The World of Nature

Whether it's biology, physics or geology, we explain the natural world for you

LATEST NEWS

• Bacteria in Air So Numerous They Form Clouds
• Shrew Shot Venom Through Blood-Red Teeth
• Venom May Be Komodo Dragon's Lethal Weapon
• New 'Montauk Monster' Likely Same Species as Old One
• Happiness Is ... Being Old, Male and Republican
• 'Angels and Demons' Gets Antimatter Partly Right
• Scientists Scale Back Climate-Change Sea-Level Rise
• Monkeys Ponder What Could Have Been
• Cocaine Found Floating in Air of Spanish Cities
• Scientists May Have Found How Life Began
• New 'Montauk Monster' Washes Up on Long Island Beach
• Study Finds the Brain's Willpower Spot
• Smithsonian, 6 Zoos Launch Project to Fight Frog-Killing Fungus
• How Ants Smell Death
• Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town

AGRICULTURE & BOTANY

• How Green Is Your Morning Coffee?
• Human Hair Helps Plants Grow Better
• How Green Is Biodiesel?
• Surprise! Bananas Glow Blue Under Black Light
• Wood Power Makes Comeback in Midst of Fuel Crisis
• Poachers, Houses Crowd Out Venus Flytraps in Carolinas
• Stressed Plants Release Aspirin-Like Chemical
• Scientist: Western Aid Agencies Keep Africa Poor
• Surprising Truths About Fruits and Vegetables
• Eight New 'Natural Wonders of World' Named
• Eight New 'Natural Wonders of World' Named
• U.S. Government Decoding DNA of Chocolate
• English Crop Circle's Mysterious Pattern Solved
• Tree Grown From Ancient Seed Found in Jewish Fortress
• Study: Green Plants Keep Office Workers Happier

ARTHROPODS

• How Ants Smell Death
• Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town
• Nevadans Fend Off Hungry Insects With Rock 'n' Roll
• How Green Are Natural Insecticides?
• Fifty New Species Found in New Guinea Mountains
• Scientist: Terrorists Could Use Insects as Weapons
• Pleasure Chemical Is Secret Key to Locust Swarms
• 'Super-Ants' Taking Over Europe
• Spider Missing Aboard International Space Station
• Ravenous Asian Beetles Devour New England Trees
• Strange Stick Bug Is World's Longest Insect
• Strange 'Ant From Mars' Discovered in Amazon Rainforest
• Why Female Spiders Eat Their Mates: Because They Can
• Rapid Evolution Gives Sperm Big Advantage
• Honey Bee Shortage Might Cause Food Price Hike, Farmers Tell Congress

BIRDS

• Dancing Parrot on YouTube Leads to Scientific Theory
• Big Extinct Birds Left Big Fossilized Droppings
• Bush Moves to Protect Seven Penguin Species
• Search Back On for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
• Scientists Find New Penguin, Extinct for 500 Years
• Brazil Airlifts Hundreds of Penguins to Colder Waters
• Ostriches Kicked Out of Own Family
• Hundreds of Dying Baby Penguins Wash Up on Brazilian Beaches
• DNA Study Revamps Birds' Family Tree
• Wounded Bald Eagle Gets Her Bionic Beak
• Study: Makeup Makes Male Birds Sexier, More Macho
• Female Albatrosses Set Up Same-Sex Partnerships
• Wounded Bald Eagle May Get Bionic Beak
• Young Birds Found to Babble Like Babies
• Hawk Clawed Open by Own Last Meal

CHEMISTRY

• Cocaine Found Floating in Air of Spanish Cities
• Scientists May Have Found How Life Began
• New Form of Ice Could Help Seed Rainclouds
• Simple Form of Water May Be 'Miracle Solution'
• Scotch Whisky By-Product to Fuel Power Plant
• How Green Is Recycled Plastic Lumber?
• 3 Win Nobel Chemistry Prize for Protein Discovery
• Company Creates Hard-to-Ignite Fertilizer to Foil Bomb-Makers
• Study: U.S. Paper Money Covered With Cocaine
• Mortuaries Mull Dissolving Bodies as Burial, Cremation Alternative
• Canadian Brewery Seeks Answer to 'Beer Chill' Problem
• New Protein Antifreeze Improves Ice Cream
• Stamp Honoring Scientist Contains Chemical Error
• Germany's Gerhard Ertl Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Molecular Structure Predicts If Something Smells Good

CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING & METEOROLOGY

• Scientists Scale Back Climate-Change Sea-Level Rise
• Quiet Sun May Trigger Global Cooling
• Climate Catastrophe: Are We That Stupid?
• Antarctic Ice Shelf Beginning to Break Up
• Success Stories: Cleaning Up Planet Earth
• Rivers Worldwide Are Drying Up
• Man Survives 3 Days Lost in Arctic Ice
• Do Fat People Cause Global Warming?
• Sea Levels Could Rise 10 Feet in 50 Years
• Obama May Block Sun's Rays to End Global Warming
• Six Hurricanes, Two Major, Forecast for 2009
• Arctic Ice Especially Thin This Spring, Scientists Say
• Breakaway Ice Shelf Would Reshape Map of Antarctica
• Study: Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Anticipated
• How Green Is Your Lawn Mower?

DNA, GENETICS & HEREDITY

• Africans Most Genetically Varied People on Earth
• S. Korean Experts Claim to Have Cloned Glowing Dogs
• Scientists: Incest Doomed European Royal Dynasty
• Researchers Finish First Draft of Neanderthal Genome
• Study: 20 Percent of Spanish, Portuguese Have Jewish Ancestry
• Future Office-Seekers May Have to Disclose DNA
• Researchers Find 'Transsexual Gene'
• 'Iceman' Alpine Mummy May Have Been Last of His Kind
• Ancient Phoenicians Left Genetic Markers Around Mediterranean
• Scientists' Entire DNA Sequences to Be Posted on Web
• Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution
• DNA Could Land Dog Owners in Deep Doo-Doo
• Study: 'Gay' Genes May Make Females More Fertile
• Extinct Tasmanian Tiger's DNA Revived in Mice
• How DNA Could Reveal Relationships of Texas Sect

FISH & SHARKS

• New 'Dracula Fish' Has Fake Fangs
• Fishermen Catch, Eat Rare Shark in the Philippines
• Filipino Activists Rescue What May Be World's Smallest Whale Shark
• Psychedelic Fish Named a New Species
• Strange Fish Has See-Through Head
• Endangered Sharks to Get Artificial Uteruses
• Scientists Realize Three Different Fish Are One Species
• Great White Shark Dissection to Be Shown Live Online
• Scientists: Disconnect Great Lakes, Mississippi Watershed
• Gigantic Salmon Found in California River
• Strange Fish Found Thriving Five Miles Deep in Pacific
• Second Case of 'Virgin Birth' Found in Sharks
• Ugly Fish May Need Federal Protection
• Glowing Red Fish Found in Red Sea
• Huge Pacific Fish Identified as New Species

GEOLOGY & SEISMOLOGY

• Oldest Surface on Earth Discovered
• Alaska's Mount Redoubt Volcano Shows Increased Unrest
• Complex Geology Behind Italian Earthquake
• Mount Redoubt Shifts to Small but Steady Eruptions
• Mount Redoubt Quiets After Spewing Ash on Anchorage
• Huge Ash Cloud Towers Above Alaska's Mount Redoubt
• Huge Explosion Rocks Alaska's Mount Redoubt
• Mount Redoubt Erupts Again Wednesday Morning
• New Tremors Detected on Alaska's Mount Redoubt
• Alaska's Mount Redoubt Erupts Five Times in Six Hours
• Scientists Rush to Erupting Pacific Undersea Volcano
• Undersea Volcano Erupts Off Tonga Coast
• Earth 'Heals' After Big Earthquakes
• Geologist Erupts at Jindal's Volcano Question
• Scientists Dig Deep to Predict the Next Big Quake

THE HUMAN MIND & BODY

• Happiness Is ... Being Old, Male and Republican
• Do Fat People Cause Global Warming?
• Women May Get Sex Pills, Too
• Study Finds Why Some Men Are 'Chubby Chasers'
• Anti-Addiction Drug Quells Kleptomaniac Impulses
• Study: 'Friends With Benefits' Sex Common in College
• If You Can Raed Tihs, You Msut Be Raelly Smrat
• Brain Scans Can Read Memories, Scientists Find
• Humans Respond to Scent of Fear
• Scientists Locate 'God Spot' in Human Brain
• Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint
• Caffeine May Kill Some Cancer Cells
• Beauty and the Brain, Women Use More Than Men
• Common Cold DNA Deciphered, Congestion Continues
• Common Cold DNA Deciphered, Congestion Continues

MAMMALS

• New 'Montauk Monster' Likely Same Species as Old One
• Monkeys Ponder What Could Have Been
• New 'Montauk Monster' Washes Up on Long Island Beach
• Google Gets Goats to Mow Lawn at Company Headquarters
• Forest Service Closing Caves to Stop Bat Fungus
• Thoroughbreds May Be as Fast as They'll Ever Be
• Sticky Situation: Red Pandas Like NutraSweet
• 'Nazi Cows' Roam English Countryside
• Chimps Exchange Meat for Sex, Study Finds
• Study: Dogs Do Look Like Their Owners
• Scientists: Animals Probably Enjoy Sex Too
• Putin Stops Russian Baby-Seal Slaughter
• Magnetic Fields From Power Lines Disorient Cows
• Angry Chimp Proves Primates Can Make Plans
• Auction On to Kill Rare Scottish White Deer

MATHEMATICS

• Scientist Predicts 2009's Best Baseball Teams
• MIT Professor Becomes Second Woman to Win $250,000 Turing Prize
• Math Freaks Celebrate Square Root Day
• Mathematician: Tampa Bay Devil Rays Likely to Win World Series
• Mathematicians Make Three-Dimensional Images of Music
• Mathematicians Build 'Perfect' Terrorist Cell
• Math Team Solves 248-Dimensional Puzzle
• Fans of Pi Have Their Day
• Study: Countries That Hate Math Do Better at It
• Japanese Man Recites First 100,000 Digits of Pi
• Mysterious Mathematician Solves Problem, Refuses Award
• Study: Babies Can Do Math at Six Months
• Chinese, English Speakers Use Brains Differently to Tackle Math
• Virginia Boy, 15, Recites 8,784 Digits of Pi

MICROBIOLOGY

• Bacteria in Air So Numerous They Form Clouds
• Million-Year-Old Microbe Colony Found Under Antarctic Ice
• Strange Beings Found in Great Lakes
• Common Cold DNA Deciphered, Congestion Continues
• Fuel-Making Fungus Challenges Oil Creation Theory
• Fungi Caught Having Sex in Humans
• New Species of Bacteria Found in Ancient Roman Tombs
• Study: Chesapeake Bay Asteroid Impact Didn't Kill Everything
• Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil
• Bacteria Survive 120,000 Years Under Greenland Ice
• Strange Earth Life Gives Hope for Same on Mars
• Tiny Microbes Found Thriving Mile Below Seafloor
• Two Bacteria Species Merging Into One
• Viruses Found Transmitting Genes Among Bacteria
• Scientists Find Way to Shake Viruses to Death

OCEANOGRAPHY & MARINE BIOLOGY

• Life Thrives Atop Steaming Underwater Volcano
• 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Cleanup Effort Begins
• Every Octopus in World Is Poisonous, Scientists Find
• Seven Million Pounds of Beach Trash Picked Up in One Day
• Google Earth Goes Underwater, Flies to Mars
• Scientists Realize Three Different Fish Are One Species
• Fish Feces May Maintain Ocean Acid Balance
• Wondrous Creatures Found in Deep Ocean
• Underwater Explorer Jacques Piccard Dies at 86
• Study: 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Was Biggest in 600 Years
• How Green Is a Reef Burial?
• Starbucks Accused of Wasting Huge Amount of Water
• Hundreds of New Species Found in Australian Reefs
• Research: Octopuses Have Six 'Arms,' Two 'Legs'
• Top Democrats Spar Over Invasive-Species Bill

OTHER ANIMALS

• Scientist: Alien 'Shadow Life' May Already Live on Earth
• How 'Worm Grunting' Drives Earthworms Above Ground
• Tiny Water Bug Able to Survive in Space
• Bigfoot Hoaxers Resurface, Blame California Promoter
• Bigfoot Hoaxers Still On the Lam
• Bigfoot Body Revealed to Be Halloween Costume
• Bigfoot Hunters Reveal Little at Press Conference
• Bigfoot Experts Skeptical of Body in Freezer
• Bigfoot Trackers Say They've Got a Body
• Older Bhutanese Remember Abominable Snowman
• 'Montauk Monster' May Have Been Kidnapped
• 'Montauk Monster' Mystery Gets More Mysterious
• 'Montauk Monster' Has Hamptons in a Tizzy
• Worms Use Calculus to Find Food
• Study: Ranchland Key to Preserving American West's Environment

PHYSICS

• 'Angels and Demons' Gets Antimatter Partly Right
• Minnesota Students Building House Powered Entirely by Sun
• Fake Vintage Scotch Whisky Exposed by Radiation
• Report: Mafia Invests in Sicilian Wind Farms
• Stephen Hawking Expected to Recover From Infection
• Famed Physicist Stephen Hawking Rushed to Hospital
• Scientists Bend Laser Beams -- and Maybe Lightning
• Friendly 'Death Star' Laser to Recreate Sun's Power
• Navy Chemist May Have Rediscovered 'Cold Fusion'
• Princeton Senior Finds Error in European Supercollider
• Lasers to Create 'Miniature Sun' in Hunt for Clean Energy
• Nuclear-Warhead Upgrade Delayed; Government Labs Forgot How to Make Parts
• Natural Explanation Found for UFOs
• Fermilab, European Accelerator Race for Glory
• 'Doomsday Machine' Reboot Pushed Back to September

REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS

• Venom May Be Komodo Dragon's Lethal Weapon
• Smithsonian, 6 Zoos Launch Project to Fight Frog-Killing Fungus
• Researchers Find Frog That Fits on a Fingertip
• Crocodile Numbers Surge in South Florida
• Fifty New Species Found in New Guinea Mountains
• Two Komodo Dragons Kill Indonesian Man
• Two Komodo Dragons Kill Indonesian Man
• Cute 'Living Fossil' Born in New Zealand After 200 Years
• Prince Charles Meets Lonesome George, Last of His Kind
• Magnets Could Keep Crocodiles Out of Florida Neighborhoods
• Cannibalistic Rattlesnakes Eat Dead Offspring
• Why the 'Giant Snake' Is a Fake
• Giant 'Snake' Spotted in Jungle River
• See-Through Frogs Discovered in Colombian Rain Forest