The Colorado June air was thick with summer heat. Mosquitoes rose in clouds around us, testing our resolve while we gathered our cameras and sensors. We walked into the wetland, down the unmarked path until the cattails rose shoulder-high. The sounds of frogs and crickets filled the air as we set up our cameras and waited. Then we spotted...
Young bats learn to be discriminating when listening for their next meal
It is late at night, and we are silently watching a bat in a roost through a night-vision camera. From a nearby speaker comes a long, rattling trill.
Cane toad’s rattling trill call.
The bat briefly perks up and wiggles its ears as it listens to the sound before dropping its head back down, uninterested.
Next from the speaker comes a...
Cancer research in the US is world class because of its broad base of funding − with the government pulling out, its future is uncertain
Cancer research in the U.S. doesn’t rely on a single institution or funding stream − it’s a complex ecosystem made up of interdependent parts: academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, federal agencies and private foundations. As a cancer biologist[1] who has worked in each of these sectors over the past three decades,...
Granular systems, such as sandpiles or rockslides, are all around you − new research will help scientists describe how they work
Did you eat cereal this morning? Or have you walked on a gravel path? Maybe you had a headache and had to take a pill? If you answered any of these questions with a yes, you interacted with a granular system today.
Scientists classify any collection of small, hard particles – such as puffed rice, sand grains or pills – as a...