To get an idea of why scientists would want to study daddy longlegs, try playing a game of “One of these things is not like the others” the next time you see one. “If you watch a daddy longlegs move, it will effectively walk on just three pairs of itsContinue Reading
The groundbreaking scientist ushered in a revolution in how we think about the universe. She also lived by a set of principles that made her an exceptional human being. “Could I come to the telescope with you?” I innocently asked the late astronomer Vera Rubin that question a few weeksContinue Reading
Here’s how researchers are zeroing in on the culprit. Beginning in May and appearing to slow down by the end of July, juvenile songbirds from the mid-Atlantic to the Midwest fell ill with odd symptoms and died. Scientists were baffled by the mass mortality event. Months later they still doContinue Reading
Who’s caring for the ICU physicians? As a critical care physician, Kelli Mathew knew her days were spinning in the wrong direction. For one thing, her well of empathy was dry. When unvaccinated people came to her, suffering the effects of COVID, Mathew began snapping back. She had run outContinue Reading
Snout bubbles let anoles stay submerged in streams for up to about 20 minutes. Some anole lizards have a newfound superpower: They can breathe underwater by trapping air in a bubble on their snouts. What’s more, these reptiles can stay submerged for nearly 20 minutes by rebreathing exhaled air inContinue Reading
Between Jan. 1 and July 2, 841 manatees died near and off the coast of Florida. A record-breaking number of manatees have died this year in Florida’s waters, mostly due to starvation, according to recent news reports. Between Jan. 1 and July 2, 841 manatees died near and off theContinue Reading
A well-preserved fossil is a “missing puzzle piece” for the evolution of dinosaur respiration. A new illustration of a dinosaur exhaling a puffy cloud might look like the animal is vaping. But in reality, the artwork is simply depicting a dinosaur breathing on a chilly morning. And it turns outContinue Reading
Scientists grew nearly defect-free fibers of frozen water with counterintuitive properties Try to bend an icicle and it’ll snap in two. With its tendency to crack into shards, ice’s reputation for being stiff and brittle seems well-established. But thin, pristine threads of ice are bendy and elastic, scientists report inContinue Reading
Hundreds of valuable metal objects in the grave hint at the individuals’ importance and wealth. Men and women living in West Central Africa 500 years ago dramatically changed their looks by removing their front teeth, ancient skulls reveal. Archaeologists found the centuries-old altered skulls deep underground in a cave thatContinue Reading
They were originally fierce predators the size of a small ostrich. A bizarre group of raptor-like dinosaurs, known as alvarezsaurs, drastically shrank around 100 million years ago, transforming from ostrich-size predators that hunted early mammals and baby dinos to ant-eaters the size of a chicken, according to paleontologists. Alvarezsaurs wereContinue Reading