reproduction

Meet the robots that can reproduce, learn and evolve all by themselves

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By Emma Hart Ruby Fresson ROBOTS have come a long way in the century since Czech writer Karel Čapek used the word to describe artificial automata. Once largely confined to factories, they are now found everywhere from the military and medicine to education and underground rescue. People have created robots that can make art, plant … Read more

Fear of predators means sparrows struggle to raise chicks to adulthood

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Sparrows on a collection of Canadian islands change their behaviour when they fear predators are nearby, and an experiment shows this reduces their ability to raise their offspring to adulthood Life 7 February 2022 By Luke Taylor Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) in British Columbia, Canada Jess Findlay/BIA/Minden/Naturepl.com The fear of predators alone is enough to … Read more

Clitoris evolution: What dolphins reveal about female sex organs

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By Jessica Hamzelou Bottlenose dolphins are “hypersexual creatures” imageBROKER / Alamy Stock Photo Patricia Brennan has forged a controversial career in studying the twist and turns of the evolution of animal genitalia. A biologist based at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, her latest research suggests that bottlenose dolphins have clitorises that have evolved … Read more

Fairywrens: Australian birds can nest out of breeding season to boost numbers

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Purple-crowned fairywrens are more flexible in their breeding behaviour than we thought, which has helped the bird population to grow in one wildlife sanctuary in Western Australia Life 5 January 2022 By Chen Ly Purple-crowned fairywrens in the Northern Territory, Australia Wayne Lawler/Australian Wildlife Conservancy For the second year in a row, researchers have spotted … Read more

Living robots: Xenobots made from frog cells can self-replicate in a dish by pulling cells into clumps

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Swarms of tiny “xenobots” can self-replicate in the lab by pushing loose cells together – the first time this form of reproduction has been seen in multicellular organisms Life 29 November 2021 By Carissa Wong Swarms of tiny living robots can self-replicate in a dish by pushing loose cells together. The xenobots – made from … Read more