Biology

Last year, it was discovered the bluestreak cleaner wrasse could pass the "mirror test", showing that it can recognize its own face in a mirror. Now researchers have found it can actually size itself up against a potential competitor before a fight.

Whether we've watched athletes do it or experienced it ourselves, 'choking' in a high-stakes moment comes down to more than composure. For the first time, scientists have uncovered a set of neurons that fail to do their job when the payoff is greatest.

Seeing a wombat in regional Australia is not a rare experience, but when ecologists captured this particular one emerging from a den and casually wandering past a motion-sensor camera in the middle of the night, there was serious cause for celebration.

In an effort to enhance the research abilities of biologists, Stanford University researchers have discovered that applying a popular food coloring to the skin of mice allowed them to see through to the rodents' internal organs and other structures.

Science's war against the super-small and, sometimes, super-deadly bacteria that have evolved to resist destruction by antibiotics may have just enlisted new, unlikely allies: invertebrate creatures living in the frigid depths of the Arctic Ocean.

Despite what you might say when drunk, you’re not the best backflipper in the world. That honor belongs to a tiny little bug called a globular springtail, whose superfast backflips have now been caught on slow-motion camera for the first time.

In a medical emergency, quick treatment is critical. But a widely used drug could be repurposed to induce a hibernation-like state, to slow down organ damage and save lives by giving patients more time to reach a hospital.

A “bananageddon” might be on the horizon, and not for the first time. But new research could help save our favorite fruit.

Some species have an incredible knack for hacking others to get what they want. Scientists have now discovered a fascinating new example – some spiders have been seen manipulating fireflies’ flashes to attract more bugs to their webs.

Like a computer system with built-in redundancies, a study has revealed that brains use three different sets of neurons to store a single memory. The finding could one day help soften painful memories in people who've suffered trauma.

Scientists have discovered the largest known protein in biology. Given the fun name of PKZILLA-1, the protein was found in algae cells and helps them make toxins that are responsible for mass killings of fish.

Scientists have found evidence that an isolated pocket of complex life evolved 2 billion years ago – only to go extinct and take another 1.5 billion years to return to that level. The controversial find could rewrite our understanding of life on Earth.

Everybody loves roses, but we'd probably love them even more if they didn't have those sharp thorns. Well, scientists have found a way of growing thornless roses, and their findings could lead to easier-to-harvest crops.

New insights into a mummy frozen in time with mouth agape, which has disturbed and fascinated archeologists for decades, have revealed that her animated expression was not due to bad embalming but more likely caused by dying in immense, emotional pain.

Brain parasites are something that most people would naturally want to avoid, but maybe they can be used for good. A new study has found that a common brain parasite could be engineered to deliver drugs past the blood-brain barrier.