Two rows of three squares each, the top left square pale gray with darker dots and the other five black with clusters of bright dots.

Early Life on Earth

Fossilized cell remnants in 3.4 billion-year-old bedrock are from primitive microbes. 

Brown insect with white splotches on closed wings, sitting on a shiny leaf facing right.

Pumping Above Their Weight

Frog hoppers piercing plants with their mouthparts produce negative pressures exceeding a megapascal. 

5-petaled white flower with yellow center, flanked by two closed flower buds on a dark branch

Origin of Mandarin Oranges

An Okinawa citrus species arose two million years ago when the Ryukyu archipelago disconnected from Asia.

Orange ring against black universe with blow up of bright orange spot suspended inside donut.

An Exomoon in the Making

Astronomers have detected a disk around a planet outside our Solar System for the first time.

Dragonfly with green head, bluish body, and wings angled down, perched with red leaves in background

Lighten Up

The size of dragonfly males’ dark wing patches foreshadows their response to climate change. 

Recipe for Rhino Horn

Bug Loss

Recent Stories

The way they live, the food they eat, and the effect on us

A true but unlikely tale

Story and Photographs by William Rowan

Increasing day length on the early Earth boosted oxygen released by photosynthetic cyanobacteria.

Genomic evidence shows that Denisovans and modern humans may have overlapped in Wallacea.