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Trump ousts Musk-backed nominee, names TV host Sean Duffy to lead NASA
The day Donald Trump appointed Sean Duffy as interim head of NASA, the message was unmistakable: space policy in 2025 isn’t just about rockets and budgets. It’s about loyalty, optics, and political turf wars. Duffy, a former congressman, Fox Business host, and reality TV personality, has no formal background in aerospace or science. But he’s
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How bizarre feet made the Eurasian coot a survival machine
They look like something out of science fiction. Long, finger-like toes with rubbery flaps that pulse outward when they hit water, then fold inward like origami when they step on land. These are the feet of the Eurasian coot,a medium-sized waterbird found across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. And while its black body and white
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This tiny frog glows in the dark—and it’s rewriting biology
In the highland rainforests of Borneo, where clouds cling to the canopy and the air thickens with night, scientists have stumbled upon something that seems pulled from myth: a frog that glows. This newly discovered species is the first amphibian ever documented to exhibit true bioluminescence. While some frogs are known to fluoresce under ultraviolet
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What science still can’t explain about the bee hummingbird (Zunzuncito)
It’s lighter than a dime. Smaller than your thumb. And when it flies, it doesn’t flap—it vibrates. Meet the bee hummingbird, or as it’s known in Cuba, the zunzuncito. At just two inches long and weighing less than two grams, it holds the title of the smallest bird on Earth. In the time it takes
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Unicorn cows are real, but they’re not what you think
It starts with a photograph. A tan cow stands in profile, gazing toward the camera, with one impossible detail: a single, clean horn rising from the center of its forehead. It looks like something out of a fairytale, or maybe Photoshop. But it’s not. These animals exist. They’ve been born in Canada and Uzbekistan, spotted
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The bronze mouse knitting DNA isn’t just cute. It’s a reckoning.
In the Siberian research city of Akademgorodok, a bronze statue stands in quiet defiance of its size. It is just a mouse—but not an ordinary one. Wearing tiny pince-nez glasses and holding a pair of knitting needles, this mouse sits poised in thought, weaving a strand of DNA. The sculpture, titled “Monument to the Laboratory
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This moth looks like a broken twig—and that’s the whole point
At first glance, the Buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) looks uncannily like a snapped birch twig. When at rest, it folds its wings tightly against its body in a narrow, cylindrical posture. The front of its body and wing tips are colored a pale buff, mimicking exposed wood. The midsections of the wings are shaded with
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How poop could save species from extinction
Every animal leaves something behind. For a long time, we treated that something—dung—as waste, something to bag or step around. But what if it holds the key to keeping endangered species alive? A team of researchers from Oxford University, Chester Zoo, and the conservation nonprofit Revive & Restore is betting on just that. Their goal:
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China’s ‘pet major’ reflects a nation rethinking animals and education
At China Agricultural University, dogs and cats are no longer just companions. They’re coursework. This year, the Beijing-based institution—ranked among the country’s most prestigious—launched China’s first undergraduate degree dedicated entirely to companion animals. The four-year program, technically a track within the existing animal science major, signals a response to the country’s rapidly shifting demographics, emotional