Articles from category Biology

What a tadpole learns, a frog forgets: Exploring amphibian personality

Not all tadpoles are created equal. One grew up sheltered, another always had to fight for survival. Of course they behave differently – but do those early experiences shape the…

Biodiversity and human impact on the environment.

Gone missing: The plants that never came back

In everyday life, especially for city-dwellers, biodiversity is easy to overlook. Yet the astonishing variety of life on Earth underpins something we often take for granted: clean air to breathe…

Sunflowers and math – linked by the Fibonacci spiral, a natural number pattern occurring in nature. Photo: ulleo/Pixaba

Spatial geometry in biology: When aesthetics meets functionality

Many of us have noticed the mathematics hidden in the botanical world – for example, in the sunflower’s inflorescence, where rows of seeds form the characteristic Fibonacci spiral, or in…

Crucian carp (Carassius carassius).

Crayfish and fish: Can they contribute to the removal of microplastics from water?

Plastic pollution in rivers, seas, and oceans is a serious – and long-recognized – problem. It threatens the health and lives of animals. But there’s a twist: aquatic species may…

Orchids often use deception and manipulation to lure insects into pollination – but they can also reward their floral visitors.

Floral deception and rewards for pollinators: Here’s something you didn’t know about orchids

The Orchidaceae – commonly known in Poland as orchids – is one of the largest plant families in the world, comprising over 25,000 species across roughly 800 genera. They occur nearly everywhere,…

Red wood ant’s nests can form mounds up to two meters tall. These anthills can be home to over a million ants.

Uninvited lodgers: Mucoromycota fungi in red wood ant’s nests

How fascinating can the life of a single ant really be? As research from the University of Warsaw shows, the answer is: far more than we might expect. And things…

It had an extraordinarily long neck – and an apparent preference for what is now Poland. Researchers are still asking: why?

This reptile reached proportions unlike those of any other animal. The neck of a 6-meter-long Tanystropheus made up nearly half its body length. Scientists have described this remarkable feature and…

Black-striped mouse (Apodemus agrarius).

Can a mouse outsmart us? The surprising ways animals deceive

They can lead you astray and set traps. When fleeing, they use dodges and feints that even the best soccer players might admire. Recent research by scientists at the University…

The revolutionary who loved plants: Rosa Luxemburg’s herbarium

People associate Rosa Luxemburg with many things – but botany is rarely one of them, let alone the meticulous practice of keeping a herbarium. Yet could the herbarium of this…