Biology

Kraken of the Sea and of Our Trembling Fear

Why do we fear the giant squid? Brian Lam of ocean blog The Scuttlefish gets to the dark heart of kraken horror. In 1965, a Soviet Whaler watched an adult squid and sperm whale battle one another, but neither was victorious. The whale was found strangled, and the severed head of the squid was found…

io9 Brian Lam - The Scuttlefish

Will 50 percent of vertebrates go extinct over the next century?

This map shows extinction hot spots for vertebrates (mammals, birds, and amphibians). Brown areas and blue areas are regions of intense die-offs. It’s from a massive research study published today, showing nearly one-fifth of vertebrates are threatened with extinction. The study, conducted by team of scientists all over the world, examined 25,000 vertebrate species on…

io9 Annalee Newitz

You have taste receptors in your lungs

It sounds like the plot of a Troma flick, but yes, your lungs contain taste receptors. When these receptors encounter bitter compounds, they open up your airways — this discovery could radically improve the treatment of lung conditions like asthma. Taste receptors are clustered on the tongue as taste buds, but in the lungs the…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Chupacabras are just coyotes with scabies, says biologist

When a photo of a chupacabra appears in the news, it tends to be a shriveled, hairless, canine-looking corpse. According to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor, these chupacabra corpses are simply coyotes with sarcoptic mange (a.k.a. scabies). The scabies mite is an annoyance for humans and domesticated dogs but can be devastating for wild…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

25% of the population are supertasters — are you one of them?

About a quarter of the population of the world has super-powered tongues. They experience taste more intensely than the rest of us. Find out if you’re one of Them below. Some people have particular tastes in food. They’re considered overly picky and too sensitive. It turns out they could just be tasting things on a…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

New evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is infectious

Alzheimer’s disease is caused in part by a build-up of protein debris in the brain. Scientists already knew that this protein debris, called amyloid peptides, is infectious. But now it turns out that it’s easier to catch than they thought. Neurologist Yvonne S. Eisele and her team had already proven that mice could catch Alzheimers…

io9 Annalee Newitz

We may be even more alone in the universe than we thought

Two scientists propose that the jump from bacteria to complex life might be much riskier than previously imagined. Even on planets with earthlike conditions, plant and animal life would therefore be incredibly rare. All cells need power. Some cells need more than others. Bacteria are widespread, adaptable, and hardy, mainly because they don’t suck down…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

How your brain sees your body: Meet the cortical homunculus

We all know what bodies look like from the outside. This cortical homunculus is how your brain sees your body from the inside. In the 1930s, Wilder Penfield performed surgeries on patients with epilepsy. While he had a live brain on the table, he figured he might as well poke around a bit. The doctor…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Malaria-carrying mosquito could be evolving into two separate species

As one of the primary carriers of malaria, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito is one of the most dangerous animals in the world. Now efforts to wipe out malaria must succeed quickly, because it’s rapidly evolving into two separate species. Malaria infects two hundred million people a year, and killed nearly 900,000 people in 2009. Many…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Embed tiny solar cells in your body to fight cancer

By bringing the field of photovoltaics into medicine, researchers hope to create a far more precise method of drug delivery for fighting cancer. That’s right – this cancer cure involves tiny photovoltaic particles like the kind used in solar cells. One of the major drawbacks of chemotherapy is that it damages far more of the…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Ancient turtle bones reveal that Antarctica was once a rain forest

These days, Antarctica is the coldest, driest place on Earth. What little life it harbors clings to the edges of the continent. But that wasn’t always true. 45 million years ago, Antarctica was a lush rain forest, teeming with life. Although we tend to associate the term with hot, sandy places like the Sahara, the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

“Unexpected pornography-seeking behavior” found in dermatology database

Online archive DermAtlas, which compiles medical photographs of human skin, received some weird search requests, so dermatologists decided to investigate. After monitoring for six months, they reported a high statistical likelihood that people were “seeking pornography,” not dermatological information. The paper detailing one medical database’s brave attempt to figure out whether anyone was actually using…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The supercomputer that folded a protein

The atoms of proteins move around in incredibly complicated ways, but modeling how all those moving parts fit together is vital to understanding biology. Now, thanks to a supercomputer, you can see every step of the process right here. The image below (you can click it for a larger view) reveals just a portion of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Mountain goats scramble up a near-vertical wall in Italy

Humans can erect walls hundreds of feet high, but they can’t keep the Alpine ibex from climbing over. Check out these insane pictures of the mountain-dwelling creatures scaling the Cingino Dam, licking salty minerals off the rock faces. These were taken in the mountainous Piedmont region of Italy, where local fauna treat massive industrial projects…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Making a baby in space could be dangerous for all involved

Any future astronauts here who are hoping to make the first space baby might want to think again – embryonic stem cells don’t act the same way in zero gravity, making successful procreation in space almost impossible. We already know that full-grown adults suffer harmful consequences the longer they stay in microgravity, as prolonged living…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The platypus knows 80 different ways to poison you

The platypus is Earth’s weirdest creature – famously, 19th century biologists thought it was a hoax when first shown one – and its venom is a hodgepodge too, containing toxins borrowed from snakes, spiders, and even starfish. The fact that the platypus has venom at all is incredibly unusual for mammals, but then there’s very…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Where on Earth do these extraterrestrial toadstool trees grow?

The Socotra archipelago is an isolated island chain in the Indian Ocean. One-third of the flora on Socotra grows nowhere else on the planet, including these curious dragon’s blood trees (Dracaena cinnabari). Socotra, which is part of Yemen and 250 miles south of the Arabian Peninsula, built its first and only airport in 1999. Prior…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Scientists use Flickr to discover whale’s record-breaking 6,000 mile migration

You may be looking at cute animal pictures on Flickr and YouTube for fun, but biologists are increasingly using those images for research into animal behavior. Case in point: Biologists used tourist pictures to track one humpback whale’s epic migration. One way that biologists identify individual humpbacks is via the unique markings on their tails…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Baby Born From 20-Year-Old Frozen Embryo

Cryopreservation was once the domain of sci-fi novels and B-rate movies. (Think Encino Man.) But it’s increasingly real, as the recent birth of a healthy boy from a frozen embryo created 20 years earlier shows. The birth, which is reported in a study in the online edition of the journal Fertility and Sterility, sets a…

io9 Mara Hvistendahl - Popular Science

The first step toward building a mouse from synthetic DNA

Scientists have successfully created a small part of the DNA needed to build a mouse from scratch. It’s just a step on on the long road to synthetic life, but in the short term their breakthrough could prevent genetic disease. Previously the researchers, at the Venter Institute, synthesized an entire bacterial genome. That genome was…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Kraken of the Sea and of Our Trembling Fear

Will 50 percent of vertebrates go extinct over the next century?

You have taste receptors in your lungs

Chupacabras are just coyotes with scabies, says biologist

25% of the population are supertasters — are you one of them?

New evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is infectious

We may be even more alone in the universe than we thought

How your brain sees your body: Meet the cortical homunculus

Malaria-carrying mosquito could be evolving into two separate species

Embed tiny solar cells in your body to fight cancer

Ancient turtle bones reveal that Antarctica was once a rain forest

“Unexpected pornography-seeking behavior” found in dermatology database

The supercomputer that folded a protein

Mountain goats scramble up a near-vertical wall in Italy

Making a baby in space could be dangerous for all involved

The platypus knows 80 different ways to poison you

Where on Earth do these extraterrestrial toadstool trees grow?

Scientists use Flickr to discover whale’s record-breaking 6,000 mile migration

Baby Born From 20-Year-Old Frozen Embryo

The first step toward building a mouse from synthetic DNA

Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, xAI Has Now Shed All 11 of Its Non-Elon Musk Founders

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