Mental Floss

BIOLOGY

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What do you know about them beyond “They’re the ones with the green heads”?

It's called convergent evolution. When you have a good idea, you stick with it.

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Bones created in a lab could provide a low-carbon alternative.

Metropolitan Touring via Vimeo

Juan Pablo Culasso has turned his perfect pitch into a career in nature recording.

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Researchers say only 1/1000th of 1 percent have been identified to date.

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Here's a good reason to avoid ditching those veggie scraps.

The cicadas are coming!!!

In the spring of 2021, the cicadas of Brood X will surface in the Eastern U.S. for the first time in 17 years.

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There's a lot more than estrogen and testosterone.

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Mouse cells riding aboard the science satellite SJ-10 reached the blastocyst stage last week.

DC Emergence // YouTube

He majored in physics and philosophy and managed to apply them both to his decades of historic work.

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And that gene just so happens to be called "sonic hedgehog."

Giorgia squeri via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Being cold depletes an animal’s energy reserves and immune system.

Thierry Hennet

It’s so much more than baby food.

Brian Gratwicke via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0

Some populations of lowland leopard frogs in Arizona have gene variants that protect them from a deadly fungal disease.

9. Righties tend to give higher ratings to objects on the right side of a page.

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Science is a little stumped by this one.

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The collection dates back to 1892 and contains around 20 million specimens.

C. Bickel / Science (2016)

This is life at its most minimalistic.

Developmental Cell

One cell of this fish can express one of 5000 possible shades.

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Only about 10 percent of people are left-handed. If you’re one of them, you're part of a rare and special group.

Maximilian Sauer, ETH Zürich

The discovery may change the way the infections are treated.

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At only 3 inches long and weighing about 60 grams, the uterus isn’t a flashy, attention-grabbing organ. But it is pretty amazing.

You wouldn't want to bump into this guy on a midnight swim.

Proof that it only takes a second for alcohol to totally mess with your body.