4+ day, 12+ hour ago   (679+ words) "If you put your finger to the earth, you are likely to be pointing at a seed." People often point to Norway's Svalbard Global Seed Vault as a safeguard for future crops. Yet researchers say the planet already contains a…...

6+ day, 21+ hour ago   (746+ words) "Even though early colonists collected biological material from their former colonies, we didn't expect to see such high numbers in recent decades." A new study put numbers to a longstanding imbalance in science: Many of the mammals discovered in poorer…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (696+ words) "The fungus is present in mosses that no infected ant ever bit." A study in Brazil's Amazon rainforest found the so-called zombie-ant fungus in mosses, even in samples taken far from clusters of dead, infected ants known as ant graveyards....

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (684+ words) "Every newly described species represents millions of years of unique evolutionary history." An international research team has identified seven previously undescribed species of Madagascar's diamond frogs, elusive amphibians that often stay hidden in leaf litter, moss, and forest soil — a…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (448+ words) Scientists have cleared a striking hurdle in synthetic biology: They got two different genetic codes working inside the same cell. The advance is a step toward building forms of life that can manufacture proteins with ingredients nature never adopted. The…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (476+ words) "This will provide new insight and ignite new questions." A perfect ring of mushrooms can look like something pulled straight from folklore. But a study from researchers in Sweden has suggested the strange pattern may have a practical explanation underground....

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (269+ words) A wildlife expert and Instagram creator is gaining some traction online after sharing an up-close look at a large tree frog that looks like "it was dipped in a shamrock shake." The close-up footage highlights a few peculiar features: the…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (543+ words) "Our metabolic pathways are not simply a product of that Paleolithic past." Potatoes have fed civilizations for thousands of years, but they have done more than that. Scientists have said the crop may have helped shape human biology, giving Indigenous…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (341+ words) The Milpe robber frog is a unique case that has long been confused with a similar species. Scientists have officially recognized Ecuador's Milpe robber frog as a distinct species after more than a century of being mistaken for another frog…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (374+ words) A menacing-looking mystery insect in northern Maine caught the internet's attention after someone posted an image of the large visitor, which looked a bit like a wasp but appeared unusually docile. In a post shared to Reddit's r/WhatsThisBug community,…...