Latest Biology News
June is rhubarb picking time in the garden, so pucker up
Years ago, when my now-grown daughter Justine was a toddler, we visited a U-pick farm where she plucked plump, ripe strawberries from a field of sprawling plants. Some made it into the basket on that sunny June day; others went directly into her mouth. That’s when she learned that...
DNA sucked into air filters can reveal what plants and animals are nearby
NEW YORK (AP) — DNA is all around us — even in the air we breathe. Now scientists have found that air quality monitoring stations — which pull in air to test for pollution — also pick up lots of DNA that can reveal what plants and animals have been in the area. The method...
Field Museum debuts Spinosaurus exhibit featuring largest predatory dinosaur
CHICAGO (AP) — The newest addition to the Field Museum on Chicago's lakefront will give visitors a glimpse of the largest predatory dinosaur yet discovered via a 46-foot (14.02 meter) cast of a Spinosaurus skeleton suspended high above the museum's main hall. Field Museum officials...
Flower power and diplomacy: Versailles perfume gardens transport public back in time
VERSAILLES, France (AP) — The Versailles flower gardens were once a symbol of the French king’s expeditionary might and helped water-deprived courtiers perfume their skin. Now, they have been reimagined to give today’s public a glimpse — and a sniff — into the gilded palace’s olfactory...
Chile closes state copper smelter that polluted bay for decades
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile's state-owned copper mining giant Codelco on Wednesday shut down its Ventanas copper smelter after decades of polluting Quintero Bay with toxic gases and turning it, along with 15 other companies, into what environmentalists called a “sacrifice zone.” ...
Chirping sounds lead airport officials to bag filled with smuggled parrot eggs
LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. (AP) — The 24 bright green baby parrots began chirping and bobbing their heads the second anyone neared the large cages that have been their homes since hatching in March. The Central American natives, seized from a smuggler at Miami International Airport, are...
Editorial Roundup: Tennessee
Kingsport Times News. May 20, 2023. Editorial: Region fortunate to have Gray fossil site Since a highway realignment project on State Route 75 in Washington County revealed black and gray layered clays 23 years ago, Northeast Tennessee has been making paleontological...
When you adopt a desert tortoise, prepare for a surprisingly social and zippy pet
PHOENIX (AP) — They’re not fluffy, they don’t play fetch and they certainly don’t roll over. But there is such a thing as a lap tortoise. What’s more, pet tortoises can wag their tails, will plod on up to greet you and some can even recognize their own names. The surprising...
Book Review: In 'Brave the Wild River,' the true story of 2 scientists who explored the Grand Canyon
PHOENIX (AP) — “Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon” by Melissa L. Sevigny (W. W. Norton & Company) Long before climate change threatened the very existence of the Colorado River, two women botanists set off with a...
Tennessee man runs possum rehab facility
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Chattanooga is home to one of the nation’s largest possum rehabilitation facilities, Opie Acres, where the number of possums and other small mammals is growing every day thanks to a steady influx of babies arriving this spring. “Just within the past...
