How a Tiny Pit Decides a Pine Tree’s Fate
Live fast, die young and leave a good lookin’ stump
Stories by Jennifer Frazer
Did the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Inadvertently Help Lichens?
The leafy lichens seem to have picked up where a lot of incinerated plants left off
New Shipworm Eats Rock, a First for Animals
Like lichens, these animals mine stone. What they do with it is another question
Striped Maples Can Change Sex Repeatedly
Unassuming tree has unusual sex life
These Bizarre Parasites Garden Their Insect Hosts
Be glad human STDs do not include this one
What the Heck Are These Fossils?
Are they the first animal embryos? 20 years post-discovery, these and other fossils from the 600-million-year-old Doushantuo Formation remain frustratingly enigmatic
![Organ Stealing and Slavery Rampant among—Plankton? [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/88F2B3AB-B3A8-43B9-A0991DB1AC23ED91_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Organ Stealing and Slave Driving Rampant among—Plankton?
Ocean microbes long thought to depend exclusively on eating turn out to have a solid, if sinister, Plan B
How a Half-Inch Beetle Finds Fires 80 Miles Away
Fire chaser beetles' ability to sense heat borders on the spooky
![Kangaroo Rats Channel Jackie Chan to Evade Rattlesnakes [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/5560CD89-B9EA-4D83-93DB2E0D42B4888F_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Kangaroo Rats Channel Jackie Chan to Evade Rattlesnakes [Video]
First ever high-speed video of interaction contains big surprises
For Some Reason, New World Flying Squirrels Fluoresce Pink
No other placental mammals have ever shown this ability—perhaps because we haven't looked
![2.1-Billion-Year-Old Tracks May Be Giant Ancient "Slime Molds" [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/2A078C59-0E9E-4EFF-8B7641A36F0EEE57_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
2.1 Billion-Year-Old Tracks May Be Giant Ancient "Slime Molds" [Video]
Whatever made these structures lived 1.4 billion years before the first animals
The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
What separates a lethal prion from a dementia-associated amyloid plaque? Maybe not much
Inside Earth, Microbes Approach Immortality
Mostly dead is slightly alive
Prions, Nearly Indestructible and Universally Lethal, Seed the Eyes of Victims
Discovery suggests worrying transmission possibilities
Fanworms, "Nature's Eye Factories," Stick Them Pretty Much Anywhere
Necessity is the mother of invention
Scientists Sculpt Bacteria into Hearts, Moons and Stars
Because if you can grow a square watermelon…, why not E. coli?
Eye Candy: Fossil Flowers Bloomed When Dinosaurs Ruled Earth
Seven complete specimens of 100-million-year-old flower found preserved in amber
Magic Mushroom Drug Evolved to Mess with Insect Brains
For that matter, so did most natural recreational drugs
Marine Predator Problem? Try a Gastropod Hostage Backpack
It's hard out there for a shrimp
Ambitious Praying Mantis Discovers Sashimi
Is there nothing the raptorial insect won't try to eat?
