Biology

Bacteria Have Been Hacked to Work Like Tape Recorders

You might not think a lone E. coli bacterium has much in the way of memory. But now, researchers have hacked their DNA so that they can store memories of their environment—working much like an old tape recorder. New Scientist reports that chunks o DNA code in E. Coli called retrons carry the genetic code…

What Do This Dragonfly’s Prehensile Mouthparts Have To Do With Its Anus?

STOP LAUGHING THIS IS NOT A JOKE. This is a serious question about this larval dragonfly’s grabby-grab face-appendage (technically, it’s called a “labial mask”) and its b-hole. And the answer is: “Way, way more than you think.” Here’s Gwen Pearson, entomologist and Wired’s resident bug expert: The ability of a dragonfly nymph to successfully snatch…

One Famous Technique That Doesn’t Solve Jet-Lag, And One That Does

Traveling this holiday season? Here’s how to prepare your body for the crushing exhaustion that comes from switching time zones. Photo Credit: Jeff Sheldon | CC0 1.0 Before we look at surefire ways to address travel fatigue, let’s look at a myth that, while almost certainly ineffective, is actually kind of instructive about the whole…

An interesting twist on wildlife policy: Authorities have listed the Gunnison sage grouse (cf. the Greater sage grouse) as “threatened,” claiming conservation efforts have reduced threats enough to give the bird a “more flexibly protected status.” Environmentalists are disappointed, claiming the designation fails to reflect the bird’s true, near-extinct status.

Hermit Crabs Line Themselves Up From Biggest To Smallest To Swap Shells

Seriously, HERMIT CRABS FORM ORDERLY QUEUES. In height order. To more efficiently trade shells. I, for one, welcome our new crustacean bureaucrats. This is a segment from BBC’s Life Story, and it captures some pretty extraordinary animal behavior. When a new shell washes up on shore, these hermit crabs measure each other and then line…

Why Are Civilian Revolutionaries Prepared To Die For One Another?

It’s often said that blood is thicker than water – that family ties trump all others. But research with groups of men fighting in Libya has suggested that the bonds they formed in times of great adversity were as strong as those they had with their own kin. Above: Fighters for Libya’s interim government rejoice…

Biologists Have Named A New Tree Frog Species After Ozzy Osbourne

When Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat in a 1981 concert, he never could have imagined that the event would be commemorated decades later by metalhead scientists, who discovered a weird frog while on an expedition in the Brazilian Amazon. “As soon as I heard its call, I knew it was a new…

What Creates These Bright Pink Streaks in the Snow?

All around the world, in the cold, people walking near high-altitude rivers and lakes see streaks of vibrant “watermelon snow.” This bright pink snow can color deep snow wells, or make cliffs look like they are streaked with blood. Find out what makes snow pink. Deep bloody holes have been seen in snow in Scotland…

Can These Seven Words Really Define All Life in the Universe?

We might not know the meaning of life, but a group of scientists working for NASA came up with a definition for it that’s just seven words long: “Self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.” But does this truly encompass all life, including the types we have yet to discover? This definition of life was…

Evidence that Killer Whales Are Trying to Communicate with Dolphins

Humans are not the only creatures who try to imitate the sounds of other animals. It turns out that killer whales try to imitate dolphin clicks. But why? Photo by Monika Wieland via Shutterstock Over at Seriously, Science?, we learn that a new scientific study has identified a series of calls that killer whales make…

Why Your Farts Smell Okay And Everybody Else’s Farts Stink

Finally, AsapScience gets to the scientific questions I want to know! Namely, why people find the odor of their own farts more tolerable than other people’s. As it turns out, we should be focusing on why we find other people’s farts so noxious, not why ours smell okay. Man, the AsapScience artist really when to…

Why Are Some People Left Handed?

Joe Hanson dives into the science of the southpaw in the latest installment of It’s Okay To Be Smart. For more, check out this in-depth primer on left-handedness.

Science Needs More Women (And Not For The Reason You Think)

You’re probably thinking it has to do with the lack of women conducting research. And yes, you’re right, that is a problem. But the issue we’re talking about, while connected to the absence of women in scientific research, is actually the relative shortage of women having research performed on them. Above: In 1927, the Fifth…

10 Fad Diets, Debunked

What should you cut out of your diet to be more healthy? Everything. According to the most popular diet books on the market, there’s barely a food on Earth that’s safe to eat. But what is the actual benefit of these diets? Here’s what science has to say. 10. Cut Out Wheat to Slim Down…

If You’ve Never Seen An Insect Breathe, You Are Seriously Missing Out

Honestly, I’m not sure what to say except that YouTuber Precarious333’s video of a Giant Texas Katydid (Neobarrettia spinosa) chirping, breathing, and grooming is way more captivating than I expected it to be. Full screen it, and crank it to the highest resolution your Internet connection can muster. You won’t regret it. Pretty incredible, right?…

These Are The Pages Being Ripped From A Biology Text Book In Arizona

The Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board in Arizona recently voted to “redact” a page from a ninth-grade biology text book because it includes a brief section on an abortion pill. School officials have responded by literally tearing the page from the texts. Thankfully, the Internet has come to the rescue. The offending section from Campbell…

Scientists Resurrect The Dodo With 3D Laser Scanning

More than three centuries after the last of its species walked on the isle of Mauritius, the skeleton of the dodo bird has been recreated using 3D scanning technology. The virtual model is enabling scientists to reconstruct how it walked, moved and lived to a level of detail that has never been possible before. Arguably…

Why It’s Harmful to Describe Cancer as a “War”

When people talk about cancer, they often resort to the language of war – e.g. Mary lost her brave fight with cancer. Manycompelling objections have been made against the use of such “battle metaphors,” and a growing body of evidence suggests that, for some people, they can actually be harmful. Above: American Civil War, Union…

The Secret That Botanists Are Keeping From The Public

With its small bright green leaves and dangling, pearl-white flowers, Raven’s Manzanita is instantly recognizable—except that nobody sees it anymore. Botanists won’t disclose the location of the last known wild specimen in California. They’ve concluded that secrecy is the best way to protect rare species. And it’s not just in California. “This is happening all…

How the Bugs In Our Buildings Could Actually Make Us Healthier

University of Oregon researchers Jessica Green and G Z ‘Charlie’ Brown call it the Pickle Box. This former walk-in storage unit for pickles, remodelled into an enclosed climate chamber, is helping scientists understand how people shed their own ‘microbial cloud’ in a built environment. The bacteria, fungi and other microbes that we leave behind in…