Close-up of a cicada

Can You Hear It? The Cicadas Are Back

After 17 years quietly developing under the soil, 3 species of periodical cicadas emerged this summer. How do these insects coordinate?
Cecil the Lion

No, Trophy Hunting Won’t Protect Wildlife

Killing wildlife to save it isn't a viable strategy. We can create diverse, self-sustaining ecosystems without trophy hunting.
Black and white illustration of three dung beetles surrounding a mound

The Amazingly Complex World of Insect Navigation

Dung beetles, ants, and other insects navigate in mysterious ways.
adhesives

The Sticky History of Adhesives

Our Pleistocene ancestors in southern Africa made and used glue-like adhesives as early as the Middle Stone Age.
Science jars of formalin and fish

What Lies Beneath the Museum?

Paradoxically, museum specimens of long-dead animals may offer us the keys to protecting live ones.
Microscope view of thread-like cells

Guess What? You’re a Superorganism.

The White House has announced the "microbiome moonshot" – a push to understand the human microbiome.
Graphic reading that more than 72 million U.S. adults are obese

Why the Pounds Won’t Stay Off

Weight loss is a biological problem, and it will require a biological solution.
Methane Gas Exhaust Pipe

The Not-So-Clean Side of Natural Gas

Methane leaks are a serious but oft-overlooked cause of pollution.
Copernicus

Copernicus’s Body Identified by Stray Hair

Stuck in a book for centuries, strands of Copernicus's hair helped identify his body in 2005.
Lions painted in the Chauvet Cave. This is a replica of the painting from the Brno museum Anthropos. The absence of the mane sometimes leads to these paintings being described as portraits of lionesses.

Reinterpreting The Chauvet Cave Paintings

Do France’s Chauvet Cave paintings depict a contemporary volcanic eruption? Recent research argues that they do.