It might be one of nature's most agile and calculating hunters, but the wolf spider won't harm an insect that literally leaves a bad taste in its mouth, according to new research. […]

Tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) is a recurring fever caused by exposure to infected Borrelia bacteria. Several cases have been reported in Mexico, but the disease gets little attention. Now, researchers describe the details of an additional case of TBRF in Sonora, Mexico in 2012. […]

Scientists have wondered for decades why marine animals that live in the polar oceans and the deep sea can reach giant sizes there, but nowhere else. Zoologists went to Antarctica to test the prevailing theory -- the 'oxygen-temperature hypothesis' -- that animals living in extreme cold can grow to giant sizes because their metabolisms are very slow. […]

Isolated spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) likely lower the pitch of their calls to improve the chances of re-establishing contact with their group, according to a new study. […]

Scientists report on their quest to get to the bottom of a common assumption about the urban landscape: ticks like long grass. In 144 tick drags in 16 suburban lawns in Springfield, Mass., researchers looking at mowing frequency and native bees did not find a single tick. […]

Global warming has caused twice as many ocean-dwelling species as land-dwelling species to disappear from their habitats, a unique Rutgers-led study found. […]

The sonar system of bats exploits spatial information in a way similar to our sense of sight, despite the different anatomy of eyes and ears. In a new study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich have now shown that echoes contain information that allows bats to distinguish differently structured surfaces. On a turbulent water surface for example, a fidgety prey item acoustically stands out even against the clutter of […]

How do galaxies form and evolve? And how do central supermassive black holes form in galaxies and influence their hosts? Those are two of the big questions that Tufts astronomers hope to answer when they start using a new, highly sensitive instrument that's set to come online in a few years on a landmark telescope in Hawaii. […]

Sometimes, it's really easy for scientists to tell species of animals apart—they'll be obviously different shapes or colors. Other times, different species will look nearly identical to the naked eye. In those cases, scientists need to turn to techniques like DNA analysis to tell them apart. Or, like researchers at the Field Museum discovered when studying some near-identical millipedes, you can sometimes just shine a blacklight on them, and under the ultraviolet light, parts of the […]

Mussels stick to rocks on the seafloor, to aquatic plants, and—to the consternation of boaters—they can hitch rides fastened to seafaring vessels no matter their composition: metals, rubber, glass, wood and more. […]