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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.
October 2021

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.
October 2021

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
October 2021

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.
October 2021

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
October 2021

Lighten Up

The size of dragonfly males’ dark wing patches foreshadows their response to climate change. 
February 2020

Recipe for Rhino Horn

February 2020

Bug Loss

February 2020

Turning Brain Evolution on its Head

February 2020

Chemical Holds Water

February 2020

Disease-carrying Ice Floats

February 2020

A Black Hole Lightweight

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.