Life sciences
03 Sep 2025
Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness
Listening to joyful music helped study participants with motion sickness recover better than other participants — while sad music helped less than doing nothing.
440 news posts in Life sciences
Life sciences
28 Aug 2025
Nearly 80% of whale sharks in this marine tourism hotspot have human-caused scars
Human-caused injuries are common in endangered whale sharks off Indonesian Papua, but simple changes to local fishing practices could help protect them.
Life sciences
27 Aug 2025
‘Built for cutting flesh, not resisting acidity’: sharks may be losing deadly teeth to ocean acidification
Scientists found that some of the oceans’ fiercest hunters could be losing their bite: As oceans become more acidic, sharks’ teeth may become structurally weaker and more prone to break
Life sciences
20 Aug 2025
Most known species evolved during 'explosions’ of diversity, shows first analysis across ‘tree of life’
Majority of living species concentrated among few disproportionately rich groups with high rates of diversification, shows first-of-its-kind study
Life sciences
18 Aug 2025
What do you do if your dog ingests cocaine? How one researcher is trying to protect pets from future accidents
Dr Jake Johnson is the first author of a new Frontiers in Veterinary Science article that describes a rare case study of the treatment of a lethargic and unresponsive chihuahua who visited the vet’s for treatment. We talked to Johnson about his career and a particular four-legged patient that ingested cocaine.
Life sciences
14 Aug 2025
Discovery of ‘weird looking’ otter poo reveals how these animals shape nearby ecologies
Scientists found scat from river otters teeming with parasites that infect otters’ prey, suggesting that otters may be important players in local food webs
Life sciences
29 Jul 2025
How much time did our ancestors spend up trees? Studying these chimpanzees might help us find out
A study on savannah-living chimpanzees suggests the need to move safely on thin tree branches could explain why early hominins that could walk upright kept their tree-climbing adaptations.
Life sciences
16 Jun 2025
'Chicken is her favorite dish. If one clucks, she comes': how anacondas, chickens, and locals may be able to coexist in the Amazon
Dr Beatriz Cosendey is the author of a recently published Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science article. In it, she and co-authors investigated the role of the anaconda as a mythical creature in Brazil’s Lower Amazon region, locals’ perception of the snake, and how better coops for chickens could play a vital role in the peaceful co-existence of people and snakes.
Life sciences
13 Jun 2025
Swarm intelligence directs longhorn crazy ants to clear the road ahead for sisters carrying bulky food
Scientists studied the obstacle-clearing behavior of longhorn crazy ants, where a subset of workers temporarily specializes in removing tiny objects blocking the path between the nest and large food items. Experiments revealed that serial clearing behavior can be triggered by a single pheromone mark, which happened to be deposited near an obstacle by a forager recruited to a large food item. Clearing mostly occurs in the context of collective transport, which typically stalls in front of obstacles. The authors concluded that obstacle-clearing is a form of ‘swarm intelligence’ which emerges at the colony level, and which does not require understanding by individual ants.
Life sciences
04 Jun 2025
From whale sharks to a sustainable ocean economy: Here are five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss on World Ocean Day
June 8 marks World Ocean Day and people from all corners of the planet come together to protect and restore our blue planet. To celebrate, we’re highlighting five recently published Frontiers articles on the ocean and the fantastic animals that live there.
Life sciences
03 Jun 2025
Ancient collagen can help identify a 'wombat the size of a hippo' in the fossil record
Scientists find new markers to identify species from fragments of fossilized bone and help us understand mysterious megafauna extinctions
Life sciences
02 Jun 2025
‘A love affair with the sea’: meet a scientist who overcame hurdles to dedicate her life to studying the ocean
Dr Mary Elizabeth Livingston looks back on a life-long career in marine science. She is the author of a new Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability article in which she chronicles the highs and lows of her career, changes in the field, and what has remained the same.
Life sciences
29 May 2025
Sharks rarely seen together may be up for sharing a meal too good to miss
Oceanic whitetip and tiger sharks peacefully co-fed on a carcass close to Hawaii’s Big Island. Such extremely rare observations could help scientists understand shark ecology better.
Life sciences
23 May 2025
Street smarts: how a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully
Dr Vladimir Dinets, a zoologist who studies animal behavior, ecology, and conservation, is the author of a recently published Frontiers in Ethology article that documents the impressive adaptation of an avian newcomer to the city. A Cooper’s hawk appears to have learned how to use traffic signals and strike at smaller birds precisely when cars at an intersection lined up.
Life sciences
21 May 2025
Biodiversity in Antarctic soils may be greatly underestimated after surprising discovery
Researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing to measure biodiversity along a transect – a succession from recently exposed to mature soil – in front of a glacier in Antarctica. To capture a detailed ecological ‘time sequence’ they distinguished between intracellular and extracellular DNA from living versus dead or locally extinct species. They found an abundance of previously unsuspected interactions between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, eg, algae with heterotrophic bacteria and fungi with actinobacteria. The results imply that novel mutualistic interactions play an essential role in shaping this system, and that biodiversity in Antarctica may be much greater than previously thought.