Plant Efficiency
Plant Efficiency Though the struggle is invisible to unaided human eyes, neighboring plants engage in intense, slow-motion competition. The figure above comes from a study of how plants -- in this...
View ArticleHumanity's Recent Evolution
Humanity's Recent Evolution It's easy to think that modern life has slowed human evolution, but the opposite is true. Most of humanity's genetic variation has accumulated in the last few thousand years...
View ArticleRock, Paper, Scissors: Life!
Rock, Paper, Scissors: Life! Aside from being a timeless method of settling debates, the rock-paper-scissors game contains dynamics seen in the natural world, in particular between competing organisms....
View ArticleA Single Atom
A Single Atom The world's highest-resolution optical microscope captures the shadow of a single yttrium atom (at left, with the fluorescent-lit image at right). Citation: "Absorption imaging of a...
View ArticleThe Variation Inside
The Variation Inside Though it's long been assumed that each cell in a body contains the same basic genomic blueprint, research now suggests that genomes actually vary between cells in the same body....
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Sperm Trajectories
Figures contained in scientific reports are a neglected area of the design world. Typically intended for display to academic audiences in the cramped confines of a journal, they tend to be utilitarian...
View ArticleThe Essence of Tomato
The Essence of Tomato The bland, watery supermarket spheres now synonymous with a modern conception of tomato represent just a tiny fraction of this vegetable's possibilities. Researchers looking to...
View ArticleClimate Velocity in the United States
Climate Velocity in the United States Over the last century, the continental United States climate has changed rapidly and unevenly. Here researchers take a fine-grained look at shifts in water cycles...
View ArticleEarly Life's Explosion
Early Life's Explosion The sheer enormity of new body plans and life forms that emerged 540 million years ago, during what's known as the Cambrian explosion, is evident in this simple but rich...
View ArticleMagnificent Riflebird Bird of Paradise (Ptiloris magnificus) male displaying...
Magnificent Riflebird Bird of Paradise (Ptiloris magnificus) male displaying to female.
View ArticleLesser Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea minor) male displaying high in the rain...
Lesser Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea minor) male displaying high in the rain forest canopy at his display site (lek).
View ArticleKing Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus regius) male
King Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus regius) male
View ArticleTwelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleuca)
Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleuca)
View ArticleGreater Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea apoda)Badigaki Forest, Wokam Island in...
Greater Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea apoda)Badigaki Forest, Wokam Island in the Aru Islands, Indonesia.
View ArticleWilson's Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus respublica)Adult male on the main...
Wilson's Bird of Paradise (Cicinnurus respublica)Adult male on the main display pole in the center of his court.
View ArticleGoldie's Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea decora) males displaying at their lek...
Goldie's Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea decora) males displaying at their lek display site in the forest canopy on Fergusson Island, Papua New Guinea
View ArticleWestern Parotia Bird of Paradise(Parotia sefilata) male performing
Western Parotia Bird of Paradise(Parotia sefilata) male performing "ballerina dance" display for a female.
View ArticleAdult male King of Saxony Bird of Paradise (Pteridophora alberti) performing...
Adult male King of Saxony Bird of Paradise (Pteridophora alberti) performing a bouncing practice display that waves his head plumes.
View ArticleDec 6, 2012
Galactic Bullseye Bright pink nebulae almost completely encircle a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy’s distorted spiral shape...
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