Biology

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How.

“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. It made the front page of Bild, Europe’s largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the Germanwings crash. From there, it ricocheted…

Earlier today, a NYC judge heard arguments on the rights of two chimps being used for science experiments. During the two-hours of proceedings, the president of the Nonhuman Rights Projects described the chimps as “autonomous and self-determining beings.” A decision on their fate is expected in one to two months. More here. Image credit: Associated…

Heard That Humans Can Smell 10,000 Odors? Here’s Why You Heard That.

If you poke around online, you’ll find someone claiming authoritatively that humans can distinguish 10,000 odors. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s based on an experiment from the 1920s, that tried — and failed — to quantify smell. But here’s how it became a pop fact. In 1927, scientists Lloyd Henderson and Ernest Crocker started by…

Why Are Human Eggs So Huge?

Your mom helped you get through one of the most dangerous times of your life – the first few days after fertilization. She did it without even thinking about it, by stuffing the egg that helped make you full of everything you needed for those first few cell divisions. You think I’m exaggerating? I’m not.…

These Ancient Trees Look As Though They Belong In An Alien Forest

Nature photographer Marsel van Oosten didn’t need to venture off planet to visit this otherworldly forest. These stunning baobab trees are located right here on Earth in Madagascar. Photo credit: Marsel van Oosten (used with permission) Incredibly, a single baobab tree (of which there are nine different species in the genus Adansonia) can grow as…

Gorgeous Microscopy Images Are Actually Pictures of Sexual Biology

The Cell Picture Show has collected ten images of sexually significant science from labs around the world: the resulting slideshow (summarized in their image above) takes you on a walk through sex systems across many types of living things. Image: Cell Picture Show I’m having a hard time deciding on a personal favorite. Colorfully stained…

Chameleons Are So Good At Hiding, We Didn’t Know They Were 10 Species

The panther chameleon changes color to display itself. When scientists did a genetic work up on it, they found out that behind its display it was hiding 10 extra species. Check out a flow chart that can give you a hint as to which panther chameleon you’re looking at. Biologists at the University of Geneva…

11 Species of Chameleon Masqueraded as One

Biologists just discovered 11 new species of chameleon hiding in plain sight—as chameleons tend to do. Most chameleons can change color, but the range of hues is limited, depending on the species. Madagascar’s panther chameleons are unusual because their color ranges varied depending on where they lived. On some parts of the island, the panther…

Some Blind People Trained Themselves to Use Echolocation 

Echolocation isn’t just for bats and dolphins—people can do it, too. Some blind people have learned to use echolocation to tell the size, density, and texture of objects around them, and researchers believe anyone can learn how. A subset of the blind population has figured out to use echolocation to navigate the world. They make…

Your Armpit Hair Will (Probably) Never Grow To The Floor. Here’s Why.

A few weeks back, we examined why fingernails grow so much faster than toenails. Now comes the explanation for another bodily-function quirk you’ve always kinda wondered about, courtesy of the SciShow’s Hank Green: How does hair (including, like, eyebrow and armpit hair) know when to stop growing? https://gizmodo.com/why-do-fingernails-grow-so-much-faster-than-toenails-1695886809

A Handful Of Bronze-Age Men Could Have Fathered Two Thirds Of Europeans

Europe has surprisingly little genetic variety. Learning how and when the modern gene-pool came together has been a long journey. But thanks to new technological advances a picture is slowly coming together of repeated colonization by peoples from the east with more efficient lifestyles. Top image: An 1899 painting by Viktor Vasnetsov imagining a kurgan…

Making Heroin Could One Day Be As Easy As Brewing Beer

Breakthroughs in synthetic biology have suggested a bizarre and realistic possibility for the future of black market drug trade. Genetically-altered yeast could be used to make opiates for hospitals seeking a source of the painkillers — and then appropriated by drug dealers who want to homebrew heroin. Over at Wired, Lexi Pandell reports on a…

These Insects Compete Using Their Spiked Penises

Insects with nightmarish spiky penises that can harm their mates are really nothing new. But a new study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology has determined that given the right conditions, wielding a nightmarish spiky penis could also harm a different species. Image: Kyogoku, D. and Sota, T. 2015 The study, led by Daisuke Kyogoku…

This Prehistoric Pocket Deer Has Fewer Chromosomes Than A Fruit Fly

Meet the muntjac — the most interesting deer in the world. It’s the size of a dog, it’s the oldest deer around, it has antlers but fights with tusks, and it even barks loudly at things that threaten it. But its most interesting quality is this — it gets by with fewer chromosomes than any…

Genetic Engineers Are Building a Biological Kill Switch

The fear of genetically-modified creatures escaping from the lab is the basis for a thousand sci-fi stories, but it’s also a legitimate concern. That’s why genetic engineers are inventing kill switches, or genetically-encoded suicide triggers, for GMOs they want to keep contained. Here’s how they work. Why we need kill switches When we talk about…

We Still Don’t Know What Jumpstarts Puberty

Maybe you grew so fast it left stretch marks on your legs. Or your voice started cracking every time you got on the phone. Or you hated needing to wear a bra. Growing up means going through puberty. It’s an integral part of becoming an adult. But we still don’t know how our bodies start…

Scientists To Sequence Lil Bub’s Genome

A team of geneticists is ready to unlock the secrets behind Internet celebrity cat Lil Bub’s unique appearance. Lil Bub, whose full name is Lillian Bubbles (her friends call her Bub), may be the most recognizable cat on the Web. Although Bub is an adult now, she still looks like a kitten, with wide green…

Animals Are Now “Sentient Beings” According To New Zealand Law

Earlier this month, a change was made to New Zealand’s Animal Welfare Amendment Bill stating that animals — like humans — are “sentient” beings. As reported in The Independent, the updated Act means it’s now a legal requirement for the citizens of New Zealand to “recognize animals as sentient.” Accordingly, “owners of animals, and persons…

A Switch That Turns Deadly Female Mosquitoes Into Harmless Males

An international team of scientists have isolated a gene within the Aedes aegypti mosquito that partially transforms females into males. Since only females spread diseases by feasting on human blood, the discovery could lead to powerful population control strategies. Female mosquitoes bite because they require blood for their developing eggs. Thus, it’s the female half…

Watch a Bat-Inspired Sonar Prototype Flying on a Drone

Horseshoe bats’ unique noses and big, flexible ears make them nature’s most dynamic sonar arrays. Engineers built a mechanical version, and they’re testing it on a quadcopter drone. The sonar prototype, designed and built by Virginia Tech mechanical engineering professor Rolf Mueller and his team, doesn’t look like anything you’d find on a warship. It…