Two juvenile baboons passively share information about a food source when one sniffs the other’s muzzle while feeding.
Susan C. Alberts
Early life environments and adult social bonds both have strong effects on survival.
Looking at life at the atomic scale offers a more comprehensive understanding of the macroscopic world.
theasis/E+ via Getty Images
Studying the brief and tiny quantum effects that drive living systems could one day lead to new approaches to treatments and technologies.
The roaming Steller’s sea eagle in Georgetown, Maine, Jan. 1, 2022.
Dominic Sherony/Flickr
A Steller’s sea eagle, native to the Asian Arctic, has traveled across North America since 2021. A scholar questions whether the bird is lost – and how well humans really understand animals’ actions.
Lego bricks have standardised parts and can be found across the world.
Cardiff University
Scientists used Lego to build a bioprinter capable of printing human tissue samples.
Shutterstock
Some animals appear to use a ‘parliament’ of genes to determine sex. But a closer look reveals these are the exception rather than the rule.
Marine heat waves can reach the ocean floor as well as surface waters.
Sebastian Pena Lambarri via Unsplash
El Niño can trigger intense and widespread periods of extreme ocean warming known as marine heat waves. They can devastate marine life.
Eventually weather, pests and disease will take their toll, but the story doesn’t end there.
Emanuel David / 500px via Getty Images
Even in death, a tree helps others live.
Ants from different colonies will fight based on smell alone.
Joseph Howell, Vanderbilt University
Researchers explore what happens when ants can’t properly use smell to detect friend from foe.
A honeybee is performing the waggle dance in the center of this photo to communicate the location of a rich nectar source to its nestmates.
Heather Broccard-Bell
Honeybees possess one of the most complex examples of nonhuman communication. New research suggests that it is learned and culturally passed down from older to younger bees.
Many hedgehogs are killed when crossing roads.
Photo-SD/Shutterstock
Research on Denmark’s hedgehogs offers insight into their cause of death – and how to help them.
Slime mould navigating a food grid.
Chris R. Reid/Macquarie University
Slime moulds feature throughout HBO’s The Last of Us. While they aren’t a true fungus, they do have a lot in common with zombies.
JustinFollis/Unsplash
At the most basic level, the brain releases a cocktail of chemicals. But there’s more to it than that.
Shutterstock / Lightspring
Milk and its derivatives, meat products (especially fat), fish and seafood may be contaminated with PCBs, toxic substances that have been proven to accelerate cellular ageing.
More watchful eyes can mean more safety for all.
Georgette Douwma/Stone via Getty Images
Scientists are learning that diversity has many perks – whether in multispecies groups of animals or human society.
It wasn’t flying that gave birds the advantage.
Corey Ford/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images
Birds and dinosaurs lived together for millions of years, but only toothless birds survived the asteroid impact that upended life on Earth.
The coquí frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui , is loud enough to wake people at night.
Éktor/flickr
From insects to birds to bats to frogs, these little loudmouths have found ingenious ways to deliver their messages at high volume.
The battle for power in the animal world isn’t always about brute force.
photofellow/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Life can be a struggle for power – not just for people but for nonhuman animals, too. An animal behaviorist explains how this quest can be more Shakespearean drama than boxing match.
The giant bird Genyornis went extinct in Australia around 50,000 years ago.
Peter Trusler
A puzzle over the identity of an extinct bird that laid eggs across Australia has been solved.
‘Turritopsis dohrnii’.
The immortal jellyfish ‘Turritopsis dohrnii’ is capable of escaping death. The molecular keys involved in its longevity have been revealed by researchers at the University of Oviedo.
Reindeer have adapted to the dim, blue light of the Arctic winter.
Alice/Wikimedia Commons
In winter, light in the northern latitudes is dim and very blue compared to summer light. Reindeer eyes have evolved to be better suited at seeing in this unique environment.