Biology

A guide to life, on Earth and beyond, including the top news about plants, animals, and physiology.

Latest in Biology

Honeybee on a woman's fingertip

Honeybees understand basic math

Illustration of giant, ancient finned octopus

65-foot-long octopuses ruled ancient oceans

a penguin with black and white feathers and long yellow feathers on top of its eyes

Macaroni penguins are surprisingly buff

By Laura Baisas

a green bee pollinating a yellow flower

Humidity makes these bees go from blue to green

By Laura Baisas

a lobster with orange color on one side and black on the other

1 in 50 million split-colored lobster found in Massachusetts

By Laura Baisas

a woman plays rug of war with a black and white dog

Play with your dog. It’s good for both of you.

By Laura Baisas

Egyptian fruit bat hanging upside down on black background

People keep trespassing near cave filled with bats infected by Ebola’s cousin

two bald eagles

How to tell eagle parents Jackie and Shadow apart

By Laura Baisas

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie at a location nicknamed "Mary Anning" after a 19th century English paleontologist. This was the site of the chemical experiment uncovering diverse organic molecules on Mars, in the Glen Torridon region, which scientists believe was a site where ancient conditions would have been favorable to supporting life, if it ever was present.

Curiosity finds molecules needed for ancient life on Mars

Illustration of ancient tubular polyps on the ocean floor

450-million year old jellyfish ancestor looks like a flailing carwash tubeman

a parrot with green feathers and a missing top beak

Bruce is missing his upper beak, but it has not stopped him from dominance

By Laura Baisas

Crimson (left) was rescued shortly after Clover(right).

Two mountain lion cubs rescued from certain death

By Margherita Bassi

an illustration of an extinct hedgehog like animal

New megafauna looked like spiky, 30-pound hamster

By Margherita Bassi

a bright red bird with a long beak

Hawaiian forest birds are stealing each other’s twigs

By Margherita Bassi

a flower with red petals and a large pole-like center growing in a tropical forest

Rare rotting-flesh smelling flower blooming at a Massachusetts college

By Margherita Bassi

a lobster in a pot of boiling water

Yes, your lobster dinner probably died an excruciating death

By Margherita Bassi

two eagle chicks in a nest

Help name Jackie and Shadow’s new eaglets

By Laura Baisas

a naked mole rat. it is a small, pinkish colored and hairless rodent with large front teeth

Not all naked mole-rat queens go out in a blaze of bloody violence

By Laura Baisas

shark holding maryland flags

Megalodon set to become Maryland’s state shark

By Laura Baisas

a small spider attacking a cockroach

New spider named for Pink Floyd devours bugs 6x its size

By Laura Baisas