Biology News

Honeybee Swarms Have Been Misread for Centuries, Biologists Say

Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). Image credit: PollyDot.
Oct 8, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

In a new review paper, Dr. Hannes Bonhoff of Lund University and Dr. Heikki Helanterä from the University of Oulu argue that the departing swarm represents the parent colony leaving with its queen, while afterswarms may allow it to produce multiple offspring. They also propose that a honeybee colony is not immortal but a lineage of mortal superorganisms, each with its own distinct life cycle. Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). Image credit: PollyDot. Scientists...

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Lauren Scott & Brittany Florkiewicz show that cat facial signals correspond to different social functions, which have likely been influenced by domestication. Image credit: Sci.News / Makieni777 / Rise-a-mui / Alexas_Fotos / Dorothe / Vaclav Zavada / Artem Makarov / Daga Roszkowska / Birgit / Pasi Mammela.

Countries with More Cats Report Higher Happiness, Scientists Say

Oct 1, 2026 by Natali Anderson

New research led by the University of Chicago found that nations with more domestic cats tended to report higher levels of happiness, while greater exposure...

Yee Tan et al. discovered a human commensal bacterium, Clostridium immunis, which prevents and treats obesity in mice by secreting a phosphocholine-modified exopolysaccharide (EPS). Image credit: Yee Tan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.018.

Sugar Molecule Made by Gut Bacterium Can Shrink Visceral Fat in Mice

Sep 28, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Clostridium immunis, a human gut bacterium, secretes a large sugar molecule that can shrink visceral fat and curb weight gain in mice, according to a paper...

The first phase of the Bat1K project: 103 chromosome-level genome assemblies and annotations representing at least one species from each of the 21 currently recognized bat families. Image credit: Morales et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-11007-3.

Bats Originated in Europe, Genetic and Fossil Evidence Suggests

Sep 23, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Bats make up more than one fifth of all living mammal species, yet where and when they first took to the air has been debated for decades. An analysis...

Incendiamoeba cascadensis undergoes cellular replication up to 63 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Rappaport et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.043.

Geothermal Amoeba Found Thriving at 63 Degrees Celsius Shatters Limits of Eukaryotic Life

Sep 23, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Microbiologists have discovered a new species of heat-loving amoeba that divides at 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit) and remains motile up to...

Anchiale mabiensis, paratype male. Image credit: Ross M. Coupland.

Two New Stick Insect Species Discovered in Australia

Sep 21, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Entomologists have described two previously unrecognized species of Anchiale — a genus of large, winged stick insects — from tropical Queensland,...

An anatomical illustration from Johannes Sobotta’s Human Anatomy, 1908.

Human Brain is Two Organs Fused Together, Study Suggests

Sep 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have long treated the brain as a single organ that grows from one pool of early cells. Stanford University neuroscientist Kyle Loh and colleagues...

Leopardus tilcayo. Image credit: Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz.

New Species of Tiger Cat Identified in Bolivia

Sep 18, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have demonstrated that the South American tiger cat complex Leopardus tigrinus consists of five genetically distinct species, including one...

The pink-bellied imperial pigeon (Ducula poliocephala). Image credit: Gwen So / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Species of Imperial Pigeon Identified

Sep 17, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A previously unrecognized species of the fruit-eating pigeon genus Ducula inhabits the remote island of Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines’ Sulu Archipelago,...

Experiment setup: (A) an elephant enters the ‘over’ opening to gain access to food in a familiarization trial; (B) an elephant enters the ‘under’ opening to gain access to food (apple) in a test trial. Image credit: Sangpa Dittakul.

Elephants Show Talent for Resisting Impulses

Sep 9, 2026 by News Staff

In experiments in Thailand, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) learned to ignore an enticing but ineffective route to food and quickly adapted when a familiar...

The wiring diagram of the central nervous system of an adult male fruit fly will help researchers better understand how the brain enables complex action, from sensory perception to behavior. Image credit: FlyEM Project Team, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus / Cambridge Connectomics Group / Google Research / Philip Hubbard, HHMI Janelia Research Campus.

Researchers Unveil Complete Fruit Fly Connectome

Sep 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

After nearly two decades of work, scientists have completed a wiring diagram of the central nervous system of an adult male fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). The...

The Jalca horned owl (Bubo jalca). Image credit: López-Lanús et al.

New Owl Species Discovered in Peru

Sep 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A horned owl living in a narrow strip of high-Andean grassland in northern Peru is a species new to science, according to a paper published in July 2026...

SEM images of LCAP films incubated undisturbed for more than a year in pristine forest soil. The arrow in panel (d) points at an object inside of such a cavity that might represent a (damaged) microbial cell; however, these were found very rarely; empty cavities were more representative (a-c). Image credit: Lerner et al., doi: 10.1093/ismejo/wrag203.

Scientists Discover Soil Bacteria Enzyme that Breaks Down Both Plastic and Antibiotics

Sep 7, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Biologists studying how bacteria break down a new generation of plant-based bioplastics — long-chain aliphatic polyesters — have discovered...

Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), a mother with a young, at Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. Image credit: Ikiwaner.

Young Chimps Develop Their Own Accents, New Study Finds

Sep 4, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers tracking grunts, whimpers and laughter across two geographically separated chimpanzee populations found that vocal differences sharpen with...

According to Professor Graur, the functional fraction within the human genome cannot exceed 25%, and is probably considerably lower.

Scientists Map Genetics of Personality across Million People

Sep 3, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers have identified more than 1,200 locations in the human genome associated with personality traits, offering the most detailed look yet at the...

The blue-banded bee Amegilla murrayensis. Image credit: Callin Switzer.

Some of Smallest Bee Species See Best, New Study Finds

Sep 2, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Size, it turns out, is not everything when it comes to insect vision. According to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy...

The serval (Leptailurus serval), a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa. Image credit: Florida Atlantic University.

Camera Traps Reveal Congo Basin’s Hidden Wildlife

Sep 1, 2026 by News Staff

A new camera technique in Congo’s Lomami National Park reveals how monkeys, pangolins and civets divide up life between the ground, the understory and...

Tasmanian tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) in captivity. Image credit: University of Melbourne / Museums Victoria.

Tasmanian Tiger Hunted Like Opportunist, Not Wolf, New Research Suggests

Sep 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study analyzing the walking patterns of predatory mammals suggests that the extinct thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) likely hunted more like an...

A pair of thylacines, a male and female, c. 1905. Image credit: Smithsonian Institutional Archives / E. J. Keller, National Zoological Park.

Tasmanian Tiger’s Skull Reveals Hunting Style with No Modern Match

Aug 31, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For nearly a century, scientists have treated the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) as a textbook case of convergent evolution — a marsupial that...

Radiologically contaminated sites such as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have created novel environmental stressors with the potential to substantially influence the ecology of organisms and wider ecosystem function. Nevertheless, radiation dose rates at which negative effects occur are uncertain. Burrows et al investigated a potential mechanism for these sub-lethal consequences by testing whether radiation exposure makes bees less metabolically efficient. Image credit: Josef Pichler.

Bumblebees May Self-Medicate when Their Colony Faces Fungal Pathogen

Aug 27, 2026 by Natali Anderson

In a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) exposed to a brood-killing fungus shifted...

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