Biology

How Do Flamingos Stay Stable On One Leg?

They're actually more stable standing on one leg than they are on two

The tiny creatures can adeptly fold their large wings, tucking them under their spotted forewing.

The Origami-Like Folds of Ladybug Wings Could Lead to Better Umbrellas

Scientists have finally figured out how ladybugs fold their wings

Ornithologist John Gould's illustrations of finches collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands show the physical differences that the men relied on in dividing them into different species.

What Does It Mean to Be a Species? Genetics Is Changing the Answer

As DNA techniques let us see animals in finer and finer gradients, the old definition is falling apart

Fossils provide potential evidence that ancient life thrived Australia's Dresser Formation, a region composed of 3.5-billion-year-old hot springs.

Fossils From Ancient Hot Springs Suggest Life May Have Evolved on Land

These 3.5-billion-year-old rocks could vindicate Darwin's claim that life evolved in "some warm little pond," and not in the ocean

Any faithful recreation of elephant ivory must be hard, strong and tough—three qualities that are difficult to engineer in any one material.

Appalled by the Illegal Trade in Elephant Ivory, a Biologist Decided to Make His Own

Faking the stuff of elephant tusks could benefit wildlife conservation and engineering—yet many technical hurdles remain

The samples of the unspecified species of flower belonged to the Lagenophora genus.

Historical Pressed Flowers Accidentally Destroyed in Australia

The flowers are “literally irreplaceable”

Botanists might see fruit, but to a tariff collector, there's nothing but vegetables here.

Tomatoes Have Legally Been Vegetables Since 1893

Okay, so it's technically a fruit. But we don't eat it like one

Premature infant in a traditional incubator

Will This Artificial Womb One Day Improve the Care of Preemies?

A new treatment, tested on lambs, involves letting fetuses mature in fluid-filled sacs

The female cuttlefish and her two angry suitors

Watch Two Cuttlefish Fiercely Battle Over a Mate

This is the first time researchers caught the creatures locked in a vicious fight in the wild

Thank luciferin for mushrooms' mysterious glow.

The Secret Behind Bioluminescent Mushrooms’ Magic Glow

Scientists use chemistry to account for an astonishing phenomenon

From the tiniest to the most massive of poos, physics predicts we should all spend the same amount of time on the john.

A Grand Unified Theory of Pooping

Why you and an elephant spend the same amount of time on the john

Roughly 70 pink pigeons exist in captivity around the world, including this one at the San Diego Zoo.

Threatened Species? Science to the (Genetic) Rescue!

This still-controversial conservation technique will never be a species' panacea. But it might provide a crucial stop-gap

Submerged Beach, 1400 Fathoms, Else Bostelmann, Bermuda, 1931. Watercolor on paper, 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

In the Early 20th Century, the Department of Tropical Research Was Full of Glamorous Adventure

A new exhibition features 60 works by artists the New York Zoological Society department hired to help communicate field biology

A serpentinite sample

How Low Can Life Go? New Study Suggests Six Miles Down

Evidence of life from below a mud volcano hints at life beneath the crust

Sandy Maliki

Dingo Wins Competition for World’s Most Interesting Genome

The desert dingo beat out an explosive beetle, a pit viper and pink pigeon to win a grant to have its genome sequenced

The super bloom draped California's Walker Canyon in a riot of colors.

California’s Lush Super Bloom Is Even More Stunning From Space

Satellite images captured an explosion of flowers stretching across California’s desert hills

Matabele ant carries a wounded comrade home

This Ant Species Rescues Wounded Comrades on the Battlefield

Though it may be counterintuitive, a new study suggests saving the injured benefits the colony more than leaving them for dead

Are creatures like this at the bottom of animals' family tree?

Scientists Think Comb Jellies May Have Come Before All Other Animals

Sorry, sponges—there’s a new oldest ancestor in town

Califorctenus cacachilensis

Huge New Spider Species Discovered in Mexican Cave

<i>Califorctenus cacachilensis</i> is the width of a softball and represents a new genus of arachnids

The mechanical lung would function outside the patient's body.

An Artificial Lung That Fits In a Backpack

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are developing a device that works like the sophisticated organ

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