Life sciences writer Susan Milius has been writing about botany, zoology and ecology for Science News since the last millennium. She worked at diverse publications before breaking into science writing and editing. After stints on the staffs of The Scientist, Science, International Wildlife and United Press International, she joined Science News. Three of Susan's articles have been selected to appear in editions of The Best American Science Writing.

All Stories by Susan Milius

  1. Plants

    Dead pipes can still regulate plants’ water

    Physiologists say they have demonstrated for the first time that dead xylem cells in plant plumbing can control water speed.

  2. The Lives of Pandas

    On a tight energy budget, newborns no bigger than chipmunks grow into roly-poly superstars.

  3. Flood’s rising? Quick, start peeing!

    Malaysian ants that nest in giant bamboo fight floods by sipping from water rising inside and then dashing outdoors to pee.

  4. Warblers make species in a ring

    Genetic and song analyses of the greenish warblers in forests around the Tibetan Plateau suggest the birds represent a long-sought evolutionary quirk called a ring species.

  5. First gene-altered primate beats the odds

    Oregon researchers have slipped a jellyfish gene into a rhesus monkey to create the first genetically modified primate.

  6. Film solves mystery of sleepwalking coral

    For the first time, bewildered researchers realized that a bootlace-size eunicid worm can move chunks of coral around, perhaps explaining how some coral reefs get started.

  7. New ant species plunders other ants’ farms

    A newly discovered Megalomyrmex ant specializes in raiding the nest gardens of fungus-cultivating ant species.