Biology (Page 23)

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

Latest in Biology

a colorful illustration of two bipedal dinosaurs

This pterosaur ancestor was a tiny, flightless dog-like dinosaur

By Laura Baisas

Water droplets rising from Iceland's Skogafoss waterfall.

Here’s how life on Earth might have formed out of thin air and water

By Laura Baisas

Diver holding animal skull

Below Madagascar, cave divers surface secrets of the past

Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientist who sequenced Neanderthal genome

Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientist who sequenced Neanderthal genome

By Laura Baisas

a termite's head is seen poking out from a channel in wood

Termites work through wood faster when it’s hotter out

By Lauren J. Young

2022 Ig Nobel Prize winners include ducks in a row, constipated scorpions, ice cream, and more

2022 Ig Nobel Prize winners include ducks in a row, constipated scorpions, ice cream, and more

By Laura Baisas

three rows of agar plates of various orange hues that are covered in different types of mold or fungui

These fungi demand more pumpkin in their pumpkin spice lattes

By Lauren J. Young

Woman vomiting a pastel rainbow upwards on a pink background

Why you want to barf when you see something gross

By Julia Craven

Queen Elizabeth II coffin being moved from hearse to military plane following death in Scotland

How do you preserve a famous person’s body?

By Dan Nosowitz

Mosquito close-up

Can a bold new plan to stop mosquitoes catch on?

By Lauren J. Young

Husky dogs pulling a sled in a snowy landscape

How the logic of ‘winter selection’ shaped centuries of bad science

By Joseph L. Graves Jr.

First study of cancer-detecting blood test shows hopeful results

First study of cancer-detecting blood test shows hopeful results

By Laura Baisas

illustration of free-falling woman

Why do we love watching people defy death?

By Leigh Cowart

A child wears a mask and sanitizes hands to avoid getting sick.

The back-to-school guide for fighting common viruses

By Jeanette Beebe

Kid in lavender shirt stretching toy orange slime out with hands

The slimy history of human beings and mucus

By Omer Gokcumen / The Conversation

Coast of Lake Superior

The untouched ‘wilderness’ of the Great Lakes is an illusion

By Dave Dempsey

European red fox crouched on concrete and looking directly into the camera

Can invasive species ever be ‘good’?

You might have a doppelgänger who shares your DNA

You might have a doppelgänger who shares your DNA

By Laura Baisas

Skull research sheds light on human-Neanderthal interbreeding

Skull research sheds light on human-Neanderthal interbreeding

By Laura Baisas

a semi-translucent fish with a tadpole-shaped body and small flecks of red and yellow

Biofluorescent snailfish brave Arctic waters with built-in antifreeze

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

a black and white ghostly image of a jumping spider hanging by a thin silk strand in a sleep-like state

Jumping spiders might be able to sleep—perchance to dream

By Lauren J. Young

A sauropod like Galeamopus would have walked on soft pads.

Cushy feet supported sauropods’ gigantic bodies

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Certain types of pig cells were revived after the animals died.

Pigs died after heart attacks. Scientists brought their cells back to life.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Small European panda from 6 million years ago in a painting

Pandas weren’t always bamboo fiends

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Great white shark breaching while trying to bite a seal

Great white shark sightings are up in the US, which is kind of good news

A clay pot filled with milk, with a spoon of milk over it.

Ancient milk-drinkers were just fine with their lactose intolerance–until famine struck

By Philip Kiefer

a close up of a fossil horse tooth

A centuries-old horse tooth holds clues to the mystery of the Chincoteague ponies

By Kate Baggaley

human oocytes seen under a microscope. on the left is a normal image, and on the right is the cell dyed and fluorescing to show the amount of reactive oxygen species

Human eggs have a ‘standby battery mode’ that allows them to last decades

By Lauren J. Young

Tiktaalik’s ancient cousin decided life was better in the water

Tiktaalik’s ancient cousin decided life was better in the water

By Kate Baggaley

White shepherd or collie dog with tongue hanging out in front of blue background ad swirling dog memories

Do cats and dogs remember their past?

By Brandon Keim

an illustration of an early mammal creature with fur and a few sharp teeth, breathing out a puff of air indicating cold weather. a bug flies in the corner

Mammals’ ears may hold the secret to warm-bloodedness

By Kate Baggaley

Fossil frog skeleton in rock from German swamp

A swamp orgy went terribly wrong for these prehistoric frogs

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

a sperm whale swimming under water

Megalodons liked to snack on sperm whale snouts

By Rachel Feltman

A winged insect fossil in rock is about 300 million years old, a fossil example of an early animal to take flight.

When insects got wings, evolution really took off

a siberian husky in the snow howls

Ancient wolf DNA is being used to sniff out where our love story with dogs began

By Kate Baggaley

a large black stick bug isolated on a black background

Macro portraits reveal the glamor and peril of endangered insects

By Lauren J. Young

a close up of a face mite poking out of a skin pore

The mites that breed on our faces are getting clingier by the day

By Lauren J. Young

a turtle with a bit of moss on its face

Could reptiles and amphibians hold the key to the fountain of youth?

By Kate Baggaley

x-ray of impacted wisdom tooth

We finally know why we grow wisdom teeth as adults

By Sara Chodosh

What an ancient jawbone reveals about polar bear evolution

What an ancient jawbone reveals about polar bear evolution

By Philip Kiefer

Images from the May 1963 issue of Popular Science.

From the archives: The discovery of DNA’s structure explained how life ‘knows’ what to do

By Bill Gourgey

Faafafine individual at Auckland, New Zealand pride parade

Sex and gender binaries don’t tell the entire story of life

By Rachel Feltman

The 1918 flu outbreak, in which patients were kept in quarantine wards like this, was one of the world's deadliest pandemics.

A viral descendent of the deadly 1918 flu is probably still going around

husky staring at you intently

The biggest myth about dog breeds

Early meteors impacting Earth.

Meteorites older than the solar system contain key ingredients for life

By Tatyana Woodall

Two crows attacking a feeding bald eagle along the water

Crows and ravens flexed smarts and strength for world dominance

Shifting ancient climates shaped human evolution

Shifting ancient climates shaped human evolution

By Philip Kiefer

fluorescent view of an archerfish's skeleton and anatomy

An archerfish family tree is the best shot yet at the evolution of sniper fish

Dogs know exactly what they’re doing when they give you the ‘puppy eyes’

Dogs know exactly what they’re doing when they give you the ‘puppy eyes’

By Lauren J. Young

Eight brightly colored birds from a museum specimens collection laid out on their backs on white

Songbirds near the equator really are hotter, color-wise

By Kate Baggaley

small delicate, partially translucent mushrooms growing on a log

This South Pacific island could help us understand how fungi evolve

By Lauren J. Young

Two mid-sized brown owls sitting on a branch in daylight with horses, rhinos, and soaring birds in the background in an illustration

Meet the ancient owl that embraced daylight

By Purbita Saha

How vampire bats evolved to get the most out of their bloody diets

By Kate Baggaley

diver take a photo video upon colorful coral kapoposang indonesia scuba diving

Why ocean researchers want to create a global library of undersea sounds

By Charlotte Hu

A galloping horse.

Ancient sea creatures pioneered the gallop

By Kate Baggaley

Prehistoric vampire squid swimming in the Paleozoic ocean in an illustration

Slap another cephalopod on the vampire squid’s family tree

By Lauren J. Young

Proteus underwater lab design mockup

Jacques Cousteau’s grandson is building a network of ocean floor research stations

By Charlotte Hu

An orange starfish on a rock.

Classifying invertebrates is hard. Butts can help.

By Philip Kiefer

a brown bat in flight

The secret to these bats’ hunting prowess is deep within their ears

By Kate Baggaley

A fossil with a series of diagonal slashes cut into one corner.

Eating meat may not have been as crucial to human evolution as we thought

By Philip Kiefer

a graphic rendering of a orange-colored cancer cell being attacked by a gray immune cell

Scientists discover how a cell may cheat its own death

Paleontological researchers on a volcanic mound in Ethiopia's Kibish Formation, where some of the oldest Homo sapiens have been discovered

Eastern Africa’s oldest human fossils are more ancient than we realized

By Kate Baggaley

A crab with huge eyes on the front of its face swimming after a shrimp with a big head.

This 90-million-year-old crab had the eyes of a hunter

By Philip Kiefer

half of a circle with concentric rings of brown, gold, and amber radiating outwards

These sophisticated bacteria communities assemble in tie-dye formation

By Maggie Galloway