Life
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Sixth mass extinction: 23 more species declared extinct
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The unknown linguistic laws that apply to all life
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Hunting dogs bark differently depending on the animals they see
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The secret to how scorpions, spiders, and ants puncture tough skin
These animals to grow scalpel-sharp and precisely shaped tools that are resistant to breaking.
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Tornado detection: bringing Stone Age tech into the 21st century
Technology designed to listen for atomic bombs can also hear tornadoes.
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Rhino mystery going back to Darwin solved
A recent study sheds light on the evolutionary history of rhinoceroses and their remarkably low levels of genetic diversity.
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Clues in woolly mammoth tusk reveal a lifetime of travels
It walked enough miles to nearly circle the Earth twice.
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Nightmarishly large bird-eating centipedes are propping up a whole island ecosystem
These enormous centipedes are straight out of science fiction.
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Endosymbiotic theory: evolution is powered by innovation and thievery
Sometimes, new combinations of preexisting things revolutionize life.
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A strange link between grizzly bear DNA and human language
A genetic study of British Columbia grizzly bears finds a weird link to local human languages.
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Squirrel parkour: How leaping squirrels could inspire more nimble robots
While a squirrel's life may look simple to human observers – climb, eat, sleep, repeat – it involves finely tuned cognitive skills.
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Is saving the panda a waste of time and money?
It is difficult to save a species that does not seem to care about saving itself.
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Why did birds survive extinction while dinosaurs died out?
The brain of an ancient bird offers clues to the survival of its modern-day relatives.
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28 ancient viruses unknown to science found in a Tibetan glacier
Scientists discover surviving viruses in 15,000-year-old glacier ice on the Tibetan Plateau in China.
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Mammals dream about the world they are entering even before birth
A study finds that baby mammals dream about the world they are about to experience to prepare their senses.
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Cockatoos teach each other the secrets of dumpster diving
Australian parrots have worked out how to open trash bins, and the trick is spreading across Sydney.
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CT scans of shark intestines find Nikola Tesla’s one-way valve
Evolution proves to be just about as ingenious as Nikola Tesla
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Zoo ethics: free-range prisons or centers for global conservation?
The ethical debate over zoos is going to grow louder. There might be a solution that involves robots.
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How jumping spiders can distinguish the living from the non-living
Eight-eyed arachnids can tell when an object's movement is not quite right.
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How evolution shifts from unicellular to multicellular life
When facing a predator, single cells sometimes unite to defend themselves, paving the way for more complex multicellular life forms to evolve.
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Animal altruism: nature isn’t as cruel as the Discovery Channel says
One man studied apes for 50 years. He says nature isn't as cruel as you think.
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Why are octopuses so intelligent?
The opening of jars, while impressive and often used to illustrate octopus intelligence, is not their most remarkable ability.
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Nudibranchs: psychedelic body snatchers of the deep
These bizarre mollusks have the ability to regenerate their bodies and to absorb other organisms' attributes.
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Baby beasts: Love and evolution in the animal kingdom
Evolutionary success is not about the number of one's children, but one's grandchildren: the children need to survive and pass on their genes.
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This deep-sea brittle star survived 180 million years of evolution
These distant cousins of starfish live on sea floors around the globe.
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Pangolins are being trafficked to extinction in black market
Traditional Chinese medicine and Vietnamese culture are driving the pangolin to extinction.
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Meet the worm with a jaw of metal
Metal-like materials have been discovered in a very strange place.
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The suction speed of an elephant’s trunk is 330 miles per hour
That's as fast as a bullet train in Japan.