Parasitic worms highjack their hosts' free will, and scientists finally think they know how

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A worm, Chordodes fukuii, and a mantid, Tenodera angustipennis, pose with a leaf for scale.
In a fight between this measly worm and majestic mantis, who do you think would win? You might be surprised.

Takuya Sato

Orcas sunk another boat and sailors are resorting to some very weird and wild ways to save their yachts

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The fin and head of a killer whale surface on the foreground between two small boats with forested mountains behind them.
An orca slightly breaches the water between two boats in Alaska.

Joel Rogers/Getty images

Scientists finally solved the centuries-long mystery of where a starfish's head is

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A person holding a five-pointed starfish.
Genetics suggests sea stars have a head in each limb. Does that mean they have multiple brains, too?

Stefan Cristian Cioata / Getty Images

I dedicated my life to biology until I went on 'Naked and Afraid' and realized I could make a bigger difference doing TV instead

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Forrest Galante holding a Fernandina Giant Tortoise
This female Fernandina Giant Tortoise is nicknamed Fern.

Forrest Galante

Animals in the savanna are more scared of the sound of a human voice than lions, dogs, or guns, a study found

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A collage of a group of tourists on safari with binoculars next to a roaring lion.
Animals on the savanna reacted with much more fear when hearing human voices than lions roars.

[left] David De Lossy/Getty Images; [right] Marcos del Mazo/Contributor/Getty Images

A group of bull sharks lived in a golf course pond for 17 years. Scientists say they could be in other ponds in Australia

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A collage of a bull shark and an aerial photo of a golf course pond.
The bull sharks found in Carbrook Country Club lived for over half a bull sharks expected life span.

Getty Images

A human embryo grown in a lab without a sperm or egg could be a revolutionary new way to test medicines that may help prevent miscarriage and genetic diseases

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The top sphere contains the part that will become the embryo itself, capped by the amnion; the bottom sphere is the yolk sac; the interface between them is a critical structural feature of human embryonic development. The two spheres are encapsulated by a cellular layer that will become the placenta.
Scientists built the model embryo, imaged here. The outer ring is the placenta forming.

Weizmann Institute of Science

Scientists uncover a 'bizarre' leggy dinosaur unlike anything seen before, and it could rewrite the history of bird evolution

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An artist's impression of 150-million-year-old avialan theropod Fujianvenator prodigiosus shows a leggy, plumed dinosaur screatching as it stands over a prey.
An artist's impression of Fujianvenator prodigiosus. Scientists think this dinosaur could be a much needed missing link in the history of bird evolution around the Jurassic period.

ZHAO Chuang

A mysterious Arctic shark that can live for 500 years got lost and ended up swimming in the balmy waters of the Caribbean, scientists say

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Greenland_shark
A Greenland shark picture taken at the floe edge of the Admiralty Inlet, Nunavut, 2007.

Hemming1952/Wikimedia Commons

Photos show 6,000 octopuses in one spot. It's the largest known gathering ever found and a mystery that scientists only just solved.

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A time-lapse camera developed by MBARI engineers allowed MBARI researchers and collaborators to monitor nesting octopus at the Octopus Garden for more than six months.
A time-lapse camera developed by MBARI engineers allowed them to monitor nesting octopus at the Octopus Garden for more than six months.

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