Biology

From bloodthirsty orchids to body-snatching pods, fictional flora are often symbols of societal fears.

What it’s like to care for fascinating animals at an aquarium on the edge of the Pacific.

They often get a bad rap, but bacteria prevent erosion, undergird ecosystems, and make artificial snow.

The young male known as M161 kitty-paddled his way through chilly waters full of orcas, raising questions about the animals' potential range.

Renowned entomologist Frank Nischk remembers when the determined insects tried to invade a field station.

For some species, mating season means detachable penises, urine-based perfumes, and ear-splitting declarations of love.

Scientists fitted the famously bitey marsupials with tiny accelerometers to learn their secrets.

A conservation biologist in Argentina once hosted one of the animals in her living room, but finding them in the wild has proven far more difficult.

A wildlife ecologist specializing in large carnivores unfolds a mystery for listeners.

This year, we met creatures (and other living things) great and small, from the world’s largest organism to microscopic parasites.

Across the archipelago, scientists and citizens are uniting against the tiny terrors, deploying an arsenal of creative weapons.

The monstrous menace known as Whatcheeria hints that our distant ancestors may have been more like us than we thought.

A creepy form of parasitism is one of evolution's favorite strategies, and scientists are starting to figure out how it works.

For centuries, hundreds of shrines have preserved crucial information about the marine mammals' diversity and distribution.

Whether you call them gaps, rings, or fairy circles, these unexpected formations in seagrass beds are keeping scientists guessing.

Systemic racism kept him from a position in higher education—but it didn't stop Charles Henry Turner from rewriting our understanding of bees, ants, and cockroaches.

Sharks, beavers, and humans are all returning to London's iconic waterway thanks to decades of restoration work.