Science

In January 2023, an infant monkey made a bad choice at snack time. In a rare discovery, researchers found that by eating a rodent known as a fire-footed rope squirrel, the primate unwittingly spread monkeypox to nearly a third of its troop.

Baby caterpillars have figured out how to get themselves the royal treatment in certain ant colonies – getting carried around like precious cargo, fed on demand, guarded and being rescued from danger – by posing as queen ants.

Researchers have identified a hybrid photoreceptor in the eyes of fish that carries traits of both rods and cones – a combination that doesn’t fit either category. It suggests the retina may be far more flexible than scientists have long assumed.

The explanation is weirder than you might think – in fact, the sky is probably closer to violet. Tiny air molecules and larger particles like dust and pollution scatter sunlight in different ways, painting the sky from deep violet to hazy white.

Fascinating new analysis of fabric samples and other artifacts from a cave in Oregon reveals that humans may have stitched clothing as far back as 12,600 years ago – giving us an understanding of a critical aspect of evolution in that period.

Some of us get bitten far more often than others – but it seems we each also appear tasty to different species of mosquito. New research illuminates what's making a given individual attractive, and to which mosquitos.

In a triple win for green research, scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a new sunlight-activated reactor that uses one waste stream to tackle another – all while producing clean hydrogen, and promising to be profitable at scale.

Sometimes, the most important paleontological discoveries may come from the most disgusting materials. A fossilized vomit sample dating back nearly 300 million years revealed how an ancient mammal gorged on all manner of prey.

When escaped domestic pigs bred with wild boar after the Fukushima evacuation, researchers gained a rare chance to observe large-scale hybridization. The result offers a new lens on how fast-breeding traits can quietly reshape wildlife genetics.

Male nipples. Whale pelvic bones. Vestigial hind limbs in snakes. Evolution is full of features that look purposeful but are actually by-products with no explicit function. New research suggests the human chin may be one such evolutionary side effect.