Wasps drum with their stomachs to tell each other about food
German yellowjacket wasps alert each other to food by drumming their abdomens against the nest wall, in a wasp equivalent of the famous honeybee “waggle dance”
Palm trees have been spotted changing sex for the first time
Four Quindío wax palms in Colombia have changed sex from male to female, which was thought to be impossible for such plants
Virtuoso bowhead whales constantly make up new songs
Bowhead whales are such talented singers they can make two sounds simultaneously, and they invent new songs every year
Shrimp and lobster are as bad for the climate as eating beef
Fish and seafood are normally fairly environmentally friendly, but it takes so much fuel to catch some species that their carbon footprint is as big as that of red meat
GM worms make a super-silk completely unknown in nature
Thanks to a spot of genetic hacking, silkworms can make a new form of silk not found in nature that includes a synthetic amino acid. It could be used in medicine
The frogs bouncing back after almost being wiped out by disease
A few amphibian species in Panama are recovering from near-extinction, after apparently evolving resistance to the deadly chytrid fungus
Dog brain scans show if they are looking at a happy or sad face
Dogs can recognise different human facial expressions, like happy or sad, and now a simple brain scan can reveal which expression a dog is looking at
How birds focus even with eyes on opposite sides of their heads
Birds find it difficult to fix their gaze on an object, because their eyes don’t face forwards, but one species has found an ingenious solution
Neanderthals ambushed cave bears as they awoke from hibernation
Our extinct cousins the Neanderthals seem to have targeted cave bears, which were normally intimidating foes, while they were sleepy and weak from hibernating through the winter
In 30 years Asian-Pacific fish will be gone, and then we’re next
An assessment of Earth’s biodiversity predicts catastrophic losses within decades, with severe knock-on effects for human civilisation like shortages of food