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animals

Life

Tigers seem to be bouncing back in remote Sumatran jungle

Camera traps in an area of the Leuser rainforest patrolled by NGOs spotted 17 tigers in 2023 and 18 Sumatran tigers in 2024, while surveys elsewhere on the island averaged seven

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Overall winner Mesmerizing spider threads The image shows two exceptional silk threads of the Australian netcaster spider, Asianopis subrufa. Unlike typical web-builders, this spider holds a specialized, sticky net between its four front legs. When an unsuspecting insect approaches, the spider rapidly expands its net and casts it over the prey, a maneuver that demands dramatic extensibility from the supporting lines at the sides of the sticky net. These threads are composed of an elastomeric core encased in a sheath of harder fibers of varying sizes; the result is a structure that is both strong and stretchy. The mesmerizing, looping fibers in the image capture the eye with their meandering fiber bundles, which shift in their complex winding from large to small scales. The image covers 50 microns in width and was captured using a Zeiss GeminiSEM 360 field-emission scanning electron microscope under high vacuum and after coating of Au-Pd. Minimal adjustments of curves and cropping were applied via Adobe Photoshop. Martin J. Ramirez Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales - CONICET

Life

Incredible close-up of spider silk wins science photo prize

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Stop treating your pet like a fur baby – you're damaging its health

Life

Stop treating your pet like a fur baby – you're damaging its health

Comment

Life

Cats can overcome fear of water to benefit from aquatic therapy

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Life

Origin story of domestic cats rewritten by genetic analysis

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Life

Pandas use tools to scratch thanks to a strange evolutionary quirk

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'Horrific and beautiful' whale rescue image wins photography prize

Life

'Horrific and beautiful' whale rescue image wins photography prize

Regulars

Life

Sperm's evolutionary origins go back before multicellular animals

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Extinct animals in Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age make it a must-watch

Life

Extinct animals in Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age make it a must-watch

Culture

Life

Ancient tracks may record stampede of turtles disturbed by earthquake

Around 1000 markings on a slab of rock that was once a seafloor during the Cretaceous period may have been made by sea turtle flippers and swiftly buried by an earthquake

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Life

Parasitic ant tricks workers into killing their queen, then usurps her

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Life

Oldest ever RNA sample recovered from woolly mammoth

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Life

Smart new book takes an axe to the myth of human exceptionalism

Culture

Life

A three-legged lion has learned to hunt in a completely unexpected way

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