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A koala in a tree

A common kitchen tool could help koala conservation

A simple device sucks koala DNA out of the air, making it easier for conservationists to detect the elusive marsupials.

A male mosquito is seen in profile against a lime green background.

Male mosquitoes sometimes suck, too

Seabirds in Peru stand on a rock covered in guano, a nitrogen-rich natural fertilizer.

The U.S. empire was built on bird dung

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More Stories in Life

This image shows the head of the newly rediscovered giant salmon carp with its distinctive hooked jaw. A pair of hands hold a measuring tape, measuring the size of the fish's head.

The ‘Mekong ghost’ megafish has resurfaced after an extinction scare 

Rediscovery of giant salmon carp in Cambodia sparks hope for the rare fish’s survival and efforts to conserve one of the greatest diversity hot spots.

A group of three wildlife specialists hold on to the end of a rope lassoed around a rhinos horn on a sunny grassland

How insects can help catch rhino poachers

A new study looks at which insects can be used as biological clocks to determine when a rhino was killed.

A polar bear walks across the snow

Polar bears are being exposed to more pathogens as the climate warms

Polar bears have been exposed to more viruses, bacteria and parasites in recent decades, a new study shows, possibly acquiring the germs in their diet.

A black-colored bird arcs his wings, making a full circle around his head, as part of his courtship display.

Science has finally cracked male riflebirds’ flirty secrets

New video upsets the old notion that these birds of paradise use wing clapping to make percussive sounds while courting.

Several dozen monarch butterflies cling to an oyamel fir tree. More monarchs fly above it.

An idea to save Mexico’s oyamel forests could help monarch butterflies too

Climate change is putting monarch butterflies’ overwintering forests in Mexico at risk. Could planting new forests solve that problem?

An image taken under a microscope shows two phytoplankton, one at bottom left a fraction of the size of the one in the center of the image. The single-celled organisms swell to the larger size, allowing them to rise up the water column in the ocean.

How tiny phytoplankton trek long distances upward in the ocean

Taking in seawater while filtering out dense salts lets unicellular phytoplankton migrate tens of meters vertically toward sunnier seas.

Green tendrils connect puffs of green and magenta of various sizes against a black background

Here are some stellar picks from Nikon’s top microscopy images of 2024

The annual Small World photomicrography competition, now in its 50th year, puts life’s smallest details under the microscope.

A dead ant lies on its back on the tip of a carnivorous sundew plant's q-tip shaped leaf

Carnivorous plants eat faster with a fungal friend

Insects stuck in sundew plants’ sticky secretions suffocate and die before being subjected to a medley of digestive enzymes.

Orange cat squeezes through a crack in the door.

At-home experiments shed light on cats’ liquid behavior

Cats can flow like liquids through tall crevices, but they solidify a bit as they approach short crannies, new research shows.

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