China's plan to stop recycling the world's rubbish may backfire
3 January 2018
China is giving Western nations a headache with a ban on imports of "foreign garbage" to recycle, but the move is also creating a Chinese cardboard shortage
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Premium
Luck of the devil: How a Tasmanian icon is outwitting cancer
3 January 2018
A freakish infectious cancer has brought Tasmanian devils to the brink of extinction, but the pugnacious marsupial is evolving rapidly as it fights for survival
Plants use sand armour to break teeth of attacking caterpillars
28 December 2017
Some plants are coated in sand, and it seems the sand grains act like medieval armour that protects these “psammophorous” plants from munching caterpillars
Our lust for tastier chocolate has transformed the cocoa tree
27 December 2017
Ever since we domesticated the cocoa tree over 3000 years ago, we have been breeding them to make tastier chocolate – but in the process we have made them vulnerable
Odd fossils hint first complex life hung on long after its time
22 December 2017
The strange Ediacarans were some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth. They are thought to have died out 540 million years ago but eight odd fossils suggest they survived far longer
Mars rocks may have drunk up all the water and doomed life there
20 December 2017
We used to think Mars lost most of its water to space when its atmosphere blew away. Instead, the water may have been sucked up by rocks that sunk underground
Hardy Antarctic tardigrades may be threatened by climate change
20 December 2017
Tardigrades can famously survive almost anything, including being sent into space, but the Antarctic species could face problems as a result of climate change
After crows fight they touch and preen each other to make up
20 December 2017
Carrion crows sometimes have violent squabbles over food, but afterwards the aggressor will often sit by the victim as if to console them and reconcile
Genital parasite crabs are struggling to find sex partners
19 December 2017
Parasitic crustaceans called castrator pea crabs spend most of their lives hiding in the sex organs of limpets, and that makes it difficult to find a mate
