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The Sex Lives of Christmas Trees
It’s the time of year when people start inviting pine, fir and spruce trees into their homes, and wreaths and pine cones take center stage. But while pine cones may seem a familiar trapping of the...
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Racing Drones Built for Speed, Not Selfies, Take Off With Techies
Nearly 50 drone racing pilots flocked to a sports field in the heart of Silicon Valley last month to compete in a day of races and drone to drone combat. The day was organized by Ken Loo, an avid...
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These Crazy Cute Baby Turtles Want Their Lake Back
Boxed in by a freeway, a golf course and a neighborhood, it’s a miracle that San Francisco’s Mountain Lake even exists. But not only is the tiny lake—located on the south end of the city’s Presidio...
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Hello Drones! Welcome to the Work Force
The term “drone” evokes wildly disparate images. Some people envision menacing weapons of war. To others they’re remote-controlled flying machines that consumers buy for fun, to shoot video or snap...
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The Once-In-A-Lifetime Ladybug Love-In
With their charming spots and bright red bodies, ladybugs are pretty hard to miss. We’re used to seeing them alone, picking off sap-sucking aphids in the garden. But at certain times of year, ladybugs...
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This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It
Donna Davis thought she had hit the jackpot with the two bags of mushrooms she collected in the woods of Sonoma County’s Salt Point State Park. Instead, she ended up in the hospital, facing the...
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Stinging Scorpion vs. Pain-Defying Mouse
There’s a chemical arms race underway in the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. But rather than pitting two armies, it’s a showdown between a highly venomous scorpion and a particularly ferocious...
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The Bombardier Beetle And Its Crazy Chemical Cannon
The bombardier beetle, named for soldiers who once operated artillery cannons, has a surprising secret weapon to use on potential predators. When attacked, the beetle mixes a cocktail of compounds...
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Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast on Your Skin
With the warming weather it’s the season for spring cleaning. But before you reach for the broom and mop, take a moment to look at who else is sharing your home with you. The number of uninvited guests...
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This Pulsating Slime Mold Comes in Peace
Flip over a rotting log and chances are you’ll see a goopy streak stuck to the wood. If you were to film this goop and play the video back in high speed, you’d see something that might remind you of...
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Winter Is Coming for These Argentine Ant Invaders
Those garden-variety ants in your kitchen are anything but ordinary. Most likely, they’re Argentine ants, recognizable by their telltale straight lines and proficiency at capturing food, like that...
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These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
Every spring, keen-eyed biologists carrying fishing poles search the rolling hills near Los Banos, about two hours southeast of San Francisco. But they’re not looking for fish. They’re catching...
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How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood
As summer approaches, we can look forward to picnics, hiking, camping and the mosquito bites that come with spending time outdoors. It’s a good thing you can’t really see what that mosquito is doing...
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These Carnivorous Worms Catch Bugs by Mimicking the Night Sky
In 1887, a Maori chief and an English surveyor on New Zealand’s North Island rode a handmade raft through a cave entrance where a local stream disappeared into the darkness. Locals called the place...
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Heat-Seeking Drones Could Reduce Fire Deaths
When firefighters were quelling the last of Oakland’s catastrophic Ghost Ship warehouse fire on the morning of December 3, they used a relatively new tool: an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone. The...
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Roly Polies Came From the Sea to Conquer the Earth | Deep Look
With winter rains, Bay Area pill bugs are out in force. Fortunately, they’re one of our most beloved “bugs.” Pill bugs. Doodle bugs. Potato bugs. Wood Shrimp. Whatever you call them, there’s something...
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Archerfish Says…”I Spit in Your Face!”
Most people would find getting regularly spit in the face an unacceptable occupational hazard. But that’s life for researchers like Morgan Burnett, a biologist at Wake Forest University in North...
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If Your Hands Could Smell, You’d Be an Octopus
Everyone knows that an octopus has eight arms. And similar to our arms, it uses them to grab things and move around. But that’s where the similarities end. Hundreds of suckers on each octopus arm give...
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Why Does Your Cat’s Tongue Feel Like Sandpaper?
Even after thousands of years sharing our homes, cats still remain mysterious. For one thing, they spend an inordinate amount of time grooming themselves, up to half of their waking hours. But all of...
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Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex
The recent heavy rains in California have been good for the drought. But it’s not just people who are celebrating. Brown garden snails, which originated in the Mediterranean where the climate...
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