Biology

And now . . . the winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes

I’m standing amidst a throng of people in the entrance hall of Harvard University’s historic Sanders theatre. Before me stands a man, wielding a flash light, who is coated from head to toe in gleaming silver body paint; he is wearing nothing, save for a pair of reading glasses and a tiny, aluminum-colored speedo. To…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

10 Crazy Science Experiments That Wound Up In Your Kitchen

Comfort food wasn’t always the old-fashioned, reliable thing that we consider it now. At one time, many food items that we now wolf down without a thought were once unbelievable breakthroughs in technology, science, or sophistication. Here are the most delicious discoveries that you’ve already eaten. 10. Baking powder was a labor of love and…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Not having enough vitamin B12 can shrivel your brain. No, really.

Anyone ever told you that if you don’t get your vitamins, your brain will shrink? No? Well they should. It turns out that having a vitamin B12 deficiency later in life is pretty bad for your grey matter. A group of researchers looked at over-65s from the South Side of Chicago, and measured the amount…

io9 Tim Barribeau

“Teleported” mice reveal secrets of memory

Scientists have found out that memory comes in little packets, and they have found that out by making mice believe that they’ve been teleported. Most people think of memory as a continuous logging of information. In fact, memory is parceled out in little pieces of information. These memory quanta are 125 millisecond pieces. These discrete…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

What happens when mice become autistic

In search of cures for autism, scientists have often used mice as a model. Some of the rodents display behaviors typical of human autism, and researchers use these mice as test subjects for experimental treatments. But now a group of researchers has figured out how to genetically engineer autistic mice, which could bring us closer…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Bats’ muscles are the fastest of any mammal ever discovered

Bat mouths are already pretty much completely awesome, thanks to their amazing echolocation abilities. So this almost seems like overkill: bats are the first known mammals to possess superfast muscles, moving a hundred times faster than the average human muscle. It all goes back to echolocation – as bats close in on their prey, they…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Fish are angry with us…and they’re using tools to prove it

Here is the first ever video of a fish using a tool. Specifically, an orange-dotted tuskfish using a rock to crack open a clam. But it might not be long before fish are using clams to crack open our skulls. That’s the completely reasonable conclusion I’ve decided to draw from new research in the Journal…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

10 striking geographical locales abandoned by humans (and reclaimed by animals)

To paraphrase everyone’s favorite chaos theorist from Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” Indeed, that old chestnut is applicable to the following ten destinations, where animals have found a home in areas humans once tread. Remember, if you want to keep poachers out of your nature preserve, surround it with land mines. 1.) The Seagull…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

How a handful of tiny RNA gives women better immune systems

There’s a longstanding belief that, on average, women are healthier than men, and with good reason. Women live longer, and studies reveal women fight off disease better than their male counterparts. But where does this advantage come from? Turns out it’s all thanks to some microRNA on the X-chromosome. At least, that’s the finding of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Emergence: The scientific concept that explains slime, friction, and Brooklyn neighborhoods

Emergence is the word used to describe what happens when a system becomes more than the combination of its pieces. A set of rules, group of animals, or collection of objects can develop special properties that none of the single pieces possess. The exact cause of this transformation is impossible to pin down, and yet…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Birds can learn to build a better nest

Many in the scientific community have long assumed that nest-building in birds is a purely instinctive skill — an inborn ability that birds repeat from one nest to the next, regardless of their personal building history. But now, an international team of researchers in Botswana has observed birds engaging in behavior that suggests they may…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Adorable two-faced kitty wins Guinness Record — and our hearts

It’s not easy being born a Janus cat, but Frank and Louie outlived them all, earning him a spot in the Guinness World Records. Watch Frank and Louie go! Click to view According to The Telegram, Frank and Louie was brought to the Tufts Veterinary Clinic to be euthanized but Marty, a veterinary nurse, decided…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Computer model reveals what would happen if humans became immortal

At first glance, the fact that we grow old and die seems like one massive evolutionary mistake. After all, if evolution is all about survival of the fittest, wouldn’t the fittest individuals be those that can stay healthy and keep reproducing forever? That’s a bit of a simplification – and no, evolution isn’t all about…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Cramped conditions are giving rise to fish-on-fish violence

There are close to 200 million fish living in aquarium tanks across the United States, and untold numbers of them are angry. So angry, in fact, that when they are kept with other fish, many are driven to pester, injure, and even kill their fellow tank-dwellers. What’s driving them to such displays of violence? According…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Say hello to one of the world’s most mysterious animals

This is one of the few photos ever taken of the giant armadillo, a five feet long behemoth that lives a nocturnal, solitary life in isolated wetlands of central Brazil. You can probably see why these things are so rare. Twice as big as your average armadillo, the giant species likes to live in the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

What’s in this Season’s Flu Vaccine?

It’s early in the Fall, but flu season is just around the corner. Over 170 million individual flu vaccines will be made available in the US, with six manufacturers licensed by the FDA to make the vaccine for the 2011-2012 season. Let’s take a look at what is in the vaccine this year, and why…

io9 Keith Veronese

The real reason behind the rainforest’s extreme biodiversity

The rainforest ecosystem features dizzying levels of biodiversity, so much so that we can only estimate how many millions of species we still haven’t discovered. But the actual reason why the rainforests are so diverse might surprise you. According to new research from the University of British Columbia and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Carnotaurus had the most ridiculously weak dinosaur arms ever

The image of the hulking T. rex and its comically undersized arms is deeply ingrained in pop culture, but it isn’t really fair. They were muscular little appendages well-suited to their evolutionary purpose. The wimpy-armed Carnotaurus is another story entirely. As you can see in the skeleton up top, Carnotaurus had arms that even T.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Lies, damned lies, and honey badgers

I recently wrote a piece about a bird called the greater honeyguide, whose chicks brutally murder those of other birds. But honeyguides are better known for a more helpful behaviour – leading humans to bee hives. The people break open the hives and leave behind an otherwise inaccessible piece of honey for the bird. In…

io9 Ed Yong - Discover

Everything you wanted to know about the physics of ducks’ feet

What is the optimum stroke angle for a duck’s foot when paddling? Although a duck may already intuitively know the answer, the question has now been clarified for us humans as part of a recent research project undertaken at the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in the US. Research Scientist and Post Doctoral Scholar…

io9 Martin Gardiner - Improbable Research

And now . . . the winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes

10 Crazy Science Experiments That Wound Up In Your Kitchen

Not having enough vitamin B12 can shrivel your brain. No, really.