By Science News | Jake Buehler | 3/18/2025 9:00 AM
Southwestern Sydney's koalas have avoided the chlamydia outbreak threatening the entire species. But their isolation has left them extremely inbred. ... Read full Story
Videos show narwhals using their tusks in several ways, including prodding and flipping a fish. It’s the first reported evidence of the whales playing. ... Read full Story
In Brazil, where humans and dolphins fish in tandem, cooperation both within and between species is essential for the longstanding tradition. ... Read full Story
A 1-degree-Celsius change in water temperature prompts sea turtles in Northern Cyprus to lay eggs nearly a week earlier on average. ... Read full Story
Male crickets in Hawaii softened their chirps once parasitic flies started hunting them. Now, it seems, the flies are homing in on the new tunes. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Susan Milius | 2/24/2025 11:00 AM
A survey of museum specimens reveals that more than a dozen species of the birds sport biofluorescence in feathers, skin or even inside their throats. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Susan Milius | 2/14/2025 9:00 AM
Time-lapse video shows how a mushroom coral polyp pulses and inflates, flinging its soft body into micro-hops to slowly move itself to a new location. ... Read full Story
By Science News | Elie Dolgin | 2/13/2025 11:30 AM
Six zebras wore video cameras attached to collars, capturing the equines’ daily life. Sticking with giraffes may let the two species protect each other. ... Read full Story
Human-made structures act as artificial reefs, luring plankton and, in turn, Earth’s largest fish. That could put whale sharks at risk of ship strikes. ... Read full Story
The main component of common cuttlefish ink — melanin — strongly sticks to shark smell sensors, possibly explaining why the predators avoid ink. ... Read full Story
A snapshot of blacktip reef sharks hunting hardyhead silverside fish won the 2024 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. ... Read full Story
While the risk to humans of exposure from cows or milk remains low, this new flu spillover from birds into cows raises the need for continued surveillance. ... Read full Story
A mantis shrimp's punch creates high-energy waves. Its exoskeleton is designed to absorb that energy, preventing cracking and tissue damage. ... Read full Story
DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2025 is:
progeny \PRAH-juh-nee\ noun
Progeny refers to the child or descendant of a particular parent or family. Progeny can also refer to the offspring of an animal or plant, or broadly to something that is the product of something else. The plural of progeny is progeny.
// Many Americans are the progeny of immigrants.
// The champion thoroughbred passed on his speed, endurance, and calm temperament to his progeny, many of whom became successful racehorses themselves.
// This landmark study is the progeny of many earlier efforts to explore the phenomenon.
“‘I am (We are) our ancestors’ wildest dreams.’ The phrase originated from New Orleans visual artist, activist, and filmmaker Brandan Odums, and was popularized by influential Black figures like Ava Duvernay, who used the phrase in tribute to the ancestors of First Lady Michelle Obama. Melvinia Shields, who was born a slave in 1844, would be survived by five generations of progeny, ultimately leading to her great-great-great granddaughter—Michelle Obama ...” — Christopher J. Schell, “Hope for the Wild in Afrofuturism,” 2024
Did you know?
Progeny is the progeny of the Latin verb prōgignere, meaning “to beget.” That Latin word is itself an offspring of the prefix prō-, meaning “forth,” and gignere, which can mean “to beget” or “to bring forth.” Gignere has produced a large family of English descendants, including benign, engine, genius, germ, indigenous, and genuine. Gignere even paired up with prō- again to produce a close relative of progeny: the noun progenitor can mean “an ancestor in the direct line,” “a biologically ancestral form,” or “a precursor or originator.”