Image of the Day

Researchers attached satellite tags to three bird species, including the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), to illustrate the migratory birds' strategies for tracking seasonal resources between continents.

Wild-type bacteria (black) can survive and grow in the presence of an antibiotic when surrounded by enough antibiotic-resistant bacteria (green).

Camera traps caught a rare glimpse of a family of ocelots in a South Texas refuge, allowing wildlife biologists to give this three-week old kitten a quick checkup.

A starfish larva is illustrated stirring up a whorl of water.

Researchers have catalogued thousands of digital fish skeletons, such as this CT scan of a sturgeon poacher (Podothecus accipenserinus), and made the images available to the public.

The least weasel (Mustela nivalis) is the smallest member of the Mustelidae family.

Biologists publish a reference genome for the gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli).

Patients with a rare genetic disease suffer from calcification in their arteries—like this cross-section of one calcified popliteal artery. Now, researchers may have identified the mechanism behind this condition.

Scientists discover a new species of robber fly, Trichoura pardeos, in South Africa.

Mathematical models are helping researchers understand how elevated river temperatures cause higher mortality among salmon eggs, like the ones shown below. 

The region of the Galapagos Islands responsible for the archipelago's enormous biodiversity—and its eponymous tortoises—likely formed about 1.6 million years ago.

This deep-sea octopod, as yet unnamed, could be at risk from habitat destruction due to underwater mining operations.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing DNA markers to distinguish between the pathogen responsible for the disease tularemia (blue) and other harmless, but closely related, bacteria.

New details on the role calcium channels play in neuron myelination could lead to better treatments for multiple sclerosis.

The marine worm Schizocardium californicum starts its life cycle as little more than a swimming, translucent head.

Nanofiber gel (purple) containing the cytoplasmic extensions of nerve cells (green) may help repair spinal cord damage in mice.

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa infects burn wounds and forms immune-resistant biofilms like the one shown here, in vitro.

Neonicotinoids can be bad news for insects such as this tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata), which feed on the same agricultural pests that are eradicated by common insecticides.

The nervous system of a horned dung beetle (Onthophagus sagittarius) just before the completion of metamorphosis.

Scientists spotted an extremely rare species of larvacean for the first time since its discovery in 1900.