Biology

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

Latest in Biology

a litter of naked mole rats

4 wild ways animals breed

By Laura Baisas

Example of paired images used during free-view eyetracking study. These image pairs focused on participant reactions to spider versus other arthropods – (A) spider versus butterfly, (B) spider versus insect, (C) spider eyes versus insect eyes, (D) spider versus non-spider arachnid, and (E) spider versus myriapod. We also included a paired image of (F) scorpion versus non-scorpion arachnid to gain insight into whether participants respond differently to spiders versus scorpions (e.g., d vs. f).

Psychologists made people look at spiders. They didn’t like it.

Close up of man's hand on chin while he's thinking

Humans really don’t need chins

a zookeper places a piece of apple inside of an elephant's trunk

Elephants are smart. So are their whiskers.

By Laura Baisas

a whale swimming

The oldest-known humpback whale recording was hiding in an archive

By Laura Baisas

a monkey standing up on two legs in a forest

9 rare animals caught on camera in the ‘Amazon of Asia’

By Popular Science Team

Wild boars killed by a pellet gun is seen inside a booby trap at a residential area near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, March 30, 2017. (Photo by Richard Atrero de Guzman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nuclear hog hybrids are breeding at breakneck speed in Japan

a new species of lady bug. it is black and the size of a grain of sand

New ladybug species is the size of a grain of sand

By Margherita Bassi

a sea turtle swimming with a boat in the distance

The world’s smallest sea turtle lives in a noisy ocean

By Margherita Bassi

a cold-stunned green iguana likes on its back on the ground in florida

Florida euthanizes 5,195 frozen iguanas

By Laura Baisas

a whale fluke with hills in the distance

The lobstermen teaming up with scientists to save endangered whales

By Valerie Shively

Hands warming near a bonfire at night

Fire may have altered human DNA

a white dog with ears perked up and wide eyes against a blue background

Cortisol could impact your dog’s behavior

By Laura Baisas

A hummingbird’s wings on a micro-CT scanner.

How do you check a hummingbird for broken bones? Very carefully.

a small chick sits on a nest with its parent behind, cleaning its feathers with its beak

Watch an albatross give its brand-new chick a very careful cleanup

By Laura Baisas

a dog sits next to a no dog poop sign

Poop DNA tests and AI dog surveillance: The tech changing pet care.

By Mack DeGeurin

Artist illustration of Archaeopteryx

Weird bird mouths go all the way back to the first avian dinosaur

Poison warning label layered atop brown hair

Hair samples reveal the benefits of lead regulation

a small primate with large eyes clings to a branch

This wide-eyed baby primate is cute, cuddly—and venomous

By Margherita Bassi

a green caterpillar on a plant's stem

Caterpillars use tiny hairs to hear

By Margherita Bassi