Biology Popular Science (Premium)

在自然界中，寄生的例子數不勝數。很多寄生生物都能藉由獨特的行為模式進入生物體內完成寄生。有些獨特的寄生蟲甚至能操縱宿主意識，讓宿主甘願成為他們的奴僕。 在這些能夠操縱宿主的寄生蟲中，有一類寄生蟲特別狡猾，牠們被稱作弓形蟲（Toxoplasma gondii）。這種寄生蟲屬於頂複門肉孢子蟲科，與瘧原蟲有親緣關係。這種寄生生物的不尋常之處，在於牠們與許多人最親密的夥伴--貓有關。牠們不僅能操縱宿主，使牠們情不自禁的愛上貓。還能像某些科幻恐怖小說一樣，進入宿主的生殖系統，伺機破壞。

In recent years, three-dimensional reconstruction has become one of the most active areas in artificial intelligence and computer vision. Among the many challenges within this field, reconstructing the three-dimensional form and motion of animals stands out as particularly complex. The goal of this technology is to infer an animal's real 3D shape, posture, and movement directly from ordinary photographs or videos captured by cameras. Such capability has far-reaching implicati

Since Charles Darwin proposed the concept of natural selection, biological change has generally been understood as a process driven by genetic mutation and inheritance. Yet more than half a century before Darwin, the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed a different possibility: environmental changes might directly influence an organism's traits and even allow those traits to be passed to the next generation. For a long time this idea, often summarized as the inheri

In recent years, the issues of microplastics and nanoplastics have drawn increasing attention. These tiny plastic particles, invisible to the naked eye, are now known to be widespread not only in oceans and rivers but also in the tap water people drink every day. Global surveys have shown that more than eighty percent of tap water samples collected from fourteen countries contain plastic particles, most commonly polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Once these particl

On the ceiling of an old gunpowder store in Northern Ireland, researchers discovered the body of a dead spider enveloped by a rare fungus. The fungus had spread across the entire body, forming delicate white filamentous growth that appeared both intricate and strangely eerie. Through morphological study and molecular analysis, scientists determined that the organism represented a previously unknown species. It was named Gibellula attenboroughii , in honor of the renowned natu

Meerkats ( Suricata suricatta ) are highly social mammals whose group living provides an excellent opportunity to study teaching and social learning in animals. In animal behaviour research, teaching is defined by several strict criteria: an experienced individual must modify its behaviour in the presence of a naïve learner, incur some cost or effort by doing so, and the change must help the learner acquire a skill more efficiently than it would through independent trial and

Over the past two decades, dolphins in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France have continued to appear abundant at sea, and population estimates have not shown an obvious decline. Yet recent research has revealed a long-overlooked crisis: their lifespan is rapidly shortening. A research team from La Rochelle University and international collaborators has reported that the most common dolphin species in the Northeast Atlantic, the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ), is ex

In an ordinary suburban backyard in Texas, an exceptionally unusual ecological event quietly unfolded. A previously unknown wild hybrid bird was discovered whose parents belong to two different genera within the family Corvidae: the tropical–subtropical Green Jay ( Cyanocorax yncas ) and the temperate Blue Jay ( Cyanocitta cristata ). These two species diverged from a common ancestor at least 7 million years ago and had never been documented mating in the wild. The discovery

Understanding the origin and evolution of human society begins with examining the social lives of our closest living relatives: the chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) and the gorilla ( Gorilla ). Their group structures, patterns of interaction, and communication strategies provide important clues for studying the evolution of human social behavior and cognition. According to the social brain hypothesis, primates possess relatively large brains because living in complex social env

The deep ocean is a realm of darkness, cold temperatures, and immense pressure, yet it harbors some of the most mysterious organisms on Earth. Compared with terrestrial ecosystems, scientists still know remarkably little about how deep-sea species evolve or how new species arise in what appears to be a vast, uninterrupted body of water. Without obvious geographic barriers such as mountains or rivers, how can populations diverge into distinct species? To explore this question,

Symbiotic relationships between microorganisms and their hosts often shape physiology, ecological adaptation, and evolutionary trajectories in subtle yet profound ways. In many insects, intracellular symbiotic bacteria function as essential metabolic partners that sustain the host's life processes. A well-known example is the rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae , whose survival depends heavily on an intracellular symbiont, Sodalis pierantonius . These bacteria compensate for nutrit

When fireflies flash in unison, fish schools turn together with remarkable coordination, fiddler crabs wave their claws simultaneously, or ant colonies move as a collective unit, we are observing striking examples of collective behavior. The biological foundations behind these phenomena have long fascinated scientists. One particularly important question—debated for nearly a century—is whether collective behavior can evolve more rapidly than the behaviors expressed by individ

A day in the life of an animal can be imagined as a chain of behavioral fragments unfolding one after another. A meerkat ( Suricata suricatta ) emerges from its burrow at dawn, warms itself in the rising sunlight, and then begins searching for prey while occasionally pausing to scan the sky for danger. A white-nosed coati ( Nasua narica ) spends much of the day rummaging through leaf litter in the forest understory, sometimes interacting with companions. A spotted hyena ( Cro

The leaves, seeds, and the tree itself of Ginkgo biloba  have long been utilized in many parts of the world, and the seeds in particular are a familiar ingredient in traditional cuisine as well as in herbal medicine. Ginkgo seeds contain abundant nutrients, including starch, proteins, lipids, and vitamins. They also contain a wide variety of biologically active compounds such as sesquiterpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, short-chain fatty acid derivatives, lignans, and polysaccha

The cooperative relationship between aphids and their intracellular symbiotic bacteria is remarkably intricate. In the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum , a specialized cell type known as the bacteriocyte houses the bacterial symbiont Buchnera aphidicola . These cells are not only unusually large but also play a central role in nutritional symbiosis. Because of their size and function, scientists have long suspected that the chromosomes inside these cells exist in a highly polypl

In the field of regenerative biology, the Mexican axolotl ( Ambystoma mexicanum ) has long stood as one of the most fascinating organisms. These salamanders possess the remarkable ability to regenerate an entire lost limb. That ability alone has captivated scientists for decades. Yet recent research has uncovered an even deeper layer of this phenomenon: when an axolotl loses a limb, cells throughout the rest of its body also become activated, entering a temporary state that p

In mammals, the idea that two paternal genomes could combine to produce viable offspring has long seemed like science fiction. Mammalian embryonic development relies heavily on genomic imprinting, a specialized epigenetic system that governs how certain genes are expressed depending on whether they originate from the mother or the father. This regulatory system is established during the formation of sperm and eggs. Through mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone modificat

The sexy son hypothesis may sound like a dramatic phrase, yet it represents an important concept in evolutionary biology. It was proposed to explain why certain species evolve socially polygynous mating systems. The central idea is relatively intuitive: under some circumstances, a female may benefit from mating with a male that already has a partner rather than choosing an unmated male. Even though such a decision may reduce her immediate reproductive success, the long-term o

How languages are transmitted across generations has long been a central question in research on human migration and linguistic origins. One long-standing debate concerns whether language inheritance is more strongly associated with maternal or paternal ancestry. The mother tongue hypothesis proposes that languages are primarily transmitted along maternal lines, whereas the father tongue hypothesis argues that languages tend to follow paternal lineages because linguistic patt

Spiders have long carried a reputation that evokes fear, yet from a biological perspective they are in fact among the most underestimated organisms on Earth. More than 53,000 spider species have been formally described worldwide, while the actual number of species is estimated to exceed 120,000. Their diversity is astonishing. Some species measure less than half a millimeter in body length, whereas giant tarantulas may reach leg spans of up to 30 centimeters. Because spiders