Biology
How political, cultural, and economic forces can shape the risk of zoonotic disease
In eastern Ethiopia, pressures like conflict and displacement are changing how people and their camels travel, shifting livestock into new environments and potentially influencing…
Bacteria use collisions to navigate crowded environments, micro-maze experiments reveal
Some bacteria can sense when they bump into each other and use these interactions to shape how the group organizes and moves. This discovery reveals a new way microbes explore the…
Blue light could cut food poisoning from raw chicken
A low-power blue light could be the key to significantly reducing food poisoning caused by raw chicken in the U.K., scientists at the University of Reading have found. Campylobact…
Remaking scents: could fragrance tech help take pressure off endangered plants?
Firms working on reproducing compounds without need for repeated harvesting but conservationists are scepticalMany of the world’s most expensive perfumes begin with a wounded tree…
Africa's rhinos often get the spotlight—but Indonesia's two rhino species are far closer to extinction
Small, hairy and cheekily charismatic. Those words sprang to mind when I first met a Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) after traversing the maze of wooden slat paths …
Yosemite's meadows can be restored, but it will take time and effort
Researchers at Colorado State University are leading an attempt to restore Yosemite National Park's iconic meadows before it's too late by reintroducing native plants that once co…
Rising heat linked to faster telomere loss in wild Australian birds
Extreme heat can have a profound impact on wild animals, causing their death in the most extreme cases and leaving less visible marks in others. Understanding the effects of tempe…
Seagrass meadows bounce back with new fish communities
Seagrasses are flowering plants that thrive in marine environments and form extensive meadows along the tropical Queensland coast. New James Cook University research shows the sea…
Nobel prize in physics goes to Francis Halzen for south pole work on neutrinos
Belgian physicist praised for work on the IceCube detector that observes the ghost-like particles in AntarcticaThe Nobel prize in physics 2026 has been awarded to Francis Halzen f…
Nature's capacity to 'bounce back' when species are lost is vastly overestimated, global analysis finds
The idea that ecosystems carry plenty of backup, so if a small number of species become extinct there is little harm, has been greatly overestimated, according to the largest glob…
Narcolepsy: why you’ve been thinking about it all wrong – podcast
The sleep disorder has been the butt of jokes and a comedic plot point, but the reality of living with narcolepsy is anything but funny. Things could be about to change for people…
Vitamin B1 gains in wild lake trout embryos challenge assumptions drawn from hatcheries
For decades, fisheries managers have struggled to restore recruitment in wild lake trout populations across the Great Lakes region, with limited success. Returning this species to…
Unusual senses: The secret superpowers of amphibians and reptiles
The Surinam toad is one of the strangest frogs on Earth. Flat-bodied, tiny-eyed and adapted to the murky waters of the Amazon basin, it hunts well despite having very poor vision.…
What a locust can teach us about how neuromodulators alter odor processing
When you walk into a bakery and smell fresh cookies, the enticing smell draws you in. After you eat a handful of cookies, though, the same smell likely doesn't send you back for m…
Rhinos and elephants can cause huge problems if reintroduced badly—here's how to get it right
Moving large animals around is a seductive idea in conservation. If there are plenty of animals in one place and too few in another, moving some between the two seems an obvious s…
Rare insect discovery reveals a new species from the dinosaur age
Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and…
Standard 3D printers let labs build and adapt tools for bacterial research
Studying microorganisms requires instruments with extremely high precision. Such instruments are expensive and take a long time to manufacture using traditional methods, which has…
Unmowed strips attract insects, but many abandon partially mowed dikes
Municipalities are increasingly mowing dikes and verges in stages, so that insects can make longer use of the plants growing there. Mowing is essential to keep a dike strong, expl…
Florida Keys heat wave reveals nearly fourfold death risk for diseased coral
Disease and heat pose a deadly combination for coral reefs, according to a new University of Georgia study published in the journal Coral Reefs.
Local tipping points in dune landscapes: How does a dune system organize itself?
Building with nature is an important concept in our coastal defense. After all, by harnessing natural processes, we are more resilient to sea level rise. A good understanding of t…
New saber-toothed predator from Argentina suggests its lineage survived longer than believed
In 2014, members of a local museum found fragments of an ancient fossil dating to the end of the Pliocene or early Pleistocene epoch in a seaside cliff on the Argentine pampas. Th…
Nobel prize in medicine 2026: unlocking the mysteries of the brain
Kicking off the 2026 Nobel prizes in is the award for physiology or medicine. This year the prize went to three scientists for their work investigating the mysteries of the brain.…
Sharks' inner ears reveal surprising diversity that may reflect evolution more than environment
A new study of shark anatomy suggests the shape of their inner ears is far more variable than expected, and this variation could have more to do with their evolutionary history th…
Why can't people regenerate limbs like salamanders?
Imagine losing an arm and simply growing a new one. This amazing ability of regeneration isn't just something from a superhero movie—it actually happens in real life for some anim…