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biology

Ant on a small plant

Life

Ants have evolved to farm plants on at least 15 separate occasions

Many species of tree-living ants cultivate plants that grow on trees either for food or shelter, but there is a debate over whether the practice should be considered agriculture

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Erect crested penguins

Life

Erect-crested penguins always reject their first egg and lay another

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Scar marks across the seabed indicate scallop dredging continues legally inside the protected area

Environment

Dredging in crucial habitat sparks row over UK marine protected areas

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Illustration of a ribosome

Life

Self-replicating protein factories are a step towards artificial life

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Megalodon

Life

Ancient megalodon shark could eat a whale in just a few bites

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Indo-Pacific sponge Chelonaplysilla sp.

Life

Sponges can ‘sneeze’ and other sea creatures eat their mucus

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Five green slender pitcher plants are suspended on vines

Life

Pitcher plants use raindrop impacts to fling insects into their trap

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3D shape of a protein

Life

AlphaFold: Why DeepMind’s protein-folding AI is transformational

Analysis

Fin whale in front of iceberg

Life

Southern fin whales have recovered to large numbers in the Antarctic

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A snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis) at night

Life

Snapping shrimps have helmets to ward off shock waves from their claws

Snapping shrimps seem immune to the shock waves their claws produce to kill or stun other animals – and it is all thanks to their head gear

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Mind

How do we sense time? The brain cells that order our memories

Features

Life

Australian seagrass has cloned itself to cover 180 kilometres of coast

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Mathematics

A rethink of cause and effect could help when things get complicated

Features

Life

Ancient Romans may have triggered decline of the world’s rarest seals

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