Biology(Page 17)

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

Latest in Biology

A curled lock of composer Ludwig van Beethoven's hair with an inscription from the hair's former owner, Ignaz Moscheles.

We now have a full composition of Beethoven’s DNA

By Laura Baisas

Ankylosaur in blue floatie and life vest riding the ocean waves. Prehistoric trees and a full moon are in the background. Illustrated.

Why dinosaurs were terrible swimmers

It’s still a mystery how snails ended up scattered around the globe

It’s still a mystery how snails ended up scattered around the globe

By Thom van Dooren/MIT Press Reader

A bug on a green leaf feeding on a caterpillar.

Save caterpillars by turning off your outdoor lights

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Thylacosmilus atrox, an extinct marsupial with giant canine teeth,

With bulging eyes and a killer smile, this sabertooth was an absolute nightmare

By Laura Baisas

The sun shining on glaciers.

‘Humanity on thin ice’ says UN, but there is still time to act on climate change

By Laura Baisas

Close up of a newly discovered orchid species named Spiranthes hachijoensis with pink petals,

This new species of pink orchid looks like delicate glasswork

By Laura Baisas

A Wedge-tailed Eagle, a large vulture native to Australia.

An extinct 10-foot-long eagle could pick up kangaroos with its terrifying talons

By Laura Baisas

A winning picture of mutated pollen grains, colorized, from the Koch Institute Image Awards.

Under a microscope, mouse colons and mutant pollen become art

By Popular Science Team

Red and speckled blue and black poison dart frog looking up from a light green leaf

Poisonous animals probably took their sweet time developing unappetizing bright colors

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A French bulldog puppy running.

America has a favorite new dog breed, and it’s slightly problematic

By Laura Baisas

A mosquito biting a human arm.

How can we control mosquitos? Deactivate their sperm.

By Laura Baisas

This dinosaur’s record-breaking neck defies the laws of nature

This dinosaur’s record-breaking neck defies the laws of nature

By Sara Kiley Watson

Four male common fruit flies in a chain trying to mate with each other after being exposed to ozone air pollution

Horny male fruit flies plunge into chaos when exposed to air pollution

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Gorillas like to scramble their brains by spinning around really fast

Gorillas like to scramble their brains by spinning around really fast

By Sara Kiley Watson

Atomic structure image of Mycobacterium smegmatis Huc enzyme

This common bacteria is teaching scientists how to turn air into energy

Fungus gnat on a white flower petal

Flies evolved before dinosaurs—and survived an apocalyptic world after the Permian extinction

By Sara Kiley Watson

A black widow spider side by side with a brown widow spiders, a fellow species in the same genus, Latrodectus.

Black widows battle their even deadlier cousins in a brutal spider war

By Laura Baisas

How growing antlers on mice could lead to new treatments for humans

How growing antlers on mice could lead to new treatments for humans

By Travis Hall / Field&Stream

A warm of bees on a honeycomb.

Older bees teach younger bees the ‘waggle dance’

By Laura Baisas

This fossilized ‘ancient animal’ might be a bunch of old seaweed

This fossilized ‘ancient animal’ might be a bunch of old seaweed

By Sara Kiley Watson

A young child hiding behind a stack of pancakes with syrup and fruit on a background of old polaroids

Why childhood memories of smells are so powerful and emotional

By Julia Craven

Ecologists have declared war on this popular decorative tree

Ecologists have declared war on this popular decorative tree

By Ryan W. McEwan / The Conversation

Whitespotted eagle ray swimming in the ocean.

Scientists test different gear for protecting clams from ‘crunching’ rays

By Laura Baisas

A group of mice eats a scone.

Forget black coffee—a hormone shot helped tipsy rodents sober up

By Laura Baisas

A worm at the bottom of a shot glass of Mezcal.

What kind of worm is in your mezcal?

By Laura Baisas

Three honeybees fly near a crocus in a field.

Like the first flying humans, honeybees use linear landmarks to navigate

By Laura Baisas

Two orca whales, one with it's head and flukes above the water and the other with its nose out of the water.

Toothed whales turned their vocal fry into a hunting superpower

By Laura Baisas

A giant lacewing as seen under a microscope. The insect is a moth relative with large wings.

A bug expert went shopping at Walmart—and made a historic insect discovery

By Laura Baisas

The partner of one Caribbean flamingo helps it out in an argument with another pair.

Flamingoes have big personalities—and their friendships prove it

By Laura Baisas

A white-bellied woodstar hummingbird flying. Their colorful throat feathers are believed to help them find a mate.

This hybrid hummingbird’s colorful feathers are a genetic puzzle

By Laura Baisas

Gloved hands placing computer microchip on underneath microscope lens.

Scientists eye lab-grown brains to replace silicon-based computer chips

A glassy-winged sharpshooter rests on a leaf.

Watch these tiny bugs catapult urine with their butts

By Laura Baisas

the spotify app on a phone screen

Spotify wants to understand your body on music

By Charlotte Hu

A moniker fairy lantern plant detonates, with its petals unfurling.

Scientists just rediscovered a rare, fungi-eating ‘fairy lantern’

By Laura Baisas

Purple sea urchins clumped together in an urchin barren.

These urchin-eating sea stars might be helping us reduce carbon levels

An illustration of Hyneria udlezinye, a large, predatory fish, with smaller fish in the Waterloo Farm ecosystem in South Africa about 360 million years ago.

A gator-faced fish shaped like a torpedo stalked rivers 360 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

Several European spruce bark beetles on a dry piece of wood.

These beetles sniff out fungus-infected trees to find their next target

By Laura Baisas

A European hedgehog on a road with a yellow flower.

Why Danish citizen scientists were on a quest to find the oldest European hedgehog

By Laura Baisas

A mother chimpanzee with her offspring, which she may teach her style of handclasping.

Popular chimpanzees set hand-holding trends for the whole group

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Studying fighter pilot physiology could help us understand astronaut brains

Studying fighter pilot physiology could help us understand astronaut brains

By Laura Baisas

Singapore’s new plan to fight mosquito-borne diseases: bug-infecting bacteria

Singapore’s new plan to fight mosquito-borne diseases: bug-infecting bacteria

By Marta Zaraska / Undark

A woma pythron, a large, nocturnal species of snake on the ground by a piece of wood.

Snakes can actually hear really well

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of two theropod species discovered by scientists at the University of Southampton in 2021, Ceratosuchops inferodios and Riparovenator milnerae.

What was going on inside of this spinosaur’s brain?

By Laura Baisas

A Eurasian lynch perches in a fallen tree in a forest.

The endangered Eurasian lynx might never recover fully in France

By Laura Baisas

Lion's mane mushrooms on a table.

Lion’s mane mushroom shows promise in boosting brain cell growth

By Laura Baisas

Fossil hippo skeleton and associated Oldowan artifacts at the Nyayanga site in July 2016.

2.9 million-year-old tools found in Kenya stir up a ‘fascinating whodunnit’

By Laura Baisas

A woman in a field observes a plant.

Citizen science is another great form of nature therapy

By Laura Baisas

Two giraffes on a sunny day with one looking directly at the viewer.

Why giraffe sex is a tall order and hinges on pee

By Laura Baisas

Two orca whales swim in the ocean with mountains in the distance.

Raising male offspring comes at a high price for orca mothers

By Laura Baisas

A beefsteak fungus growing in a forest.

Bacteria and fungi are the first to start rebuilding charred forests

By Laura Baisas

An uncooked brown crab sitting among among seaweed and water.

Neanderthals caught and cooked crabs 90,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A wolf-like puppy surrounded by other puppies tries howling.

Do domesticated dogs howl back at wolves?

By Laura Baisas

A scan of a mastodon skeleton with an arrow pointing to the trajectory of the spear.

Ancient humans used mastodon bones to hunt the giant beasts

By Laura Baisas

A fossilized fish brain alongside of a penny for size comparison.

Scientists find 319-million-year-old fossilized fish brain

By Laura Baisas

The racist history behind using biology in criminology

The racist history behind using biology in criminology

By Michael Schulson/Undark

Two small prairie voles.

These fuzzy burrowers don’t need oxytocin to fall in love

By Laura Baisas

Brown cat and white cat fighting and playing in a sunny room

Fun or feud? These are the tell-tail signs that a catfight has gone sour.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A seaweed farm underwater near an island in Indonesia.

Why seaweed farming could be the next big thing in sustainability

By Laura Baisas

Artist's reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae surviving six months of winter darkness in the extinct warm temperate ecosystem of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada.

These primate ancestors were totally chill with a colder climate

By Laura Baisas

Two long, dark, Koh Tao worm salamanders on a swampy soil

One wormy Triassic fossil could fill a hole in the evolutionary story of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses

By Emma Foehringer Merchant / Undark

A chimpanzee holding out its hand.

Adolescent chimpanzees might be less impulsive than human teens

By Laura Baisas

Stowaway mice carry DNA evidence of an ancient black market fur trade

Stowaway mice carry DNA evidence of an ancient black market fur trade

By Gemma Conroy / Hakai Magazine