Biology

Good News! Your Nose Is Too Cold For Avian Flu.

A new study released today should quell bird flu panic, or at least calm it down a bit. Turns out that avian flu viruses have a really tough time staying alive in human noses, where they’d need to hunker down and breed if they were going to spread through our species in a pandemic. According…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Headless Fire Ant Zombies Are Your Friends

Farmers fighting invasions of fire ants have a new weapon in their arsenal. It’s a natural, non-toxic way to kill the ants by turning them into zombies whose heads pop off. For the past several years, people in farming communities in Florida have been using this weapon, and now a group in Texas is also…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Real-Life Mega Sharks

If you’re excited about upcoming monster fest Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, then this giant basking shark should get you seriously revved up. https://gizmodo.com/mega-shark-versus-giant-octopus-noms-on-san-francisco-5241733 At 33 feet long, the basking shark is one of the biggest sharks in the oceans (the biggest is the whale shark). Unlike its toothy brethren, however, it prefers a whale’s…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How Would You Like A Giant Poison Stinger Buried Deep Inside Your Brain?

Here you can see an ant shooting a dose of venom straight into a centipede’s head. The centipede is translucent, so you can actually see the stinger in its brain. And there’s more. Alex Wild, who took these photographs, is a scientist who researches ants. He also happens to be an extremely talented photographer who…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Two Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs You Should Know About

Stem cell therapy has the potential to rejuvenate Alzheimers-damaged brains, and has already helped cure some kinds of blindness. And there are two more reasons to be hopeful about stem cell treatments, announced this week. Controlling Stem Cells This morning Cell magazine published an intriguing article about a breakthrough made by several American scientists researching…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Swine Flu Gene Sequence, Turned Into Music

The swine flu genome has been sequenced. Writer and computer geek Stephan Zielinski spent a little time tinkering around with algorithms and figured out a way to convert one of its genes into ambient music. I have to say, it sounds amazing. You can listen to it, and learn more about how he did it,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV

“Junk DNA” are inactive parts of your genome, switched off long ago in evolutionary history. Now scientists say there’s a junk gene that fights HIV. And they’ve discovered how to turn it back on. What these scientists have done could give us the first foolproof HIV vaccine. They have re-awakened the human genome’s latent potential…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Scientists Discover All-Female Ant Species that Reproduces by Cloning

A group of Amazonian ants have evolved an extremely unusual social system: They are all female and reproduce via cloning. Though their sexual organs have virtually disappeared, they have also gained some extraordinary abilities. University of Arizona biologist Anna Himler orginally began studying the ants, called Mycocepurus smithii, because they had incredible success as farmers.…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Batteries That Feed on Blood

Yesterday researchers at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver announced that they’d created a tiny battery (pictured) that could draw power from human blood. They’re basically cyborg batteries, half biological and half technological. The batteries are designed for use in pacemakers and other implantable medical devices. A small colony of yeast lives inside each…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Cure for Heart Disease That Lurks In Your Own Stem Cells

People who suffer from angina, or clogged arteries around the heart, often feel extreme pain when they exercise. But a new study shows that injections of their own stem cells (pictured) could be a cure. Researchers at Northwestern University have recently conducted a Phase II trial on a novel stem cell therapy for angina. One…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Researchers Discover the Secrets of Flower Sperm

Flowering plants go through a complicated double-fertilization process that involves a lot of sperm. But until today, researchers hadn’t fully understood the genetic mechanism behind plant sperm production (pictured) and how flowers have sex. Plant biologists at the University of Leicester researched the unusual plant reproduction system, trying to figure out how it works on…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Giant Worm Not Actually Making Spice in Cornwall

Researchers at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Cornwall made a discovery worthy of a Frank Herbert novel: A massive, 4-foot-long reef worm that was chomping through their local corals. According to This Is The West Country: Staff eventually lured it out with fish scraps – but not before it bit through 20lb fishing line. Curator…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How You Inherit Genes That Make You Smarter

This intriguing diagram shows which parts of your brain can contribute to your intelligence and how much of their smooth functioning you inherited genetically. Yes, sexual selection may be making you stupid – or smart. Medgadet has the story: Genes appear to influence intelligence by determining how well nerve axons are encased in myelin –…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Environment Causes Fluctuations in Intelligence Levels, Say Scientists

There’s an excellent article over at the New York Times on what factors are contributing to the evolution of the human brain. Specifically, neuroscientists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt ask whether it can be said that we’re becoming more intelligent, based on the evidence we currently have. They say: It used to be believed that…

io9 Annalee Newitz

How Neuroengineering Will Lift Your Depression – And Control Your Mind

The better we understand how our brains function, the closer we get to controlling them at a molecular level. And that means a possible cure for depression, but it could also mean foolproof brainwashing. Over at Wired, Quinn Norton has just published a series of articles that take you on an in-depth tour of the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Working the Night Shift is Hazardous to Your Health

Now I know why I’m really here: I’m helping the other Gizmodo writers prevent heart disease, bone fractures, cancer, diabetes and a completely wonked up metabolism by working the night shift. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences now confirms previous theories that being on the night shift is actually…

Health Elaine Chow

Several Mysterious Human Placentas Found in Illinois Sewer System

Sanitation workers in the Illinois town of Urbana-Champaign have been finding human placentas clogging up the drainage system several times in the last month. Placentas are temporary organs women grow while pregnant to nourish fetuses. According to an urgent press release sent out by the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District, human placentas are not something you should…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Fish With a Transparent Head

Model for future space-going animals with built-in helmets? This is a fish whose eyeballs sit in the middle of its transparent head, getting a wraparound view of the universe. via Monterey Bay Aquarium

io9 Annalee Newitz

Surveillance Cameras Capture the Elusive, Endangered Saharan Cheetah

Using motion-triggered cameras developed for surveillance, a team of researchers in Algeria has captured the first photographs of a nearly-legendary variety of cheetah, believed to be one of only 250 Saharan cheetahs left on Earth. Sarah Durant, a zoologist based in London, worked with the Office du Parc National de l’Ahaggar (OPNA) to track the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Wax Anatomical Models of Plague Victims from the Seventeenth Century

This tableau of the rotting bodies of plague victims was created by an obscure waxwork artist over 300 years ago, in an effort to create anatomically accurate models for medical researchers. Over at Morbid Anatomy, Joanna Ebenstein says she uncovered this striking image on the Christie’s auction website – it was sold a couple of…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Good News! Your Nose Is Too Cold For Avian Flu.

Headless Fire Ant Zombies Are Your Friends

Real-Life Mega Sharks

How Would You Like A Giant Poison Stinger Buried Deep Inside Your Brain?

Two Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs You Should Know About

Swine Flu Gene Sequence, Turned Into Music

A Drug To Re-Awaken Ancient Human Genes And Fight HIV

Scientists Discover All-Female Ant Species that Reproduces by Cloning

Batteries That Feed on Blood

A Cure for Heart Disease That Lurks In Your Own Stem Cells

Researchers Discover the Secrets of Flower Sperm

Giant Worm Not Actually Making Spice in Cornwall

How You Inherit Genes That Make You Smarter

Environment Causes Fluctuations in Intelligence Levels, Say Scientists

How Neuroengineering Will Lift Your Depression – And Control Your Mind

Working the Night Shift is Hazardous to Your Health

Several Mysterious Human Placentas Found in Illinois Sewer System

A Fish With a Transparent Head

Surveillance Cameras Capture the Elusive, Endangered Saharan Cheetah

Wax Anatomical Models of Plague Victims from the Seventeenth Century

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

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

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

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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