Alex Fox

Alex Fox

 

Alex Fox is a freelance science journalist based in California. He has written for the New York Times, National Geographic, Science, Nature and other outlets. You can find him at Alexfoxscience.com.

Male pug-nosed tree frogs confuse predators by overlapping their mating calls with those their neighbors.

Illusionist Frog Attracts Mates Without Unwanted Attention From Predators

The simultaneous mating calls of the male pug-nosed tree frog confuses bats but not female frogs

Choctaw and Irish dancers at a 2017 dedication ceremony of a sculpture commemorating the 1847 donation

Irish Return Historic Favor by Donating to Native Americans During Pandemic

In 1847, the Choctaw Nation sent $170—more than $5,000 today—to victims of the Irish potato famine

The Asian giant hornet, the world's largest hornet, was sighted in North America for the first time.

No, Americans Do Not Need to Panic About 'Murder Hornets'

The Asian giant hornet, seen for the first time in North America in 2019, is unlikely to murder you or U.S. bees, according to a Smithsonian entomologist

Two skeletons unearthed in Lechlade, England, date back to around 2200 B.C.

Bronze Age Chieftain's Remains Found Beneath U.K. Skate Park

The Beaker man was buried alongside four cowhide "rugs," an eight-inch copper dagger and a wrist guard made of rare green stone

The men's remains, found in a 16th-century mass grave in Mexico City, bear signs of trauma and disease.

New Analysis Suggests These Three Men Were Among the First Africans Enslaved in the Americas

Buried in a mass grave in Mexico City, the trio may have been part of the first generation abducted from their homeland and brought to the New World

Archaeologists say this inscription of an ibex may be up to 5,000 years old.

See Ancient Cave Art Found in Egypt's Sinai Desert

The carvings, which depict animals including camels, leopards, cows and mules, may date back to 3000 B.C.

This yellow lab is not involved in the research, but it still a very good doggo.

Dogs Are Being Trained to Sniff Out COVID-19

Researchers are attempting to teach eight dogs to detect the pandemic, which could help quickly screen large numbers of people in public places

A deep-sea starfish attached to what is called a polymetallic nodule. These nodules are being targeted by the burgeoning deep-sea mining industry for their mixture of valuable metals including manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel.

Deep-Sea Mining’s Environmental Toll Could Last Decades

A study of microbial communities at the site of a 1989 deep-sea mining test suggests the fragile ecosystem may take half a century to fully recover

Honey bees, packed together in their hive, are vulnerable to infection from viruses.

Honey Bee Virus Tricks Hive Guards Into Admitting Sick Intruders

The virus tweaks bee behavior to infect new hives and may also spread other hive-killing pathogens and pests

The wreckage of a mid-19th century ship washed ashore north of Ludington, Michigan, on April 24.

High Waters in the Great Lakes Reveal Two Centuries-Old Shipwrecks

In the month of April alone, the remnants of two historic vessels washed up on Lake Michigan's shores

Chincoteague ponies take a moment to graze after swimming across the Assateague Channel in 2015.

New Vaccine Offers Hope in Chincoteague Ponies' Battle Against Swamp Cancer

Over the past three years, the disease has claimed the lives of seven of the famously resilient ponies

An anole lizard holding on to a perch by its toepads during simulated hurricane-force winds.

Hurricanes Make Lizards Evolve Bigger Toe Pads

New study extends previous results limited to just two islands to 188 species of lizard across Caribbean as well as Central and South America

The Leith glass factory's cone-shaped furnaces appear in the background of painter William Reed's Leith Races.

Archaeologists Unearth Remnants of Lost Scottish Wine-Bottle Glass Factory

The 18th-century Edinburgh factory once produced a million bottles a week

As many home bakers who have only recently taken up sourdough making have found out, some starters are, well, non-starters.

What Does Your Sourdough Starter Smell Like? Science Wants to Know

A citizen science project aims to chart the microbial diversity present in starters all over the world

An artist's rendering of a fossil frog found on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Paleontologists Find Antarctica’s First Frog Fossil

The find could help pin down when the South Pole turned icy

New research claims to have found the earliest evidence of a person being killed by meteorite. This photo depicts a meteorite entering Earth's atmosphere during the Leonid meteor shower in November 2002.

Archivists Find the Oldest Record of Human Death by Meteorite

The 1888 historical account is likely the first ever confirmed case of a human being struck dead by an interstellar interloper

Philip Kahn, pictured on his 100th birthday with his grandson, Warren Zysman, and great-grandson

One Hundred Years After Influenza Killed His Twin Brother, WWII Veteran Dies of COVID-19

In the days before his death, the New York man spoke often of his lost twin and the lessons humanity seemed not to have learned

This fresco by Jacopo Ripanda depicts Hannibal crossing the Alps in 218 B.C. New research claims to have located the site of the general's first major victory in Spain.

The Ancient Battlefield That Launched the Legend of Hannibal

Two years before the Carthaginian general crossed the Alps, he won a decisive victory at the Battle of the Tagus

An artist's rendering of two early hominins hunting waterfowl on the Schöningen lakeshore with throwing sticks

300,000-Year-Old Stick Suggests Human Ancestors Were Skilled Hunters

The ancient throwing stick may have been used by Neanderthals or an even earlier hominin

Some rough-skinned newts host bacteria on their skin that produce the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin to keep predators at bay.

Toxic Newts Use Bacteria to Become Deadly Prey

Scientists discover neurotoxin-producing bacteria living on the skin of rough-skinned newts

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