Every discovery, with its sources.

Nº 066 · Nature · 50 sec

A brainless slime mould designed a network like Tokyo's railways

Oat flakes were laid out like the cities around Tokyo. After about a day, a yellow single cell had linked them – much like the real rail network.

Nº 065 · Nature

Bacteria conduct electricity in the seafloor.

Cable bacteria transport electrons through long threads. Conducting fibres inside contain nickel proteins.

Nº 059 · Nature

The lemming plunge in the film was staged.

For Disney's 1958 film, animals were pushed off a cliff. The mass-suicide myth is false.

✦ New research Nº 052 · Nature

Glass frogs hide their red blood cells.

At rest they store almost 90 percent of their red blood cells in their liver, becoming more transparent.

✦ New research Nº 050 · Nature

Ants have farmed fungi for millions of years.

They started about 66 million years ago. Dated family trees of fungi and ants reveal when it began.

✦ New research Nº 047 · Nature

Jellyfish learn without a central brain.

After a few collisions, they kept further away from obstacles. Learning happens in their sensory clubs.

✦ New research Nº 046 · Nature

Painted ladies can cross the Atlantic.

Researchers found them in French Guiana carrying pollen from the Sahel. Trade winds carried them across the ocean.

✦ New research Nº 045 · Nature

Genetically, a starfish is almost all head.

Head genes are active almost everywhere, trunk genes hardly. Researchers mapped them in starfish arms.

✦ New research Nº 044 · Nature · 50 sec

Bogong moths find their way by the stars

They fly up to 1,000 kilometres to caves they have never seen. A flight simulator with an artificial night sky shows what guides them.

✦ New research Nº 043 · Nature

Mice pull the tongues of unconscious partners.

In an experiment, mice groomed familiar cagemates and removed objects from their mouths. The unconscious mice woke sooner.

✦ New research Nº 042 · Nature

An orangutan treats his wound.

Rakus chewed leaves, dabbed their juice onto a facial wound and covered it with the pulp.

✦ New research Nº 041 · Nature · 50 sec

Do elephants call each other by name?

Researchers had software analyse elephant calls – then played the animals what seemed to be their own names.

+ Deep dive

Nº 039 · Nature · 50 sec

Why does the zebra have stripes?

Camouflage? Cooling? An experiment with striped horse blankets gives a surprising answer.

Nº 031 · Nature

Hummingbirds can fly backwards.

Their wings allow flight in any direction – including backwards and hovering on the spot.

Nº 030 · Nature

Male seahorses get pregnant.

The female deposits eggs in his brood pouch. Later, the male releases fully developed young.

Nº 029 · Nature

Greenland sharks can live for over 270 years.

They are the longest-lived vertebrates known. Their age is determined from the lenses of their eyes.

Nº 028 · Nature

Octopuses have nerve cells in their arms.

Two-thirds of their nerve cells are in their arms. In total, an octopus has over 500 million.

Nº 024 · Nature

Flamingos eat their way to pink.

Their colour comes from their food. Young flamingos hatch greyish and turn pink later.

Nº 023 · Nature

Peanuts aren't nuts.

Botanically they are legumes, related to peas and beans. Their pods ripen underground.

Nº 021 · Nature

Tardigrades survived the vacuum of space.

Ten days without air: back on Earth, water was enough to revive the tiny animals.

Nº 020 · Nature

A shrimp makes light with its claw.

Its claw creates a bubble that collapses with a bang and a brief flash of light.

Nº 010 · Nature · 45 sec

Why is a banana a berry but a strawberry isn't?

In botany, the name doesn't count – how the fruit forms from the flower does.

Nº 009 · Nature · 50 sec

Were there sharks before trees?

Their ancestors, yes. Today's sharks, on the other hand, are younger than the first forests.

Nº 008 · Nature · 55 sec

Why is a mushroom more closely related to you than to a plant?

It sits in the forest floor and doesn't move. Yet it belongs on our side of the family tree.

Nº 007 · Nature · 45 sec

Why does the wombat make cube-shaped poop?

A round gut shapes cubes. Researchers only recently worked out how.

Nº 006 · Nature · 50 sec

12 color receptors – and still bad at seeing colors?

It has one of the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. And tells colors apart worse than we do.

Nº 005 · Nature · 45 sec

One animal. Three hearts.

Two pump blood through the gills, one through the body – and that one takes a break when it swims.