium Price Tag

New Details Add a Bizarre Twist to NASA’s First ISS Medical Evacuation

ASUS TUF 27” HDR Gaming Monitor Briefly Returns to Black Friday Pricing for a Limited Run in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

‘Speed Racer’ Is Getting a Glorious New Remaster

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Let us help find what you are looking for...