ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

Few animals can regenerate their spinal cord after an injury. The axolotl can mobilize stem cells in its spinal cord to regrow the lost tissue. An international team of scientists have investigated the early stages of this process.

Oregon State University research has identified the oldest known specimen of a fungus parasitizing an ant, and the fossil also represents a new fungal genus and species.

Without an audience, men run slower and women faster: The lack of spectators during the coronavirus pandemic appears to have had a noticeable effect on the performance of athletes at the 2020 Biathlon World Cup, a new study shows. According to the new analysis, women also performed better in complex tasks, such as shooting, when an audience was present while men did not.

The venom of a caterpillar, native to South East Queensland, shows promise for use in medicines and pest control, researchers say.

An observational study found that out of more than 2,400 pollinator visits to flowers at urban and rural farms in in Western Washington about 35% of were made by flies -- most of which were the black-and-yellow-striped syrphid flies. For a few plants, including peas, kale and lilies, flies were the only pollinators observed. Bees still made the majority, about 61%, of floral visits, but the rest were made by other insects and spiders.

A new study suggests that mundane items like spoons and grinding stones were kept by Iron Age people as an emotional reminder and a 'continuing bond' with the deceased -- a practice which is replicated in societies across the globe today.

Wetter conditions in Sub-Saharan and North Africa at certain times of year can result in hundreds of times more Painted Lady butterflies making the 14,000 km round trip to Europe. Findings improve understanding of how insects move to other countries, including pests that destroy crops and disease-carrying species like mosquitoes.

Sperm size varies dramatically among different animal species. But why is sperm size so variable when they share the same job -- to fertilize eggs? Researchers now show that animal sperm evolution become supercharged only when sperm swim inside females.