When Good Proteins Go Bad: The Strange Science of Prion Disease
Discover the strange science behind infectious proteins that cause incurable brain diseases in animals and humans.
Anatomy of a Wasp’s Lair: The Cicada Killer’s Underground Home
Discover the complete process behind how and why the large cicada killer wasp builds its intricate underground nursery in lawns and gardens.
Do Slugs Feel Pain When Salt Is Poured On Them?
Understand the biological process behind a slug’s deadly reaction to salt and why it’s a poor choice for your garden.
The Parasite That Makes Fish Flash Like Warning Signs
Explore the unsettling science behind the parasite that turns fish into flashing, conspicuous targets for predators.
The Worm That Can Split Into Pieces and Still Escape
Discover a bizarre sea creature that can regenerate from pieces and hunts with a horrifying, extendable harpoon.
Why the Diving Bell Spider Is Nature’s Creepiest Scuba Diver
Explore the science behind the only spider that spends its entire life underwater using a bubble as a personal scuba tank and a web as its home.
The Fish That Changes Sex When the Group Needs It
Explore the incredible process of sex transformation in clownfish, a natural adaptation for survival within their rigid social structure.
Meet the Fork Tailed Drongo: The Feathered Con Artist of the Savanna
Learn about the clever, manipulative bird that fakes predator warnings to snatch meals from its unsuspecting neighbors.
The Fly That Turns Ants Into Living Doorways
Discover the macabre life cycle of a parasitic fly that turns its ant host into a headless nursery for its young.
How the Bunchberry Dogwood Fires Pollen Like a Cannon
This common forest plant uses a trebuchet-like mechanism to explosively launch its reproductive dust faster than a bullet.
The Insect That Looks Like Bird Poop on Purpose
Discover the bizarre world of caterpillars and other animals that have evolved to look exactly like bird waste to stay alive.
Meet the Tailorbird: The Anxious Seamstress of the Forest
Explore how a small bird uses its beak like a needle to stitch a camouflaged nursery from living foliage.
The Octopus That Punches Fish When They Annoy It
Discover the scientific reasons why some octopuses resort to punching their fish hunting partners.
The Snail That Builds a Suit of Armor From Metal
Discover a deep-sea gastropod that constructs a unique shell and scales from metallic compounds found near underwater volcanoes.
The Snake That Flies Without Wings
Explore the mildly horrifying, scientifically fascinating world of the reptile that launches from trees and glides through the air by reshaping its own skeleton.
The Beetle That Drinks Fog With Its Own Back
Learn about the bizarre and brilliant method this insect uses to harvest water from thin air in one of the driest places on Earth.
The Crab That Wears Seaweed Like a Bad Disguise
Learn about the bizarre crustacean that creates a living disguise out of ocean debris to survive.
Meet the Hammer Orchid: The Plant That Pretends to Be an Insect
Learn about the devious plant that fools male wasps into pollinating it by pretending to be a female insect.
The Moth That Jams Bat Sonar Like a Tiny Fighter Jet
Learn how a seemingly ordinary insect engages in sophisticated acoustic warfare, using biological sonar jamming to outsmart one of the night’s top predators.
The Pufferfish Crop Circle Is the Ocean’s Weirdest Work of Art
Learn about the small, lovesick pufferfish that spends a week building a massive, intricate sand sculpture as part of a bizarre and fascinating courtship ritual.
The Lizard That Shoots Blood From Its Eyes
This desert reptile has one of the strangest and grossest defense mechanisms in the animal kingdom.