Featured news
03 Nov 2025
Orcas seen killing young great white sharks by flipping them upside-down
Specialist shark-hunting pod paralyzes young white sharks to eat their energy-rich livers, taking advantage of local shark nursery
40 news posts in Life Sciences
Neuroscience
07 Oct 2025
Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep
Scientists find that words you’ve been told to recall are better remembered than words with negative emotional connotations — but surprisingly, sleeping doesn’t help.
Featured news
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
Featured news
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
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
Featured news
20 May 2025
Baby on board: humpback whales give birth while migrating and carry on travelling
Humpback whale population’s recovery could reveal we were wrong about where humpback whales give birth — tropical waters aren’t the only nursery.
Featured news
14 May 2025
Chimpanzees use medicinal leaves to perform first aid
Scientists observed chimpanzees in Uganda apparently cleaning and treating their own and others’ wounds.
Environment
08 Apr 2025
Trees could be spying on illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon rainforest
By examining mercury concentrations in tree rings, researchers showed that trees could be witnesses to illegal gold mining activities in the Amazon, highlighting their potential as biomonitors
Featured news
07 Apr 2025
Scientists link a phytoplankton bloom to starving dolphins in Florida
A phytoplankton bloom damaged habitats, deprived bottlenose dolphins of nutritious prey, and led to a sharp rise in strandings and deaths.
Featured news
21 Mar 2025
Home sweet home: some great hammerhead sharks stick to the perfect neighborhood in the Bahamas instead of migrating
Scientists tracking endangered great hammerhead sharks show that Andros Island, in the Bahamas, is a year-round refuge for some individuals that choose not to migrate.
Featured news
22 Jan 2025
Curious blue rings in trees and shrubs reveal cold summers of the past — potentially caused by volcanic eruptions
Blue growth rings found in woody plant stems represent years when cells did not lignify properly because of summers too cold for growth.
Featured news
21 Oct 2024
Male flies with shorter eyestalks make up for being less attractive by fighting more fiercely
Male stalk-eyed flies with longer eyestalks are more attractive to females and more intimidating to males — but males with a genetic variant that causes shorter eyestalks are fiercer fighters.
Featured news
15 Oct 2024
How ‘vaccinating’ plants could reduce pesticide use and secure global food supplies
Induced resistance, where plants’ immune systems are activated in a controlled way that prepares them to fight pests and disease, could help build a sustainable and resilient agricultural system
Environment
26 Sep 2024
Mysterious orca group near Chile tracked down, revealing newly discovered hunting skills
Dramatic new images of orcas in the Humboldt Current system hunting and eating dusky dolphins could help scientists learn more about all southern hemisphere orcas.