How Book Scorpions Tend to Your Dusty Tomes
Book scorpions are the best/worst thing to happen to books, because book scorpions! But also book scorpions... Properly known as pseudoscorpions, these tiny, tiny creatures have a fondness for old books, because old books also happen to contain delicious booklice and dust mites.
Baffling Genetic Barrier Prevents Similar Animals from Interbreeding
A short stretch of DNA challenges what it means to be a species
Dandruff-Causing Skin Fungi Discovered Unexpectedly in Deep Sea Vents, Antarctica
Until relatively recently, the fungus Malassezia was thought to have one favorite home: us. As the dominant fungus on human skin and sometimes-cause of dandruff, the yeast Malassezia was thought to live a simple if sometimes irritating domestic existence humbly mooching off the oils we exude.
Octopus-Inspired Camouflage Flashes To Life In Smart Material
Octopuses and their cephalopod cousins are the undisputed masters of disguise. An octopus can change its color, texture and luminosity faster than you can say “camouflage.” So far our lowly human attempts at imitation have been quite crude.
Neandertals Disappeared from Europe Earlier Than Thought
Carbon-dating improvements show that Neandertals disappeared from Europe much earlier than thought
Seals Brought Tuberculosis to the Americas
Bacteria found in ancient human skeletons in Peru point to a relatively recent origin of the disease and to its spread by sea
Similarities Between Human and Chimp Genomes Revealed by Hilbert Curve
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Martin Krzywinski, a contributing artist who designed the Graphic Science illustration in the September issue of Scientific American magazine.
How #Selfie Culture is Changing Our Lives
We've all done it: We're at an event, we take a bunch of photos with our phones, we take a selfie and maybe one with a friend, we post all the images online, and we're done.
To End War, Focus on Culture Rather than "Root Causes"
Last week, on the same day that McSweeney’s Books published a new, paperback edition of my book The End of War, I argued that we must and can end war and militarism, our most urgent problems.
Speculative Biology a Hit at Science Fiction Convention
I've just returned from LonCon3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held at the enormous ExCel Exhibition Centre in east London. Yeah, I know, sci-fi isn't exactly a normal part of the Tet Zoo remit but, on this occasion, there really is overlap since I was there for a set of special Speculative Biology talks [...]
An Eye-Popping New Look at Flowers' Highly Public Private Parts
People who lack the gardening bug often regard flowers like fashion models: pretty but boring. Jens Petersen, the man who gave us the groundbreaking photographs of fungi in “The Kingdom of Fungi”, which I reviewed here in March, has a new book of photographs (still available only in Danish, unfortunately, and called Blomsterliv — “Flower [...]
Tiny Toe Tools Insure Gecko Traction
To activate or loosen their grip on a surface, geckos extend and angle or retract tiny toe hairs that create contact points. Clara Moskowitz reports