Enlarge / SEM Micrograph of a tardigrade, more commonly known as a water bear or “moss piglet. ” (credit: Cultura RM Exclusive/Gregory S. Paulson/Getty Images) There’s rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we’re once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, […]
High-speed video of squirrels executing amazing leaps in pursuit of peanuts captures the animals’ innovative solutions to reaching their goal. Video courtesy of Roxanne Makasdjian and Jeremy Snowden, University of California, Berkeley. High speed video of squirrels executing incredible leaps in pursuit of nuts captures the animals’ innovative options to reaching their goal. Movie courtesy […]
Scientists have shown how a new class of Turing patterns work by using synthetic biology to create them from scratch in the lab. Shortly before his death, Alan Turing published a provocative paper outlining his theory for how complex, irregular patterns emerge in nature—his version of how the leopard got its spots. These so-called Turing […]
Enlarge / Look at this lovely cube-shaped piece of poo, courtesy of the Australian bare-nosed wombat. (credit: Patricia J. Yang et al., 2021) Scientists have been puzzling for decades over how the Australian bare-nosed wombat poops out neat little cubes of feces instead of tapered cylinders like pretty much all other animals. According to a new […]