Spinning tails on the moths' wingtips scramble bats' echolocation signals to keep the moths from being eaten

Regular dust bathing removes pest and parasites and keeps the wild bird's iridescent feathers in top condition. (Credit: Carla Rhodes)

Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Wayne-Thiebaud-is-Not-a-Pop-Artist.html He made a name for himself painting pastries and other everyday objects, but his other work--cartoons and cityscapes--showcase the scope of his talents.

Research in Tanzania shows that impalas follow baboons to sausage trees to share fruits and feel safer from predators. (Video courtesy Brooke Davis)

When Gary Roberts found this orphaned elephant next to its dead mother, he made an attempt to fly it to safety

Biographer David Maraniss says that in order to truly understand Clemente's importance to the sport, you have to look beyond his spectacular numbers

Officials launched an investigation and recovered the $360,000 print less than a week after it vanished from Grove Gallery. Two men have been charged for the crime

Archaeologists unearthed a series of mudbrick rooms filled with religious tributes, soldiers' personal effects, engraved weaponry and animal bones

The “beloved” rodent named Cinnamon was spotted this week with help from drones. She has been wandering and eating grass after escaping her zoo enclosure last Friday

Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking of pizzerias around the globe

The baby pygmy hippopotamus in a Thailand zoo has taken the internet by storm, and keepers hope she will help gain momentum for conservation efforts

Researchers analyzed tiny fossils embedded in the limestone to determine the age and origins of the grave maker, which marked the final resting place of a prominent Jamestown colonist

While no written records exist, new research has illuminated key details of the battle fought in northern Germany during the 13th century B.C.E.

Most adult king penguins weigh between 31 and 37 pounds. At nine months old, a 51.8-pound Pesto is already looming over his parents

Researchers recently identified James Fitzjames, a captain on the ill-fated HMS Erebus that went looking for the Northwest Passage in 1845

The discovery has implications for human health, since the microbes included some that were still viable, some that could be infectious to humans and others that carried drug-resistant genes

The Canadian Post-Impressionist artist was famous for her evocative landscapes and paintings incorporating motifs from First Nations groups

Milagra, Spanish for “miracle,” was hatched and raised in captivity by foster condor parents after her mother died of avian flu in April 2023

A Dutch museum famous for displaying art in unconventional locations had placed a pair of painted beer cans in a glass elevator shaft

Opening next spring, the new venue will have exhibits and a barbecue bean-themed ball pit play area for kids

Scurvy diagnoses in Australia and Canada suggest doctors should consider testing for vitamin C deficiency in patients experiencing poverty, food insecurity and social isolation

Step right up and see the spooky circus dolls—from creepy clowns to frightening fortune-tellers—in a Minnesota museum's vintage toy collection

Pathogens are more common in polar bears living in the Chukchi Sea now than they were three decades ago, a new study suggests—but it's not yet clear what that means for the mammals' health

The banana duct-taped to a wall was created to be a "reflection on what we value." An upcoming auction may deliver an answer

Researchers trained African giant pouched rats to detect commonly smuggled items, including rhino horns and elephant tusks

Born October 30 to parents Gloria and Otto at the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, the hippo is already gaining popularity, following in the footsteps of viral sensation Moo Deng

In a rare technique among mammals, the bats burn proteins from blood, rather than carbs or fat, to power their pursuits of prey, according to a new study

Steve Lazarides' personal collection of prints, original works, handwritten press releases and burner phones sold at auction for around $1.4 million

The viral king penguin chick at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is beginning to lose his youthful down, a process that will give him his distinctive and waterproof adult plumage

The team traveled from New Zealand to Tonga along a humpback highway to collect environmental DNA and raise awareness of the plight of the marine mammals

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest capture quintessentially Cuban scenes

See images of the American flag captured by our readers.

The tongues of bird-like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, however, may have been more mobile

The trend is a result of women deciding to have children later in life and the use of medically assisted reproduction methods

On the island of Laeso in Denmark, one man is reviving the lost art of eelgrass thatching and, in doing so, bringing attention to a plant that has great potential

In the international competition, people with physical disabilities put state-of-the-art devices to the test as they race to complete the tasks of everyday life

Police have reported that a man was fatally electrocuted in Torbay on Saturday evening. Two others are being treated for injuries.

Pat White, an entrepreneur who launched EVAS Air and the Gander Flight Training, has died. He was 69 years old.

Volunteers will be cutting hair at a salon based inside a Cape Breton food bank. The goal is to provide clients with the same salon experience paying customers would receive.

Ten years after their formation, the members of The Brooks discuss how they’ve evolved and how they view their collaboration.

Mosquitoes take blood meals from a diverse range of host animals and their host associations vary by species. Characterizing these associations is an important element of the transmission dynamics of mosquito-vectored pathogens. To characterize mosquito host associations, various molecular techniques have been developed, which are collectively referred to as blood meal analysis. DNA barcoding has diverse biological applications and is well-suited to mosquito blood meal analysis. The standard DNA barcoding marker for animals is a 5' fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene. A major advantage of this marker is its taxonomic coverage in DNA sequence reference databases, making it feasible to identify a wider range of mosquito host species than with any other gene. However, the COI gene contains high sequence variation at potential priming sites between vertebrate orders. Coupled with the need for primer sequences to be mismatched with mosquito priming sites so that annealing to mosquito DNA is inhibited, it can be difficult to design primers suitable for blood meal analysis applications. Several primers are available that perform well in mosquito blood meal analysis, annealing to priming sites for most vertebrate host taxa, but not to those of mosquitoes. Because priming site sequence variation among vertebrate taxa can cause amplification to fail, a hierarchical approach to DNA barcoding-based blood meal analysis can be applied. In such an approach, no single primer set is expected to be effective for 100% of potential host species. If amplification fails in the initial reaction, a subsequent reaction is attempted with primers that anneal to different priming sites, and so on, until amplification is successful.

Wanita Johnson, who celebrates her birthday this weekend in Whitehorse, still has a sharp memory for how the Second World War helped shape her life.

A man who fled from police, drove onto a walking trail, triggered a shelter-in-place advisory for the Chateau Nova hotel in Yellowknife and subsequently broke into a home was on bail at the time and under house arrest, police say.

Historians say that Sarah Emma Edmonds exaggerated many aspects of her wartime experiences. Still, she bravely served in the Union Army, becoming one of hundreds of women who fought in the conflict in secret

During and after the Civil War, inventive illustrations allowed Democrats and Republicans to turn American ballots into powerful propaganda

Texts like the "Sortes Astrampsychi" promised insights on clients' love lives, career prospects, financial woes and families

A Romare Bearden print served as a starting point for the American playwright's 1987 drama, which follows a Black family's struggle to decide the fate of an ancestral heirloom

Alheri Bingi moved to Canada from Lagos four years ago. Noticing a lack of representation of her Nigerian culture, Bingi started creating batik textile art using authentic African fabric.

The University of Regina Rams knock off their provincial rivals, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies to win their second ever Hardy Cup championship. An emotional Rams head coach, Mark McConkey talks about how his team was able to overcome a rough regular season and win the title.

Hospice Northwest Services is inviting people to visit its third annual photography exhibit, "A Personal Lens on Grief." Here's what the project in Thunder Bay, Ont., entails, and why staff say it's important to find creative ways to express loss.