Animals

Animals

Touching allows octopuses to pre-taste their food

Special sensory cells in their arms’ suckers sense chemicals. Those cells allow them to taste the difference between food and poison.

Animals

Utah mink is first known case of the coronavirus in a wild animal

A wild mink appears to have picked up the novel coronavirus from farmed animals. Such spread in the wild does not appear common.

Animals

Scientists Say: Lachryphagy

Some insects land on the eyeballs of larger animals. They are seeking out the salt and proteins in the animal’s tears.

Animals

Let’s learn about sharks

This ancient group of fish can use scent and even electricity to detect their prey. And they fill an important niche in the ocean.

Animals

Scientists Say: Medullary bone

Medullary bone is a layer that forms inside bird and dinosaur bones. It’s a source of the calcium in eggshells.

Animals

Around the world, birds are in crisis

Human activities around the world are threatening bird species. Numbers of even some of the most common species are starting to fall.

Life

Ogre-faced spiders listen closely to snatch bugs from the air

Ogre-faced spiders can hear prey sneaking around behind them. Low frequencies can trigger a blind, backwards attack.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Say: Apoptosis

When it’s time for cells to die, they need to do it carefully, so they don’t harm other cells.

Plants

Please do not touch the Australian stinging tree

Stinging-tree leaves look soft and inviting, but one touch delivers agony. Structurally, the plant's painful chemical looks a lot like spider venom.

Animals

The diabolical ironclad beetle is nearly unsquishable

The diabolical ironclad beetle is an incredibly tough little creature. A peek inside its exoskeleton reveals what makes it virtually uncrushable.

Animals

This snake rips open a living toad to feast on its organs

A particularly gruesome way to kill may help small-banded kukri snakes avoid a deadly poison secreted from the neck and backs of some toads.

Genetics

Scientists Say: Evolution

Evolution is how species change over time. Individuals in the group vary, and some will pass on their genes. Over time, the whole species changes.