Rachel Nuwer

Rachel Nuwer

 

Rachel Nuwer is a freelance science writer based in Brooklyn.

New York Decides Shooting Snowy Owls Is Not the Best Choice, After All

Snowy owls may congregate at airports because snowy tarmacs resemble the animals' natural habitat, the Arctic tundra

A screenshot from the game Airport Scanner.

It's Relatively Easy to Spot Water Bottles in Airport Scanners; Guns, Not So Much

Researchers plan to examine whether the same tendencies to overlook uncommon items exist among trained TSA professionals, just as it does gamers

Watch Some of the Most Important Moments of Nelson Mandela's Life

Former South African president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has passed away

A mugger crocodile balances twigs on its nose to tempt birds

Crocodiles Balance Twigs on Their Heads to Lure Nest-Building Birds

While crocodiles and alligators are stereotyped as "lethargic, stupid and boring," researchers say the reptiles are more cunning than they seem

This Curious Eagle Stole a Video Camera And Filmed Its Bird’s-Eye View of the World

A feathery theif scooped up a wildlife video camera and took it on a 70-odd-mile ride

Disney’s childhood home in Chicago (on the corner), as depicted by Google Street View.

Walt Disney's Childhood Home May Soon Be a Museum

The new owners may return the house to the same conditions it was in when young Disney ran through its halls

Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs

Not only did those animals toss their stomachs out with the evolutionary garbage, they burned the genetic instructions, too

Guadalupe White Shark

Great White Sharks Are Being Killed Before They Can Become Truly Gigantic

Sharks aren't shrinking, they're just being hunted and inadvertently killed by fishing nets so often that they're no longer living long enough to grow up

(A to L) 3D estimates of front views and lateral views rendered as point clouds overlaid with reflectivity data.

This Camera Capture Images in the Dark, Using Just a Few Particles of Light

The most obvious application for this camera is for spying and surveillance, but it may also be used for remote sensing or to study microscopic structures

Dazzle camouflage distorts perception by pairing contrasting patterns.

Predators May Use a Bit of the Old Razzle Dazzle to Snag Prey

The bright colors and harsh angles of dazzle camouflage confounds locusts, suggesting that predators who sport the abstract patterns can hunt more easily

Baby Mice Can Inherit Fear of Certain Smells From Their Parents

But researchers are far from pinning down the mechanism by which this may be possible, or what specific roles epigenetics plays in human disease

Koala

Why Koalas’ Mating Bellows Sound More Like a Choking Tiger, Less Like a Small, Cuddly Herbivore

Koalas use a special pair of "fleshy lips" located outside of their larynx to produce these deep grunts

Baikal Ice

Siberian Musicians Used the Frozen Surface of the World’s Largest Lake as a Drum

Siberians by chance discovered that Lake Baikal's frozen waves created an unexpectedly bright sound when one of them fell and thunked the ice with her hand

Cats Recognize Their Owner’s Voice But Choose to Ignore It

Researchers think cats' dismissive attitudes are a product of their evolutionary history over the past 9,000 years

Many public schools currently serve lunch on one-use-only foam trays.

Six Public School Systems Are Trying to Replace Foam Lunch Trays With Compostable Ones

Healthier food and less wasteful utensils and packaging are next on the school lunch reform list

Paralyzed patient Jason Disanto navigates through a room full of obstacles by guiding the wheelchair with his tongue.

This Wheelchair Is Controlled By a Paralyzed Patient’s Tongue

The next step, the researchers say, is to move the system outside of the lab and hospital and into the real-world environment for testing

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Meet Brazil’s Adorable New Wildcat Species

Also known as little spotted cats, tigrillo, tigrinas or tiger cats, it turns out these wild felines are not one but two distinct species

Same-Sex Parenting Can Be an Adaptive Advantage

Same-sex bird couples produced fewer offspring than traditional couples, but they still reared more chicks than solo parents

Bodies of would-be native mates may have nourished this invasive female M. caffra, here pictured laying eggs.

New Zealand’s Native Mantises Are a Little Too Attracted to Invasive Females

Nearly 70 percent of love-blinded males that were lured towards the invasive females were then eaten by the object of their desire

The Microbes Living in Our Bodies Were Probably Once Evil Pathogens

The Salmonella of the past may today help us break down food in our gut, for example

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