Advances

The beginnings of agriculture in Turkey, the bitter origins of watermelon, a giant deep-sea isopod found in Mexico and more in this month’s Quick Hits

A biological “spring” helps a pitcher plant fling insects to their doom

Tracking how SARS-CoV-2 spreads among animals could help us prepare for the next pandemic

Cannibals start munching as animal populations grow

“Intentionally added microplastics” in pesticides and cosmetics could be made from silk instead

Watching fish rot for more than two months disproves a long-standing fossilization theory

Tiny subterranean cracks can upend aquifer microbes’ ecology

A new study quantifies how dolphins vary their “signature whistles”

A new study suggests that billions of years ago microbes may have thrived on Mars before succumbing to freezing temperatures of their own making

Tiny, soccer-playing bees raise questions about the inner lives of invertebrates

Flying robots help researchers identify and protect threatened plants and other species in places that are inaccessible to humans

This Scottish woman’s hypersensitive nose picked up a chemical signature of Parkinson’s disease that has been used to develop a skin-swab diagnostic