Latest stories
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A Young Shorebird Flew 8,425 Miles Without Stopping
A satellite-tracked juvenile bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in 2022 without stopping for about 11 days, a documented migration record.
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Octopuses Edit Their RNA When the Water Gets Cold
Researchers found that octopuses change RNA editing patterns as water temperatures shift, altering proteins involved in their nervous systems.
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Honeybees Can Learn That Zero Is Less Than One
In carefully designed experiments, honeybees treated an empty display as smaller than displays with objects. They learned a basic idea of zero.
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Stressed Tomato Plants Make Ultrasonic Clicking Sounds
Stressed tomato plants emit ultrasonic clicks. A 2026 study found that female moths respond to recordings of those sounds when choosing where to lay eggs.
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A Narwhal’s Famous Tusk Is Really a Tooth
The narwhal’s long spiral tusk is an elongated canine tooth, usually on the left side. Scientists confirmed the anatomy in skull studies.
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Cats Are Missing the Working Gene Needed to Taste Sweetness
Domestic cats lack a working component of the typical mammalian sweet-taste receptor. Researchers traced the missing taste to a gene change.
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Mushrooms Can Make Their Own Tiny Wind to Spread Spores
Some mushrooms help move their spores by cooling nearby air as water evaporates. The resulting currents can carry spores into the breeze.
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Box Jellyfish Can Learn to Dodge Obstacles Without a Brain
Researchers trained Caribbean box jellyfish to avoid collisions. The animals learned from visual cues and bumps without a centralized brain.
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Some Sand Dunes Make a Deep Booming Sound When Sand Slides
Some large sand dunes produce a low booming hum during avalanches of dry sand. Researchers have studied how moving grains synchronize and how dune layers resonate.
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A Slime Mold Can Find a Short Route Through a Maze—Without a Brain
Physarum slime mold can shrink away from dead-end paths and keep an efficient connection between food sources. A classic Nature experiment showed how.