Biology (Page 3)

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

Latest in Biology

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

Fluorescent image of nematode

‘Space worms’ are en route to the International Space Station

an eagle feeing two eaglets in a nest

Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to know about the new eaglets

By Laura Baisas

A common snapping turtle crosses the road after laying eggs.

How to help a turtle cross the road

By Laura Baisas

A medium-shot photograph shows a smiling senior woman with blonde hair riding a black bicycle through a park. She is wearing a black puffer jacket and grey trousers, and she is looking ahead with a joyful expression. The background is a soft blur of green grass and dark leafy bushes, emphasizing the motion of the bike.

Why you never forget how to ride a bike

A portrait-style photograph shows a life-like reconstruction of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, against a dark, blurred background. The figure is shown from the chest up, with its head turned to look over its shoulder toward the camera. It has prominent brow ridges, a flat nose, and large, dark, expressive eyes. Its skin is a dark tan, and its head and body are covered in short, reddish-brown hair.

Why humans don’t have tails

By Sara Kiley Watson

Lystrosaurus embryo within its partially preserved shell , reconstruction of the animal. Credit: Professor Julien Benoit and Sophie Vrard

Proto-mammals laid eggs, paleontologists finally confirm

Illustration of two astronauts sitting on toilets while looking at their phones

Even astronauts get constipated in space

A side-by-side composite image features a portrait of naturalist Sir David Attenborough on the left and the bird named in his honor, the Inambari Gnatcatcher (Polioptila attenboroughi), on the right. Attenborough is shown smiling against a bright blue background, while the small, grey and white gnatcatcher is perched on a tree branch among green leaves in its Brazilian habitat.

6 famous people with animals named in their honor

By Margherita Bassi

a pink orchid with delicate petals

Beware, bees! This wildflower will trap you in a floral escape room.

By Margherita Bassi

three blue-green eggs in a nest sitting in a tree

10 wild photos of bird eggs

By Popular Science Team

a close up of a baby chick

Baby chicks like gentle pets—like really gentle

By Margherita Bassi

Close up of braces on Hispanic boy's teeth. He's wearing a blue collared shirt and there's light streaming in behind him. All we see is the bottom of his nose and chin.

Ancient humans didn’t need braces. So why do we?

By Popular Science Team

frog eggs floating on a pond. they are clear blobs with a black dot inside

Nature’s strangest eggs—from spongy clusters to gelatinous blobs

By Laura Baisas

Fish climbing upstream against rock wall

These tiny fish climb waterfall cliffs for 10 hours

The talons of an immature bald eagle.

Rescued birds treated to a pedicure—or talon trim

By Margherita Bassi

an illustration of a prehistoric spider relative

500-million-year-old spider relative has claws where it shouldn’t

By Laura Baisas

a baby squirrel with brown fur sits on a man's shoulder

Baby squirrels are here! Here’s what to do if you find one.

By Margherita Bassi

a smiling man in a yellow hooded sweatshirt wears a virtual reality headset over his eyes

Skull vibrations could be your next password

By Laura Baisas

24 new species of deep sea organisms. they are small and resemble shrimp

New crustacean named after its unique butt

By Laura Baisas

Healthcare, hand and iv with a patient in a hospital bed for recovery or rehabilitation closeup. Medical, wellness and treatment with a sick person lying in a clinic on a saline solution drip.

Parasitic sleeping sickness creates ‘invisibility cloak’ to hide in humans for years

a close up of a tortoise covered in dirt

Volunteers finally find Betty White—the rescue tortoise

By Laura Baisas

two owls sit on a metal table with their wings up

Spunky baby owls examined after being found on soccer field

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of Neanderthal tribe butchering large elephant near lake

Neanderthals hunted giant elephants in Europe

a bird with long legs and green feathers standing on a rock

Student discovers new Galápagos bird, solving a decades-old mystery

By Laura Baisas

A tight, candid close-up captures three Black men of different generations leaning their heads together in shared laughter. The man in the center is older with a grey beard, flanked by two younger men. All three have their eyes closed or squinted with joy, showcasing genuine, broad smiles and visible teeth. The image has a warm, intimate feel, emphasizing a strong emotional connection.

Why is laughter contagious? Blame your brain.

By Clarissa Brincat

An artist’s interpretation of mammals that lived during the last Ice Age. Fossils from similar species of an armadillo-like pampathere (bottom left) and giant ground sloth (background) were among those found in a recent study of a Texas water cave. Credit: Adapted from artwork by Jaime Chirinos

Giant armadillo, mastodon, and sloth fossils found in flooded Texas cave

a sperm whale calf swims under its mother

Baby sperm whale birth captured in groundbreaking video

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of sperm cells around egg

Sperm loses its sense of direction in space

Nine blue dots on purple background

How many blue dots do you see? New optical illusion tricks the brain.

One of the dogs sampled in the paper from the Skateholm site in Sweden, buried alongside a human.

Europe’s first domesticated dogs arrived over 3,000 years earlier than we thought

By Laura Baisas

a stylized photo of a woman sleeping

Vivid dreams trick your brain into thinking you slept well

By Laura Baisas

a herd of bison running by a car

What to do if you encounter a bison

By Laura Baisas

Red tulips blooming in the tulip fields in the northern Netherlands. Tulips rely on increasing temperatures to know when to bloom.

How plants know when to bloom

By Laura Baisas

A sperm whale and a photographer in the Atlantic Ocean near Portugal.

First-of-its-kind video confirms sperm whales really do headbutt

By Laura Baisas

a green insect (left) the same insect, but it has changed to pink (right)

Green insect turns a puzzling shade of hot pink

By Nidhi Sharma

a larger brown-ish sea turtle sits on an exam table

Hello Helvetica! Vets name rescued sea turtles named after fonts

By Nidhi Sharma

a postage stamp with a bison on it

New stamp honors Yellowstone’s iconic bison

By Nidhi Sharma

two mating frogs with the male grasping on to the female

Even humans love a good mating call

By Laura Baisas

a coyote pup with brown fur tilts its head

Coyote pupping season is here. You can help keep them safe.

By Laura Baisas

Cute labradoodle puppy dog laying down looking sad or thoughtful

Cockapoos, doodles, and other crossbreeds have behavioral problems, too

The bark of birch trees has been used to produce tar for more than 150,000 years. The center photo shows birch bark tar condensed onto a rock that borders a hearth. When scraped off the rocks, the viscous tar can be used as both an adhesive and antibiotic.

Neanderthals used antibiotics, new experiment suggests

By Laura Baisas

Adult bull shark ‘Chunky’ (foreground) parallel swimming with subadult female ‘Lady Lazarus’ (background).

Bull sharks make ‘friends’—and prefer females to males

By Laura Baisas

An adult male blue crab attempts to cannibalize a smaller blue crab on a tether.

Blue crabs have a serious cannibalism problem

By Laura Baisas

a blue whale swimming

Marine biologists spot rare blue whales off Massachusetts coast

By Margherita Bassi

A conceptual photograph of a young woman with light-colored hair and a tattoo on her forearm, wearing a white t-shirt against a plain white background. The image uses a multiple-exposure effect to create several overlapping, translucent silhouettes of her figure, conveying a sense of disorientation, dizziness, or blurred vision. She has a pained or nauseated facial expression and is resting her head against her hand.

Why some people get motion sickness—and others don’t

By Laura Kiniry

a bird chick sits on a nest

The world’s oldest wild bird has a new grandchick

By Margherita Bassi

several birds flying overhead while a bird sits on its nest with a chick

11 wild photos show the Amazon River in its glory

By Popular Science Team

A wolf chases magpies and ravens from an elk carcass near Soda Butte.

Yellowstone’s ravens may memorize wolf hunting hotspots—to feast

By Nidhi Sharma

A close-up photograph of a Halobates, an ocean water strider, resting on the surface of the water. The insect has a long, slender dark body and very thin, wire-like legs that create slight indentations on the water's surface tension. Its reflection is visible on the surface, and the background is a soft, out-of-focus light blue and white.

Do any bugs live in the ocean? Short answer: Not really.

By Andrew Coletti

Illustration showing ancient hominid drinking water at river's edge with crocodile lurking nearby in the water

An odd-nosed crocodile ate our prehistoric ancestors

a screenshot of a website showing a human brain, heart, colon, lung, kidney, prostate, placenta, and liver

Explore the human body in stunning, 3D detail with a new online tool

By Laura Baisas

a grizzly bear stands on a bison carcass

Yellowstone’s first grizzly bear of 2026 emerges from his den

By Laura Baisas

A close-up photograph of a young child with blonde hair smiling broadly, revealing several missing front baby teeth. The child is playfully covering their eyes with both hands, with a plain grey wall in the background.

Why do we even have baby teeth?

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

Scientists suggest modifying cars to hit fewer hedgehogs

By Margherita Bassi

A newly described African species in the magic mushroom family confirms its evolutionary origin. Psilocybe ochraceocentrata is found growing on cattle dung in the grasslands of southern Africa and Zimbabwe.

New psychedelic fungus rewrites origins of magic mushrooms

An Ixodes tick (left). An Asian tiger mosquito. (right)

What a cold winter means for ticks and mosquitoes

By Laura Baisas

a black bird sits on a tree

These birds listen to their parents to avoid being eaten

By Margherita Bassi

Two photos next to each other. One is a man laying on grass next to longest snake in the world for scale reference. The other is a with portion of the world's longest snake draped over his shoulder in the jungle

Longest snake ever measured is over 23.5 feet long

a turtle wearing a 3D printed wheel chair

A 3D-printed wheelchair is helping this turtle walk again

By Mack DeGeurin