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Rafflesia cantleyi , perhaps better known as the corpse flower for its pungent scent, steals everything from its host. Though each blossom can be in excess of three feet across, the massive buds cannot support themselves, and have no leaves, stalks or true roots

Map of current land and ice separating the Weddell and Ross seas, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Wutsje/CIA Octopuses have made themselves at home in most of the world’s oceans from the warmest of tropical seas to the deep, dark reaches around hydrothermal vents. Antarctic species , such as Turquet’s octopuses ( Pareledone turqueti ), even live slow, quiet lives near the South Pole . But these retiring creatures offer a rare opportunity to help understand how this extreme part of the Earth has changed in recent geologic times and what climate change might bring there in the near future.

A series of graduate student conversations with leading women biologists, at the Women in Science Symposium at Cornell April 2-3. [More]

A typical sunflower with a dark center and a mane of large yellow 'petals' (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) The word “sunflower” brings to mind a mane of vibrant yellow petals encircling a dark whorl of seeds.

Replica of one of the Peking Man fossils. Image: Yan Li, via Wikimedia Commons In the 1930s archaeologists working at the site of Zhoukoudian near Beijing recovered an incredible trove of partial skulls and other bones representing some 40 individuals that would eventually be assigned to the early human species Homo erectus . The bones, which recent estimates put at around 770,000 years old , constitute the largest collection of H

House mouse; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/George Shuklin Four-legged stowaways hitched a ride aboard the wooden 10th- and 11th-century Viking ships that braved the northern seas.

A picture of a hydra, from the Encyclopedia of Life Upon first glance, hydra seem like remarkably simple creatures. The basic description of a hydra would be a tube closed at one end with tentacles surrounding a mouth on the other, made of fragile tissue that can be as slim as two cells thick.

In an autobiographic note Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – 1882) remembered a childhood wish: “ It was soon after I began collecting stones, i.e., when 9 or 10, that I distinctly recollect the desire I had of being able to know something about every pebble in front of the hall door–it was my earliest and only geological aspiration at that time. “ [More]

The origins of our sexuality is the greatest mystery in human evolution. But could our prime suspect be a case of mistaken identity

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has a degree in medicine, so I would expect that he’s had some rudimentary biology education at some point in his life.

Popular Science, 1936. Bull with single horn is modern unicorn

courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Samuel The millions of monarchs ( Danaus plexippus ) that flit on fragile wings from the U.S.to a particular area of fir forest in Mexico as far as 4,000 kilometers are making the journey for the first time. [More]

The Desceliers map of 1550. On a Renaissance map of the world, there is a small white elephant standing near the Arctic coast of Russia. How it got there is a mystery

Funding science has always relied on public support. Traditionally, scientists at research institutions are awarded money from government agencies and sometimes private foundations.

"Where there are humans, you’ll find flies, [More]