Stories by Susanne Bard

Neandertals ate clams and then modified the hard shells into tools for cutting and scraping.

Well more than 100 distinct sign languages exist worldwide, with each having features that made it possible for researchers to create an evolutionary tree of their lineages.

Human hair tested stronger than thicker fibers from elephants, boars and giraffes, providing clues to materials scientists hoping to make superstrong synthetic fibers.

Tiger moth species that contain bad-tasting and toxic compounds are nonchalant in the presence of bats, while edible moth species evade their predators.

Residents of an overwintering station in Antarctica provided linguists with evidence of the first small changes in speech that may signal the development of a new accent.

Recycled wastewater can be cleaner than bottled water, but people still avoid drinking it because of their disgust over its past condition.

Archaeologists working in the ancient city of Hierakonpolis discovered five ceramic vats containing residues consistent with brewing beer.

Researchers tracked thousands of individual ants to determine how they move in vast numbers without stumbling into gridlock.

In an analysis of chess and tennis matches, players rising in the rankings did better than expected against higher-ranked opponents and better than similarly ranked players who were not rising.  

The phainopepla migrates from southern California to the desert Southwest to breed in the spring before flying to California coastal woodlands to do so again in summer.

The Saharan silver ant feeds on other insects that have died on the hot sands, which it traverses at breakneck (for an ant) speeds.

The Dsup protein protects DNA under conditions that create caustic free radical chemicals.

DNA from the teeth of medieval plague victims indicates the pathogen likely first arrived in eastern Europe before spreading across the continent.

The brains of those who are blind repurpose the vision regions for adaptive hearing, and they appear to do so in a consistent way.

Western ears consider a pitch at double the frequency of a lower pitch to be the same note, an octave higher. The Tsimane’, an indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon basin, do not.

A slight temperature difference at night between a surface losing heat and the surrounding air can be harnessed to generate electricity to power lights.

As the little structures grow, their constituents specialize into different types of brain cells, begin to form connections and emit brain waves. They could be useful models for development and neurological conditions.

The conditions of sunlight, temperature, humidity and wind that make cropland good for agriculture also maximize solar panel efficiency.

As Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida, consider that feeding style means that aggressive tangle-web spider colonies produce more offspring after severe weather, while docile colonies do better in calm conditions.

Honest, involuntary laughter cued people to laugh more at some really bad jokes than they did when hearing forced laughter.