Animals & Plants

Owning a dog may help protect your heart health

In a new study, researchers found that owning a pet may help maintain a healthy heart, especially if that pet is a dog. The result...

Guacamole lovers, rejoice! The avocado genome has been sequenced

We now know the DNA of guacamole. Scientists have sequenced the avocado genome, shedding light on the ancient origins of this buttery fruit and laying...

Baby jumping spiders really are watching you

The vision of jumping spiders is nearly as keen in babies as adults, a University of Cincinnati study found. Baby jumping spiders can hunt prey...

Spiders risk everything for love

University of Cincinnati biologist George Uetz long suspected the extravagant courtship dance of wolf spiders made them an easy mark for birds and other...

Scientists find blue-tongue lizards are born smart

As children, we have much to learn after we are born. We learn to walk, to talk, to develop our social skills, and when we...

Cats kill more than 1.5 billion native animals per year in Australia

Pet and feral cats together are killing over two billion reptiles, birds and mammals per year in Australia. Most of these animals are natives, according...

Scientists net 139-pound Oneida Lake sturgeon

That fish was THIS big. Really, it was. Researchers from the Cornell Biological Field Station at Shackelton Point on Oneida Lake, in Bridgeport, New York, caught,...

Scientists solve the mystery of the disappearing jumbo squid

The culprit responsible for the decline of Mexico’s once lucrative jumbo squid fishery has remained a mystery, until now. A new Stanford-led study published in...

Scientists prove insects also feel chronic pain for the first time

Scientists have known insects experience something like pain since 2003, but new study proves for the first time that insects also experience chronic pain...

Friend or foe? Fun facts about sharks

Sharks often get a bad rap, even though most species are harmless to humans, says Katherine Maslenikov, manager of the UW Fish Collection at...