Stories by Jennifer Frazer

This is the fourth post in the Wonderful Things series. As we saw last time, the thin strip of sand found on beaches is home to many organisms that can dwell no where else.

Pandas, lions, and elk and their ilk often find their way onto the covers of conservationists’ marketing materials. But I think relying exclusively on big furry animals (industry codename: charasmatic megafauna) means they are missing out on some potentially awesome spokes-creatures.

Fire was the first force of nature tamed for cooking. Yeast was second. In the early days of ancient Egypt, around 3100 B.C., there lived a ruler named Scorpion, who probably did not look like The Rock.

Have you ever wished you could have the entire 150 million years of spiny-rayed fish evolution in convenient poster form? Well, wait no longer.

In the creeks and ponds of the world — including America — lives an insect that can reach four inches long and bears a pair of giant pincers and a beak for injective digestive enzymes into its victim.

Note: This is the third installment in the “Wonderful Things” series. What you are about to see is a truffle-like (although it seems to fruit above-ground) fungus called Pisolithus tinctorius.

With a winning combination of cuteness, digging-osity, and the precision focus of a heat-seaking missile, Este the truffle dog has helped blaze a trail together with scientists that could both enliven American diets and help support American pecan growers.

Coffee drinkers recoiled in horror when news that their favorite plant had come under serious attack by a fungus called rust this year. The news came close on the heels of news that the bacterial disease huanglongbing is devastating the Florida citrus industry, driving up prices and threatening quality.

Glass sponges are taking over a newly sunlit strip of Antarctic marine real estate at a blistering clip, surprising biologists who had no idea they had it in them.

Beware the Giant Paintbrush, Little Insect Way, way down in the southeast corner of Alaska lies Prince of Wales Island, the fourth largest in the United States.