Stories by Christopher Intagliata

Mucus is a miracle of evolution, and some researchers are trying to re-create what nature makes naturally.

The slimy substance is so powerful that doctors once made hog stomach mucus milkshakes to treat ulcers.

If you take a journey into the depths of the slime all around us, you find yourself starting to understand that mucus is a miracle.

Researchers have been banned from working in Indonesia’s tropical rain forests after the government disagreed with their scientific conclusions.

Desert ants living in the featureless salt plains of Tunisia count their steps and erect tall entrances at their nests to find their way back home.

Vernal pools are safe havens for creatures such as fairy shrimp, and they have lived through the end of the dinosaurs, the breakup of Pangaea and multiple ice ages. But humans are paving them over.

Inside a vault at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles lies a microscopic population of immense value—the repository for vernal pool fairy shrimp.

Carpets of gold, burrowing toads and fairy shrimp all depend on vernal pools—habitats that, most of the time, do not exist.

Vernal pools are home to spectacular residents such as fairy shrimp, but these unusual natural wonders are under threat.

New Zealand’s erect-crested penguin lays two eggs but rejects the first one—the opposite of how most birds prioritize their offspring.

Chomping on food takes so much energy that it shaped human evolution. Our ancestors spent many hours a day chewing, which may have shaped our teeth and jaws.

It turns out that hoverflies may fly hundreds or even thousands of miles—all to help pollinate our flowers and vegetables.

Engineers at the company DeepMind built a machine-learning system based on research on how babies’ brain works, and it did better on certain tasks than its conventional counterparts.

By dating nearly a quarter-million stars, astronomers were able to reconstruct the history of our galaxy—and they say it has lived an “enormously sheltered life.”

A nearly two-year-long study of Hawaiian corals suggests some species may be better equipped to handle warmer, more acidic waters than previously believed.

It is not clear whether the act has medicinal benefit or is merely a cultural practice among the animals.

The city has deployed a system of sensors to flag highly polluting vehicles. Nearly all of them have been repaired, helping to clean Hong Kong’s air.

Using a combination of fishing data and satellite tracking, scientists found that the sharks have shifted their range some 250 miles poleward over the past 40 years. 

The painter described falling into the briefest of slumbers to refresh his mind. Now scientists have shown the method is effective at inducing creativity.

A volcanologist says the eruption on the island of La Palma is a unique window into the “personality” of basaltic volcanoes.

The scientists found several previously hidden galaxies that date back to 13 billion years ago—and many more might be missing from our current census of the early universe.

A fossil bed in Patagonia provides evidence of complex social structure in dinosaurs as early as 193 million years ago. And scientists say that herding behavior could have been key to the beasts’ success.

By dating the remnants of trees felled in Newfoundland, scientists have determined that the Norse people likely first set foot in the Americas in the year A.D. 1021.

Researchers have developed a microprocessor built on high-performance plastic rather than silicon—and they say it could enable smarter food labels and supply chain management.