Biology (Page 2)

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

Latest in Biology

Artist illustration of American cheetah hunting a horse in mountain landscape

Ancient American cheetahs were not exactly cheetah-like

Ethel the split-colored lobster (left) and Gertrude the blue (right) were donated to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Pair of rare, colorful lobsters have a new home in Maine

By Laura Baisas

a mother bear stands up on two hind legs and walks into the water, with two cubs following her

Katmai brown bear cubs learning how to ‘walk on water’ to nab salmon

By Laura Baisas

an eagle stands on a perch

California Wildlife Day to honor beloved bald eagle Jackie

By Laura Baisas

a bird with white and black feathers flies over the water with a fish in its beak

Tweet! Here are the winners of the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

Woman resting in pool with arms crossed to show smartwatch

Your smartwatch may be overestimating calories burned by 25 percent

Vintage portrait headshots of different men and women on a yellow background.

What shapes your personality? Your genes and environment play a big role.

By Jessica Craig

a small fish with silver and rainbow scales

These fish rely on teamwork to find food in murky water

By Laura Baisas

a small black fish on a sandy ocean bottom

NOAA scientists spot ‘outrageously tiny’ fish

By Laura Baisas

a bear walking by a wave on the beach

History-making mother bear could be big Fat Bear Week 2026 contender

By Laura Baisas

three images of a raccoon being rescued from a drain grate. he is stuck in the first, a team is helping him in the second, and is free in the third

Raccoon rescued after sticking its head in a Cape Cod drain grate

By Margherita Bassi

High definition image of a snake embryo

Biologists discover why snake embryos always coil to the right

a black bear walking on a grassy area

Virginia scientists discover the cues black bears use for hibernation

By Margherita Bassi

a frog sits in a lake. it has a brown body with black spots

Over 10,000 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs are taking California by storm

By Margherita Bassi

a woman swims up to a large whale shark and puts a tag on its fin

How do you tag the world’s biggest fish? Fins and flexibility.

By Laura Baisas

Clean cotton underwear beside a shovel beside decomposing cotton underwear, all on green grass

‘Proof by Underpants’ offers a cheeky way to test soil

an aerial photo of a whale shark swimming. it has a large wide mouth, and a blue-gray body with white spots

Over 2,000 animals spotted off the coast of Cape Cod

By Margherita Bassi

LOS ANGELES - 1978: Country singer Dolly Parton poses for a portrait session in 1978 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images)

Butterfly wing crystals inspire new eco-friendly glitter

a female bald eagle sits on a nest with a feather in one of her nostrils

Kaydee the bald eagle visits Shadow’s nest with a feather in her nostril

By Laura Baisas

Starlings (‘Sturnus vulgaris’) fly up from a meadow in the early morning. The migratory birds were seen currently gathering for their journey to the southern wintering grounds in Germany on October 10, 2020.

Over 200 million migratory birds are hitting the sky this week

By Laura Baisas

a turtle with a telemetry device on its shell

How do you find Eastern box turtle nests? You’ll need a spool of thread.

By Margherita Bassi

an eagle sitting on a nest tilts her head to the side

Bald eagle Kaydee inspects camera, helps Shadow arrange sticks

By Laura Baisas

Hand holding 3D-printed cookie made from ingredients derived from plastic

Engineers 3D-printed edible cookies from plastic

a marmot stands on sticks

Vote for your favorite chonky rodent during Fat Marmot Week

By Margherita Bassi

bright strands of DNA

Lab-made DNA can store memory like a flash drive

By Sara Hashemi

Researchers make a ticklishness body map

By Margherita Bassi

a large male bear stands in a river

New Fat Bear Week children’s book turns Katmai’s famous bears into wrestlers

By Laura Baisas

raccoons wrestling one another at night

Baby raccoon wrestling shenanigans caught on wildlife center camera

By Margherita Bassi

a long reddish-brown snake coiled on a leaf

New snake species named in honor of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash

By Laura Baisas

a bear eating a salmon

Meet Bucky Dent, one of Katmai’s most innovative bears

By Laura Baisas

a fly with large eyes looks through a hole in a green leaf

11 stunning images celebrating Earth’s life—and the scientists who study it

By Popular Science Team

Ginger fluffy cat showing the flehmen response after picking up a curious scent.

Scientists pinpoint the chemicals behind a cat’s signature urine smell

By Laura Baisas

A male person with an artificial model of a human pelvis.

Male Neanderthal hips looked more like a human woman’s hips

a pod of six narwhals swimming in blue-green water

Narwhal tusks are twisty, magical mathematical marvels

By Laura Baisas

White woman, man, and child sitting on a tree branch in clothing made from scraps with a chimp.

In 1926, a Russian biologist tried to create a human-chimpanzee hybrid

By Nidhi Sharma

the backs of two eagles in a tree

Bald eagle Shadow and new female KD1 sing a morning song

By Laura Baisas

two brown bears nuzzling each other

Don’t worry, Katmai’s brown bears didn’t vanish from Brooks Falls

By Laura Baisas

a long thin transluscent eel with pink-ish coloring

TikTok helps scientists discover new underground, translucent eel in India

By Laura Baisas

a blue-colored crayfish. it has pincers like a lobster and long antennae

Scientists put tiny backpacks on crayfish

By Sara Hashemi

a whale sticks its head out of the water

Southern right whales have bumpy ‘fingerprints’ on their heads

By Margherita Bassi

boy wearing red sweater whistling playing ukulele

Can’t whistle? It’s not you, it’s mouth geometry.

By Jennifer Byrne

a woman holing a yellow potato

Eating potatoes reshaped the DNA of Indigenous Andeans

By Sara Hashemi

MUNICH, GERMANY - APRIL 02: The burial mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun is shown during the 'Tutanchamun - Sein Grab und die Schaetze' Exhibition Preview at Kleine Olympiahalle on April 2, 2015 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images)

Illegal mummy trafficking may curse buyers with mold, not magic

a diorama of a sperm whale eating a giant squid

How one of the American Museum of Natural History’s most terrifying dioramas get clean

By Laura Baisas

an eagle on a nest with its head down

Who is KD1, the bald eagle spotted in Jackie and Shadow’s nest?

By Laura Baisas

a butterfly with orange, black, and white coloring and wearing a long, thin radio transmitter sits on a green plant

Putting tiny backpacks on butterflies—for science

By Margherita Bassi

a bear cub sits by a tree with porcupine quills in its hand

Katmai bear cub spotted with a paw full of porcupine quills

By Laura Baisas

two frogs mating on a tree branch

‘Less desirable’ males confuse female treefrogs looking for a mate

By Laura Baisas

two men with orange life jackets on in a river holding a large gray fish

300-year-old sturgeon are swimming around the Great Lakes

By Laura Baisas

a hermit crab grabbing a plant that looks like a mushroom

Hermit crab poop spreads a parasitic plant’s seeds

By Laura Baisas

two eagles on a nest

Jackie the bald eagle dead at 14

By Laura Baisas

a small brown rodent standing on dirt

The cute, tiny Texas kangaroo rat needs help

By Sara Hashemi

two lizards with brown with yellow-green coloring sitting on a branch

New lizard named after colorful ‘House of the Dragon’ character

By Laura Baisas

four dogs with black and white fur sitting on grass in front of bushes

Dogs can tell if you’re angry, scared, or sad

a baby penguin chick with fuzzy gray feathers sits on a pink towel

New ‘desert’ penguin chick arrives in Seattle

By Margherita Bassi

a moth flying up to a white flower

These furry moths smell with their wings

By Sara Hashemi

a bald eagle on a nest

Jackie the bald eagle’s blood values drop again, still in critical condition

By Laura Baisas

a baby sea turtle in the sand

What to do if you find a baby turtle

By Margherita Bassi

a small shore bird with white, grey, and black feathers with orange legs and an orange beak

Piping plover beats the odds after losing feet in fishing line

By Laura Baisas

a sub adult eagle sitting on a nest

Outside eagle spotted on Jackie and Shadow’s nest

By Laura Baisas

Rare blue lobster gets another shot at life in the ocean

By Sara Hashemi

a woman wearing glasses with red lights on them

Infrared glasses could push the boundaries of human eyesight

By Mack DeGeurin

a bird with white and black feathers and bright red feet stands on a tree branch

Rare tropical red-footed booby spotted in Maryland

By Laura Baisas

two eagles perched on a tree branch

Bald eaglets Sandy and Luna leave Big Bear Valley, Shadow gets a little vacation

By Laura Baisas