Author Archives: elsa
Could Climate Change Alter Lizard Learning?
from ScienceNOW Daily News January 10, 2012 The temperature of a nest can affect a hatchling lizard’s size, speed, and sex. Now, the reptiles can add smarts to the list. Researchers have found that lizards incubated in warmer environments may … Continue reading
Top 10 ScienceNOWs of 2011
ScienceNOW picked its top 10 stories of 2011, among them an article I wrote about pitcher plants that collect bat guano. Read about all 10 stories online or in Science magazine (pdf).
How a Fungus Boosts a Beetle’s Invasion
Microbial evolution helps explain why a mild-mannered American beetle has become a tree killer in Asia Continue reading
In the News: Olives, Herbs and Juniper
from American Scientist January-February 2012 Ancient Greek trade ships shuttled millions of amphoras—ceramic, vase-shaped storage jars—around the Mediterranean and Black seas. The containers are generally thought to have carried wine, but a new DNA analysis of nine jars, aged 2,200 … Continue reading
A 44-Million-Year-Old Hitchhiker
from ScienceNOW Daily News November 8, 2011 Talk about a ride gone wrong. A tiny mite climbed onto a spider’s back at least 44 million years ago, but the spider stumbled into a glob of sticky tree sap. That makes … Continue reading
In the News: Spoiler Alert
from American Scientist November-December 2011 Movie critics might do their readers a favor by slipping more plot spoilers into their reviews. Far from wrecking a story, revealing a surprise ending makes fiction more enjoyable. Also in this issue’s news roundup: … Continue reading
Laundry Lint Pollutes the World’s Oceans
from ScienceNOW Daily News October 21, 2011 There’s nothing subtle about dryer lint: Clean the fluffy, gray mat off the filter or risk a fire. Washer lint, however, is sneaky. Nearly 2000 polyester fibers can float away, unseen, from a … Continue reading
Vacation Invertebrates
October 17, 2011 While trekking in the Annapurna region of Nepal on vacation, we saw some curious invertebrates. Here are their portraits. If anybody knows (a) what the millepedes are up to and/or (b) whether that snail engulfing its own … Continue reading
Customized Atlases of the Amazon
from PRI’s The World August 25, 2011 Aishalton, Guyana, is a dusty savanna town on the edge of tropical forest. Like many indigenous communities in and around South America’s Amazon Basin, it’s a village in transition. Some villagers fear that … Continue reading
In the News: Agency Angst
from American Scientist September-October 2011 If it turns out that free will is an illusion, we’d only be losing something we never had. But believing in that loss makes a difference. Also in this issue’s news roundup: One day on … Continue reading