Biology (Page 26)

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

Latest in Biology

A small lizard called the Puerto Rican crested anole sits on a human-made fence.

When these reptiles became city lizards, it changed their genes

By Laura Baisas

Geologists collecting Permian fossils on a Tibetan plateau

UV radiation might be behind the planet’s biggest mass extinction

The Jewel Damselfish on off of a rat-free island.

Invasive rats are making some reef fish more peaceful, and that’s bad, actually

By Laura Baisas

A pig looking up from a muddy field.

A new synthetic material could help fix broken penises—at least in pigs

By Laura Baisas

A lush green fjord in Norway with a wooden longship.

Some modern-day Scandinavians lack the ancestral diversity of Vikings

By Laura Baisas

Yellow chlorovirus particles infecting microscopic green algae

These microbes could be the first lifeforms to munch on infectious viruses

By Laura Baisas

The National Institutes of Health is studying dogs to learn more about aging and genetics in people

The National Institutes of Health is studying dogs to learn more about aging and genetics in people

By Helen Bradshaw

College textbooks aren’t keeping up with the severity of the global climate crisis

College textbooks aren’t keeping up with the severity of the global climate crisis

By Carla Delgado

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

By Chris Baraniuk / Hakai Magazine

A pink iguana in green grass at Galápagos National Park in Ecuador.

Pink Iguana hatchlings spotted for the first time on the Galápagos in decades

By Laura Baisas

It’s easier than ever to make DNA from scratch—but what are the risks?

It’s easier than ever to make DNA from scratch—but what are the risks?

By Michael Schulson/Undark

Zebrafish swimming in an aquarium.

A primitive part of the zebrafish brain helps them find their way home

By Laura Baisas

A young orangutan in a tree.

Why do humans talk? Tree-dwelling orangutans might hold the answer.

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of adult and young of the ichthyosaur species (Shonisaurus popularis) chasing ammonoid prey 230 million years ago, in what is now Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada.

Millions of years ago, marine reptiles may have used Nevada as a birthing ground

By Laura Baisas

Giant gray cat snuggling a child with black hair in an orange sweater to show their cat-human bond. Illustration.

Your cat is probably more attached to you than you think

By Brandon Keim

What’s in a genome? The quest to decipher human difference

What’s in a genome? The quest to decipher human difference

By Michael Schulson/Undark

a young male chimp eating in a tree

Foraging in trees might have pushed human ancestors to walk on two feet

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Scientists just found out female snakes have two clitorises

Scientists just found out female snakes have two clitorises

By Laura Baisas

A reconstructed image of Ramsayia, alongside a modern day wombat.

Giant wombats the size of small cars once roamed Australia

By Laura Baisas

Large fossilized fragments of free swimming arthropods

Newly discovered fossils give a whole new meaning to jumbo shrimp

By Laura Baisas

a collage of six plates of agar growing colorful bacteria that has been intentionally grown in artistic shapes. some of the plates include representations of jellyfish and neurons. there's also abstract art like two plates representing a connection between mother and child

These intricate ‘living’ paintings are teeming with microscopic organisms

A Labrador and a terrier play with a rope toy.

How breeding dogs for certain traits may have altered their brains

By Laura Baisas

Woolly mammoths in forests in Greenland after eDNA reconstruction. The scene is an illustration.

Oldest DNA ever sampled paints a lush portrait of a lost Arctic world

The last Tasmanian tiger’s remains were finally found—in a cupboard

The last Tasmanian tiger’s remains were finally found—in a cupboard

By Laura Baisas

Brightly colored tropical fish in a coral reef

To save coral reefs, color the larvae

By Laura Baisas

The tortoise, the myth, the legend: Jonathan turns 190

The tortoise, the myth, the legend: Jonathan turns 190

By Laura Baisas

This dinosaur dove like a duck

This dinosaur dove like a duck

By Laura Baisas

Plastic bottles and fishing nets and other trash on sea beach

Plastic microfibers in the Mediterranean Sea are keeping bacteria afloat

By Lauren J. Young

Artist’s impression of Cryptovaranoides when it was alive

A key to lizard evolution was buried in a museum cupboard for 70 years

By Laura Baisas

The newest member of the T. rex family has piercing eyes

The newest member of the T. rex family has piercing eyes

By Laura Baisas

Steller's Sea Cow

Meet the extinct sea cow that cultivated Pacific kelp forests

By Laura Baisas

Ancient army ant

Eyeless army ants chomped their way through Europe millions of years ago

By Laura Baisas

Kimberella fossil

Oldest evidence of digested plants in a roughly 575-million-year-old creature’s gut

By Laura Baisas

A giant prehistoric salamander

These pleasantly plump salamanders dominated the Cretaceous period

By Laura Baisas

Big ancient turtle

Gigantic fossils hint at super-sized 7,000-pound sea turtle

By Laura Baisas

This 18-foot python’s last meal was a whole alligator

This 18-foot python’s last meal was a whole alligator

By Dac Collins / Outdoor Life

Children raising their hands in a classroom.

Kids learn faster than adults. This neurotransmitter could explain why.

By Laura Baisas

Monkeys with close friends have friendlier gut bacteria

Monkeys with close friends have friendlier gut bacteria

By Laura Baisas

Nine patients with paralysis walking again with aides in various environments after electrode therapy. Black and white.

The slow, but promising progress of electrode therapy for paralysis

a fuzzy bumblebee settles on a pink flower

Bees can sense a flower’s electric field—unless fertilizer messes with the buzz

By Lauren J. Young

A woman in a long sleeve white shirt reaches from bed to turn off her alarm clock.

The science behind our circadian rhythms, and why time changes mess them up

By Helen Bradshaw

Sex, not violence, could’ve sealed the fate of the Neanderthals

Sex, not violence, could’ve sealed the fate of the Neanderthals

By Laura Baisas

protein structure 3D

Meta’s AI could shake up how we study protein structures

By Charlotte Hu

A jaybird snacks

Eurasian jays show masterful intelligence in human psychology test

By Laura Baisas

A hellbender peers out with its blue eye from a rock

Hellbender salamanders may look scary, but the real fright is extinction

By Helen Bradshaw

Bellairsia gracilis

A Scottish fossil is helping scientists fill the gaps in the lizard family tree

By Laura Baisas

varying sizes of argonaut egg cases are lined up

Argonaut octopuses are enigmatic—down to their self-made ‘shells’

By Helen Bradshaw

a lioness with a mane

The rare case of a lioness with a mane

By Lauren J. Young

Rhododendrons blooming.

Multiple species of Rhododendron thrive by taking turns to bloom

By Laura Baisas

a closeup of honeybees on honeycomb

The first honeybee vaccine could protect the entire hive, starting with the queen

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

The hand of a day gecko, showing bones, tissues, and cells.

9 stunning pictures of the microscopic realm

By Popular Science Team

A compound derived from the Cordyceps fungus may have antiviral or antitumor properties.

An insect-eating fungus could help us fight viruses—and now we know how to grow it

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

brilliant-10-2022

The Brilliant 10: The top up-and-coming minds in science

By Mara Grunbaum, Yasmin Tayag

Illustrations of entwined snakes with black substance

6 surprising ways animals are adapting to a human-dominated world

By Jason Bittel

Volcano belching lava and gas above ocean to represent Great Oxygenation Event

Geologists are searching for when the Earth took its first breath

A young woman measures a child's height.

You can’t control your height, but 12,000 genetic variants probably do

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Our long childhoods could be linked to food-gathering skills

Our long childhoods could be linked to food-gathering skills

By Laura Baisas

Billions of years ago, Mars may have been bustling with climate-changing microbes

Billions of years ago, Mars may have been bustling with climate-changing microbes

By Laura Baisas

a great white shark under water

Watch what can happen when killer whales tangle with great white sharks

By Lauren J. Young

Silkworms like the one seen here spin cocoons of silk.

How researchers leveled up worm silk to be tougher than a spider’s

One secret to excellent memory in old age? Giant neurons.

One secret to excellent memory in old age? Giant neurons.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

The key to tastier beer might be mutant yeast—with notes of banana

The key to tastier beer might be mutant yeast—with notes of banana

By Laura Baisas

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