Nala Rogers

Turrets and tunnels and carbon dioxide — oh my! These ants farm, but they are also master builders.

Computer modeling finds the most promising compounds and guides their transformation into drugs.

Support sound science and smart stories Help us make scientific knowledge accessible to allDonate today If you puncture the ovary of a wasp called Microplitis demolitor, viruses squirt out in vast quantities, shimmering like iridescent blue…

The insect flutters her antennae to taste the egg mass beneath her, movements stuttering like stop-motion animation. She resembles a little black ant, but the scientists gathered around her know better. She is an Anastatus orientalis wasp, our…

Brood X is emerging across 15 states. Here's how to decode all that buzzing from the trees. (Inside Science) -- When you first hear it, a cicada chorus may sound like simple buzzing. But to a cicada, that cacophony is full of meaning. There are three…

Researchers and Aboriginal people are working to protect 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in western Australia. (Inside Science) -- Billions of years ago in a shallow sea in what is now western Australia, microbes grew in layered cones that…

For Asiatic lionesses, sex may be a way of protecting their cubs from murderous males. (Inside Science) -- On a bright day in 2015, an Asiatic lioness hid her cubs in a thicket and went to meet two strangers. The strange males' roars echoed through…

A new type of exotic mantis has entered the U.S. My own brood of nonnative mantises sheds light on what that means. (Inside Science) -- The first official representative of North America's new African springbok mantis population was named Dog, and he…

During this modern coronavirus pandemic, our ancient instincts for avoiding disease may misfire. (Inside Science) -- Imagine putting your hand in a pile of poop. It stinks and squishes. What do you do next? Most likely, you'll scrub that hand with…

Bacteria help drive Earth's chemical cycles and climate. Viruses drive the bacteria. (Inside Science) -- Viruses control their hosts like puppets -- and in the process, they may play important roles in Earth’s climate. The hosts in this case aren't…

This is an Inside Science story. (Inside Science) -- The first time Paul Krausman jumped out of a helicopter and wrestled a deer to the ground was in 1978. Another researcher had shot a net over the deer moments before, but the animal was not…

Alternative sanitation systems are making use of creatures that find homes in human poop. (Inside Science) -- Big, black wasplike things living in your toilet may sound more like a horror scene than a sanitation solution. That's certainly what people…

While leadership upheaval grabs headlines, the NEON project's network of observatories is quietly starting to yield results. (Inside Science) -- When I visited one of the National Science Foundation's new ecological observatories near Front Royal,…

For top scientists like James P. Allison, music and other artistic endeavors may be key to success. (Inside Science) -- Nobel-prize-winning scientist by day, blues musician by night. It may sound like a double life, but for James P. Allison -- named…

Drilling directly into magma may help humanity harness a vast new source of clean energy. (Inside Science) -- On a bright day in 1981, John Eichelberger stood on a blackened crust above billions of gallons of lava. Plumes of steam leaked from cracks…

Scientists are braving Arctic winters to study carbon frozen in soil. They keep finding surprises -- all of them bad. (Inside Science) -- It was dusk when Nikita Zimov limped to the icy riverbank and its lifesaving supply of driftwood. He had pushed…

Paleontologists have found incredible dinosaur diversity at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. What could nearby Bears Ears hold? (Inside Science) -- Seventy-five million years ago, a family of tyrannosaurs fled through a forest engulfed in…

RavagedWestern Lands: The Dilemma of Horse & Burro Management

Longleaf pine restoration pays off for wildlife

In a back room of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) here, Rochelle Safo handles preserved plant specimens with reverence. The brittle leaves and stems, dried and glued to pieces of paper, hold a wealth of…