Biology

Male Mice Sing Fancy Tunes to Woo the Ladies

Male mice sing different songs in different contexts when courting lady mice, saving their best stuff for females they haven’t even met yet. That’s according to new research out of Duke University that documented male mice changing their tunes, literally, as social contexts changed. And the kicker? The fancy tunes were, perhaps no surprise, a…

Can You Identify 20 Of The Most Common Birds in North America?

Add this picture quiz on common backyard birds to the list of things you never thought you’d care about but then actually became weirdly and unreasonably invested in once you tried them. What? Just me? I’ve never been one for Internet quizzes. I’ve also never been one for birdwatching, so I did terribly (8/20, bad…

Google Maps Software Now Lets Your Explore Depths of the Human  Body

Google Maps makes it easy to pan, zoom and search the world—and now it can do the same for the deep recesses of the human body, too. A new project by researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia has been borrowing the algorithms used to assemble and run Google Maps to create…

Do “Eyespots” On Butterflies Really Mimic Eyes?

The big black and gold symmetrical spots on butterfly wings deter predators because they resemble eyes in the darkness, right? Not necessarily. Here’s an experiment that indicates that we see eyes, but animals don’t. We all learned that the big black spots on the wings of butterflies are “eyespots.” They seem to turn the small,…

Kidney Failure Linked To – Let’s Be Frank – Utterly Hedonistic Tea Habit

A puzzling medical case in which a 56-year-old man suddenly developed weakness, fatigue, and body aches, was, upon further investigation, revealed to be linked to the patient’s daily consumption of sixteen 8-ounce glasses of iced tea. Photo Credit: Peter Moore | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The man’s doctors describe his case in Thursday’s issue of the…

TED-Ed Explains The Effects Of Underwater Pressure On Your Body

Ever wonder what would happen to a deep sea fish if it swam too close to the surface, or why scuba divers have to ascend very slowly after a deep dive? The latest TED-Ed video provides the answers as it explains the physics of pressure change.

The First-Known Medical Consent Form Dates Back To 1524

Turkish historians have uncovered the oldest-known example of a signed written consent form. Dating back to the 16th Century Ottoman Empire, the discovery suggests the use of these forms — in this case permission to remove a bladder stone — was practiced long before it was adopted in the West. There’s a debate among historians…

New Fossil Dating Technique Casts Doubt On Human Origins

A new dating technique has revised the estimated age of Little Foot from 2.2 million to 3.6 million years ago. That’s significant because it places the rare Australopithecus fossil within the same evolutionary timeframe as Lucy, a hominid from a separate species. Meaning humans may not be related to Lucy after all. Top image: Professor…

Scientists have recorded the longest non-stop migratory flight made by birds. By equipping blackpoll warblers with a GPS, researchers learned the diminutive 12 gram bird can cross the Atlantic — an average distance of 1,580 miles (2,540 km) — over just two to three days. This migration is “on the brink of impossibility.” Image: PJTurgeon/CC

The Most Popular Antidepressants Are Based On An Outdated Theory [UPDATED]

One in ten Americans takes an anti-depressant drug like Zoloft or Prozac. These drugs have been shown to work in some patients, but their design is based on a so-called “chemical imbalance” theory of depression that is incomplete, at best. Image Credit: Tom Varco | CC BY-SA 3.0 The number of people taking antidepressants has…

Why Is An Entire Genre Of Science Devoted To Blindfolding Turtles?

Putting little blindfolds on turtles has gotten to be a widespread scientific pursuit. Find out all the different ways, and reasons, why you might want to blindfold a creature that’s too slow to run away from you. A turtle has just been hatched. It’s newborn, in danger, and its eyes are perhaps a half inch…

Major Clues About the Sex Lives of Oviraptors

After analyzing the 75-million-year-old remains of a raptor couple likely killed in sand dune collapse, a Canadian paleontologist has discovered dramatic physical differences between the two, a possible sign of sexual dimorphism in the species, and further evidence that these dinos partook in elaborate mating rituals. The remarkably well-preserved fossil, which was found in Mongolia’s…

The World’s Oldest Person Has Died At The Age Of 117

Born in 1898, Japan’s Misao Okawa died peacefully in her nursing home earlier today. Here’s how her remarkably long tenure on Earth stacks up against the longest human lives. Okawa only recently celebrated her 117th birthday (that’s a lot of candles) on March 5th, which she spent in the company of her, ahem, 92-year-old son…

Watch What Happens When You Put A Hummingbird In A Wind Tunnel

High speed footage can reveal the unusual mechanics of a hummingbird’s wingbeat. Here’s how this remarkable aerialist keeps a level head, even in the face of aggressive wind and rain. For its season finale, KQED’s outstanding science series Deep Look (previously here and here) caught up with scientists at UC Berkeley who are studying the…

The Real-Life Science Behind Orphan Black

In addition to being incredibly entertaining and provocative, the popular Orphan Black series is absolutely teeming with science. From human clones and genetic engineering through to DNA barcodes and genetic patents, here’s what you need to know about the science behind the show. For the uninitiated, Orphan Black is a conspiracy thriller that stars Tatiana…

Low Gravity Seriously Messes With An Ant’s Ability To Explore Space

Experiments aboard the International Space Station with common pavement ants have shown just how badly microgravity impairs the insects’ ability to search unexplored areas. Remarkably, however, tumbling ants demonstrated an uncanny ability to regain contact with the surface. There are over 20,000 species of ants on Earth, each perfectly suited to its environment. But there’s…

Do You Suffer From ‘Exploding Head Syndrome’? You’re Not Alone.

New findings indicate nearly one in five college-age students has been startled awake by an abrupt, loud noise that doesn’t actually exist. Known as “exploding head syndrome,” the psychological condition appears to be more common and disruptive than previously thought. Art by Jim Cooke. Some of you may already be familiar with exploding head syndrome…

To Feed the World, We May Need to Hack Photosynthesis

One of the biggest challenges of the 21st century will be figuring out how to feed our rising global population. Now, some scientists are making the radical claim that growing more food won’t be enough—we literally need to hack photosynthesis. Humans have been breeding crop plants to grow faster and yield more for approximately 10,000…

7 Real Life Forms That People Once Believed Were Hoaxes

The history of science has its share of biological frauds, cases where people fabricated an imaginary organism and passed it off as real, or lied about an organism’s behavior. Every now and then, however, a creature that is suspected of being a hoax turns out to be real. Top image: Berlin Aquarium mural of a…

This Biohacker Used Eyedrops To Give Himself Temporary Night Vision

A team of biohackers from California successfully induced a temporary sense of night vision by injecting a simple chemical cocktail directly onto the eye. Incredibly, it allowed them to see over 160 feet in the dark for a brief period of time. The group, called Science for the Masses, wanted to see if a kind…