When snakes make friends (Science)
by Elizabeth Pennisi
Sticking together can have benefits, even if you’re a snake. Now, scientists have found that some snakes not only group together for warmth and protection but also make consistent choices about which of their peers they want to hang out with.

How bees fight back against the murder hornets (Trib Live)
by Mary Ann Thomas
Murder hornets are scary enough for humans. For bees—and the crops they pollinate—they’re a true threat. But Japanese bees have found a way to murder the murderer. Maybe U.S. insects will learn, too.

Go ahead and argue about COVID-19 on Facebook (The Washington Post)
by Leticia Bode and Emily Vraga
There’s a plague of misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 on social media. But it turns out that wading in and correcting mistaken information can make a difference—depending on how you do it.

The insufferable heat of humanity’s future (The Guardian)
by Jonathan Watts
Humans can do pretty well in places with average annual temperatures between 43 and 82 degrees. Outside those ranges, not so much. According to a new study, fifty years from now, it will be hotter than that in parts of the world where an eighth to a third of humanity lives.

What did “female husbands” want? (Aeon)
by Jen Manion
For twenty-first-century people, it’s easy to assume that “female husbands” of the 1800s were “really” trans men, or perhaps lesbians in disguise. But ideas about gender at the time mean that they didn’t see their identities the way we do now.

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