Biology

We’ll Only Find Extraterrestrial Life If We Know What We’re Looking For

Our probes and landers still look for life “as we know it.” But we’re already aware that even terrestrial life goes beyond what we once considered possible. We should use that experience, or we may literally step on alien life. Extraterrestrial life is a staple of SF and the focus of astrobiology and SETI. Yet…

io9 Athena Andreadis - Science In My Fiction

Mice Can Synthesize Their Own Morphine

A new study shows that mice — and probably humans — mammals have the onboard capacity to make their own painkillers. It’s unclear why the body does this, or where in the body it takes place, but the research team led by Meinhart Zenk, a biochemist at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St.…

io9 Marc Bernardin

How Chimpanzees Mourn Their Dead

Chimpanzees are our closest primate relative, and have a number of behaviors we once thought were human only: they empathize, cooperate, and have a sense of self. But how do they deal with the most distressing event possible — death? Two studies this being published in Current Biology this week show a remarkable amount about…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Stephen Hawking Admits that Aliens Will Probably Fuck Us Up

The world’s most famous living scientist has confirmed what science fiction filmmakers have postulated since the beginning of cinema: There is life out there in the cosmos, and it would most likely smash us to atoms. In film after film, novel after novel, first contact with an alien intelligence usually hasn’t ended particularly well for…

io9 Marc Bernardin

Cavemen Experimented with Inter-Species Sex

Scientists conducting a new genetic study have discovered that early humans bred with other species — like Neanderthals — at least twice. There has been quite a bit of debate over whether our human ancestors interbred with neanderthals, but a new genetic study revealed at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in…

io9 Marc Bernardin

Two-Headed Lizard Keeps Trying To Eat Its Own Head

This two-headed bobtail lizard from Perth, Australia has two brains, and it consequently has trouble moving its hindlegs. But that’s not its biggest problem – no, the lizard’s larger head wants to devour its smaller one. Talk about self-loathing. [Via SFGate. Photo: Paul Kane / Getty Images.]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Toxic Airborne Fungus From Oregon Spreading Across West Coast

Cryptococcus gattii is an airborne fungus usually found in the tropics. But researchers announced today that new, deadly strains are thriving in Oregon, and spreading. These strains kill 25% of people who come into contact with them. A paper published this afternoon in PLoS Pathogens offers details on the new strain of C. gattii, and…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Bizarre, High-Tech Art Of Tracking Toads

Cane toads are a major pest in Australia. In an effort to contain them, researchers are tracking the beasts and trying to understand where they’ll go next. But how do you track a toad? Two words: Accelerometer and pantyhose. As any Australian will tell you, cane toads (Bufo marinus) are an introduced pest which have…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Proof That Rats Laugh When You Tickle Them

Now that we know octopi like to play with cameras, it’s time to investigate other forms of animal play. Did you know that rats laugh when you tickle them? This scientist has proof – and it’s pretty damn cute. https://gizmodo.com/octopus-steals-a-divers-videocamera-and-records-high-sp-5520327

io9 Annalee Newitz

Octopus Steals A Diver’s Videocamera And Records High-Speed Underwater Chase

Further proof that cephalopods are intelligent: This octopus stole a diver’s brand-new videocamera then recorded a high-speed chase where the diver tried (and eventually succeeded) in getting his camera back. Was this a hostile move or just play? In the end, it seems as if the octopus may just have been trying to interact playfully…

io9 Annalee Newitz

What Strange Parasite Has Infected This Tree?

Egad, look at this poor tree! Some bulbous, parasitic infection is leaching the life right out of it! Could this creature arrive at to your local park? Are we looking at the onset of an arboreal apocalypse? No worries, dear readers – this is just the jabuticaba, or Brazilian Grape Tree. It’s indigenous to South…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

U.K. Scientists Create Embryo From Three Sets of DNA

In order to weed out inherited disease, British scientists have combined the DNA from one man and two women to create singular embryos. Using embryos from left over in-vitro fertilizations, research scientists at the Newcastle University have figured out how to “swap out” mutated mitochondrial DNA, which is responsible for serious disease in one in…

io9 Marc Bernardin

Scientists Discover Five Things That Smell Good To Nearly Everyone

Popular wisdom holds that good smells are in the nose of the sniffer. You like the scent of roses; I like fresh coffee. But a scientific study using a robotic “eNose” proves that pleasant smells are universal – and predictable. Good smells are biologically hardwired Using a device called an eNose, a group of Israeli…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Just Discovered: A Leech With Giant Teeth That Lives In Your Nose

This is Tyrannobdella rex, a newly-discovered leech species named for its terrifying, human-looking teeth. And now scientists know more about why it wants nothing more than to swim up your nose or into your mouth. Most people are familiar with the type of leech which sticks on your skin and sucks out your blood. A…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Manimal: Will There Ever Be a Show This Awesome Again?

A British dude who fights crime by shapeshifting into different animals? How was 1983’s Manimal not as popular as Dallas? Oh, yeah, because it kinda sucked. Still, since when does quality bear any impact on what stays on television? Let’s not forget: According to Jim was on ABC for, like, 32 years. Can you imagine…

Television Marc Bernardin

Can You Actually Taste Water?

Welcome to Buzzed io9, an occasional column highlighting experiments of dubious scientific merit that readers can conduct when totally wasted. Today’s question: can humans taste water? Flies can. Are you going to let a Drosophila show you up? It’s unclear whether humans can actually taste water. Yes, we can taste the minerals and various impurities…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

A First-Person View Of A Sea Lion Versus A Huge Octopus

In one corner, we have some hungry pinniped thunder from down the under. In the other, there’s eight arms of ink-spewing squishiness. Who wins this battle? Don’t bet on the cephalopod. The National Geographic Crittercam captured this wild footage of an Australian sea lion wrecking an unsuspecting octopus. Like some greasy, sentient torpedo, the sea…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Perfectly-Preserved Plants And Insects Discovered From 95 Million Years Ago

An amazing discovery of perfectly-preserved amber in Ethiopia has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse of the ecosystem in that region 95 million years ago. These pictures show plants and insects from the Cretaceous woodlands, right after flowering plants had evolved. Of course “right after” in evolutionary time still involves many hundreds of thousands of years,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Drug Discovered In The Soil Of Easter Island Could Cure Alzheimer’s

Rapamycin is a bacterial byproduct discovered in the soil of Easter Island. It extends the lives of animals, and now two independent studies show that it can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Is this the drug we’ve been waiting for? A study published yesterday in the Journal of Biological Chemistry confirmed that mice with Altzheimers…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Close Call With Death Leaves Its Mark On DNA

Some lizards escape predators by “dropping” their tail, but the experience appears to leave its mark. After losing their tail, lizards end up with damaging changes to their DNA. The parts affected are the telomeres – stretches of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres naturally shorten as cells divide, and shortened telomeres are…

io9 New Scientist

We’ll Only Find Extraterrestrial Life If We Know What We’re Looking For

Mice Can Synthesize Their Own Morphine

How Chimpanzees Mourn Their Dead

Stephen Hawking Admits that Aliens Will Probably Fuck Us Up

Cavemen Experimented with Inter-Species Sex

Two-Headed Lizard Keeps Trying To Eat Its Own Head

Toxic Airborne Fungus From Oregon Spreading Across West Coast

The Bizarre, High-Tech Art Of Tracking Toads

Proof That Rats Laugh When You Tickle Them

Octopus Steals A Diver’s Videocamera And Records High-Speed Underwater Chase

What Strange Parasite Has Infected This Tree?

U.K. Scientists Create Embryo From Three Sets of DNA

Scientists Discover Five Things That Smell Good To Nearly Everyone

Just Discovered: A Leech With Giant Teeth That Lives In Your Nose

Manimal: Will There Ever Be a Show This Awesome Again?

Can You Actually Taste Water?

A First-Person View Of A Sea Lion Versus A Huge Octopus

Perfectly-Preserved Plants And Insects Discovered From 95 Million Years Ago

A Drug Discovered In The Soil Of Easter Island Could Cure Alzheimer’s

Close Call With Death Leaves Its Mark On DNA

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

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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

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

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