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Fate of World’s ‘Ugliest’ Fish Unknown, Presumed Miserable
A blobfish out of water / Illustration by Perry Shirley The blobfish routinely ranks high in publishers’ “ugliest animals” lists. But its maligned existence is as mysterious as the creature is...
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Beetles Ride Global Warming Up Rockies, Into Vulnerable Pines
Pine beetles can kill forests / Illustration by Perry Shirley The grand pine forests that dominate the Rocky Mountains in the American West morph with the montane altitudes. High peaks are home to...
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Rare Bluefin Sells For $1.8 Million
A restauteur and his $1.8m tuna / Illustration by Perry Shirley Couple quick facts about Pacific bluefin tuna, a fish that’s sold as sushi, mostly in Japan: 1. A 490-pound specimen caught off...
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When T7 Attacks – Watch a Virus Infect a Cell
Illustration by Perry Shirley The E. coli was doomed. This gut-dwelling microbe was trapped in the company of a predator. A T7 bacteriophage, a virus that propagates by inserting its DNA into bacteria,...
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New Island, Same Old Ecological Succession Theory
Norderoogsand / Illustration by Perry Shirley It’s easy to think of the earth’s lands as static. But shorelines are constantly shifting as sea levels and land masses rise and fall. New islands can...
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California’s Water Hightails East
Illustration by Perry Shirley California’s Central Valley is one of the world’s most productive crop-growing regions. But growing crops in the vast rich soils requires a lot of water. Some of that...
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How Do Plants Cope With Shade?
Illustration by Perry Shirley Plants can tell when they have germinated in the shade of their competitors. Neighboring leaves absorb most of the red and blue wavelengths from the sun but reflect the...
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Did Climate Change Or Hunting Kill Off Woolly Mammoths?
Illustration by Perry Shirley Woolly mammoths, members of the elephant family, lived alongside our primitive ancestors. They were adept at living in ice age conditions and they were hunted for their...
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Study: ‘Safe’ Nitrogen Levels Unsafe for Wildflowers
Illustration by Perry Shirley When we think about air pollution, it’s easy to imagine airborne chemicals that kill or stunt wildlife by infiltrating tissues and disrupting cellular processes. But that...
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Cicada wings rip bacteria apart
Illustrated by Perry Shirley Forget sanitary hand wipes. Scientists have discovered that cicada wings have evolved to kill bacteria without using any chemicals. The wing are coated with tiny blunt...
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Forests Pump Carbon Down into Soil
When a mycorrhizal fungus is ready to reproduce, it sends up a spore-laden mushroom, which is why mushrooms are often easiest to find around tree trunks. Illustrated by Perry Shirley. Photosynthesis is...
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A hungry red tide is a dangerous red tide
Illustrated by Perry Shirley When fertilizer or sewage runs into a waterway, or when phosphorous and nitrogen rise up from the ocean depths, algae can converge and feast and mushroom on the buffet of...
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Mosquitoes hunt us by our smell, then zero in on our heat
Illustrated by Perry Shirley The Zzzz–zzZZZzzz–zzZZ sound that a mosquito makes while you’re trying to sleep isn’t the random modulation of a directionless insect. It’s the sound of a predator...
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How different bird cultures avoid being cuckolded
Illustrated by Perry Shirley One of nature’s more ridiculous sights is that of a pair of adult birds rearing an oversized cuckoo chick. Cuckoos are members of a large family of birds, some of which...
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Guppies father fry long after they die
Illustration by Perry Shirley. You have to be quite the stud to sire a clutch of ankle-biters long after you’ve croaked it. Yet that’s just what male members of many species of animals can do. And with...
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Dutch gulls eat their young on Sundays
Illustrated by Perry Shirley. The durations of days and years are calibrated by celestial turntables: The spinning of the Earth and its arcing around the sun. Humans and wildlife alike live out...
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Recommended novel: The Island of Doctor Moreau, by H.G. Wells
This 1896 classic opens a portal into dusty notions of genetic modification predating the discovery of DNA. Written by one of the world’s great science fiction writers and adapted by numerous...
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Recommended novel: State of Fear, by Michael Crichton
This adventure romp around the world could leave you living in fear of environmentalists. In one of his final novels, Michael Crichton throws climate skepticism into full throttle, casting a crew of...
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Recommended novel: Breath of Death, by Saad Shafqat
One on level, this is a well-composed thriller that thrusts medical researchers into a race against a bio-terrorist. On another, it’s an exploration of the challenges that scientists face in Pakistan –...
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Recommended novel: The Appeal, by John Grisham
John Grisham paints a bleak picture of how justice can be bought and sold in America. After a chemical factory sickens the residents of a small town, a team of local attorneys secures a colossal — and...
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