They sprouted up in abundance after heavy rains, poking up through California lawns and forests, appearing harmless to some of those who found them – as though they’d make a good meal. And so they do, at first. The ‘death cap’ mushroom is said to be delicious. A new federal report detailed what came after consumption

Species that share similar kinds of brain anatomy have been caught using different neural circuits to perform identical behaviours, and it challenges a basic assumption on the relationship between behaviour and neurology. The team is yet to figure out why this strange overlap exists among species, but the discovery points to how important behaviours can be

You can find them in many places around the world – tall, lean conifers that can’t seem to grow straight. And now scientists have figured out that the direction these Cook pines (Araucaria columnaris) lean is always towards the equator, but they’re not quite sure why. Scientists have measured these trees across five continents and,

Viruses have weirded us out since they were first discovered over a century ago, but are these microscopic protein pirates alive? You bet, if you’re prepared to think outside the box.   Good morning, MRS GREN School biology is commonly introduced with an acronym such as “MRS GREN” with the aim of teaching students some

A security camera recorded four black-clad gunmen as they rushed into a Netherlands supermarket. The camera watched them wave a gun in the face of a female employee. It watched her quietly hand over the money. Later, Marie Lindegaard, a scientist at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, reviewed this crime and 21 other

We humans think we’re so special. To determine what sets us apart from the rest of the animal world, scientists investigate features that might be uniquely human, such as self-awareness or language. But every now and then, a new finding throws the narrative, leaving us to wonder what those truly unique human traits really are.

For years, tourists visiting the picturesque Uluwatu temple in Bali have been warned about a local gang of marauding macaques who expertly snatch loose items you might have about your person, and then barter them back for food. Sunglasses, flip-flops, hats, and even jewellery – everything is fair game, and temple staff have become experts at

Researchers have completed the world’s first scan of a living cell membrane down to a nanoscale level, revealing details that could finally resolve a longstanding debate on how they function. The technique used to create this incredible image could fundamentally change how nanoscale structures are studied in living things.   The research was carried out

If you ever had the misfortune of being hunted by a snake, in spite of everything, you could consider yourself lucky – at least it’s not an entire nest of serpents teaming up to run you down and devour your flesh. While scientists have never really been sure if snakes consciously coordinate their hunts – or

The first part of a now-viral video shows a sea lion swimming near a dock in Steveston, a seaside community on Canada’s western coast. The sound of cameras clicking can be heard in the background as onlookers marvelled at its size. The animal swims closer to the dock after grabbing a piece of food that

It’s been 37 years as of last Thursday since the Mount St. Helens volcano in the US state of Washington exploded, taking 57 lives and destroying hundreds of square kilometres of forest, bridges, and homes. The US Geological Survey (USGS) has been keeping an eye on the volcano’s activity ever since, and says while it’s

Perhaps it’s global warming or climate confusion. Maybe it’s just really hard for a 17-year cicada to count down the years while he’s buried underground. Why this is happening is a total question mark, but a small fraction of the 17-year cicadas – the ones we’re supposed to see in 2021 – are creeping out of their zombie

A new study on how genes function across the living world has added weight to the hypothesis that life on Earth was capturing energy from chemical reactions before it was copying its codes. The result throws fuel onto the original evolutionary ‘chicken and egg’ debate that asks, which came first, replicating RNA or metabolism?  

Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 30 vaquita porpoises left in the wild, and if serious conservation efforts aren’t enacted now, the species could reach extinction by 2018. If you’ve never seen one of these creatures before, it’s for good reason – these incredibly rare mammals are only found in the upper Gulf of

On Wednesday, the Weather Channel posted a video of a digging clam to its Facebook page with the caption, “This bizarre video of a clam digging in sand has gone viral.” Never has an invertebrate prophecy been so self-fulfilling. The digging clam wracked up about 5 million views and counting. Commenters took to the clam with gusto, debating what sort of

Scientists think they’ve filled an important gap in whale evolution – the fossilised remains of a specimen that lived around 36.4 million years ago, and is thought to be one of the first whales to use large, sieve-like combs called baleen instead of teeth to filter their food. Today, baleen whales (or mysticeti) are among the

Drone footage has captured something no one’s ever seen before – wild narwhals using their bizarre tusks to hunt Arctic cod by hitting and stunning them, making them easier to consume. The behaviour addresses a biological mystery that’s spanned decades – why these rare and elusive whales have evolved an extra-long left canine tooth that

Before being assembled into something recognisable at a museum, most dinosaur fossils look to the casual observer like nothing more than common rocks. No one, however, would confuse the over 110 million-year-old nodosaur fossil for a stone. The fossil, being unveiled today in Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, is so well preserved it looks like

A dead unknown sea animal has been found washed up on an island in Indonesia. The bloodied creature lay in shallow waters on the shores of Seram Island. Local man Asrul Tuanakota made the discovery on Tuesday evening.   It is thought to be 15 metres long and 6 to 7 metres wide. While local media

Biology is really one big horror story. You don’t need to look much further than the various types of parasites that drive their hosts into the mouths of hungry predators. If you’re keeping track of these tiny monsters, you should know that there’s a species of flatworm that parks itself inside the eyeball of a

Hey, kids: Science can be sexy – super sexy. Just ask Dara Orbach, who has spent seven years studying dolphin vaginas, and her colleagues Patricia Brennan and Diane Kelly, who are some of the foremost experts on animal penises. They recently combined forces to solve the mystery of just how dolphins and other cetaceans do the deed, a task that

From a single species of plant comes many teas. The tea tree, a shrub called Camellia sinensis, produces white, green, black and oolong teas. The tea’s destiny is a matter of variables. The final drink reflects the tea cultivar, the growing environment and how the leaves are processed – dried, crushed, steamed, blended. Farmers pluck

Back in 2011, scientists discovered the world’s only known example of a vertebrate cell hosting the cells of a completely different species in an act of symbiosis between a salamander and a species of algae. While similar relationships can be found in animals without a backbone, such as coral and molluscs, this unusual discovery posed

As complex as the human brain is, it more or less has the same fundamental structure as most other backboned animals – which means it can be divided into three general regions: forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. Researchers have long thought that these three sections all evolved from three simpler versions in our vertebrate ancestors. But a new map of