WEIRD NATURE
The controversial author on the importance of updating his landmark book on animal liberation, being ‘flexibly vegan’ and the ethical dangers of artificial intelligence for the non-human world. ‘I’ve had to develop a thicker skin’: philosopher Peter Singer. Photograph: Alletta Vaandering – The …
A bumblebee lands on the flowers of a white sloe bush. Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images – By Stephen Buchmann, Adjunct Professor of Entomology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona – Published: 2023 May 17 – As trees and …
A casual stroll on the beach can leave enough intact DNA behind to extract identifiable information. Comezora/Moment via Getty Images By Jenny Whilde, Adjunct Research Scientist in Marine Bioscience, University of Florida and by Jessica Alice Farrell, Postdoctoral associate, University of Florida …
Researchers have attached electrodes to mushrooms in the forest to measure their communication signals, and found they talk more after rain. Yu Fukasawa – By Michael Irving 2023 May 02 – Whether they’re hacking the brains of bugs or mining for gold, fungi are …
Not just a pretty face: sloths could be superbug secret weapons. Depositphotos – By Bronwyn Thompson 2023 May 01 – Ever since French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, first described the sloth in 1749, the planet’s slowest moving mammal has had its work …
An artist’s reconstruction of the newly discovered rhynchosaur, Beesiiwo cooowuse, named in the language of the First Nations people indigenous to the area in which it was found. Gabriel Ugueto – By Paul McClure 2023 Apr 27 – Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison …
Researchers identified this fossil as a chile pepper due to its unique ‘hat’. The discovery has caused scientists to rethink the plant’s evolutionary timeline. Rocío Deanna/University of Colorado Boulder – By Paul McClure 2023 Apr 23 – Fossilized plants can provide much information about …
Study suggests antimicrobial used to promote livestock growth breeds bacteria more resistant to our natural defenses. A strain of E. coli more likely to evade our immune system’s first line of defense emerged as a result of using colistin as a growth promoter …
A female P. regius, another of the keen-sighted North American jumping spiders, which only grows to a maximum 0.87 in (22 mm) in size. Depositphotos View gallery – 3 images – By Bronwyn Thompson 2023 Apr 20 – Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the …
Image of a C. elegans worm genetically engineered to show fluorescence – the green dots are neurons that have responded to cannabinoids. Stacy Levichev/University of Oregon (CC BY-SA) – By Paul McClure 2023 Apr 20 – Researchers got tiny worms high on cannabis to …