Slower winds help grasslands enhance carbon gain while saving water, study finds

Daphnia, also known as water fleas, are artists of defense. When their predators live nearby, the water fleas change their body structure to make themselves more difficult to eat. Professor Linda Weiss from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany and her team have identified a chemoreceptor gene family that encodes the corresponding receptors, and is thus involved in detecting predators' signals.

Storm petrels are among the smallest and most mysterious seabirds. Until recently, the use of biologgers to track their movements was impossible. A new study published in Biology Letters reveals that they routinely travel hundreds of kilometers while deliberately seeking crosswinds, an unexpected strategy that slows their flight but may help them survive above the open ocean.

We hardly give them a second thought, but everyday objects like bags and backpacks belong to a long technological tradition that may stretch back hundreds of thousands of years.