4+ day, 13+ hour ago   (826+ words) A multidecade study of wild chickadees shows how smart they need to be to survive Researchers have tagged this wild mountain chickadee as part of a long-term cognition study of the species in the Sierra Nevada range. A mountain chickadee…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (232+ words) The unusual locomotion could one day help with robot design The California blackworm (Lumbriculus variegatus) displays the unusual ability to move faster in tight spaces than in open ones. The researchers also created computer simulations of the worms as active…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (470+ words) Bacteria can help plants attract wasps in soils where there’s a history of herbivore attack Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata, shown) attract parasitoid wasps for help when under attack from an insect eating its leaves. A new study shows that a hidden…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (21+ words) Long-clawed shrews’ snouts temporarily grow larger in the winter. This skull reshaping may be an extreme survival strategy in cold conditions....

3+ week, 6+ day ago   (132+ words) Snails have five distinct types of mucus, each with its own job. The mollusks tweak calcium secretions to get the chemical mixture just right....