Electrocuted, Flaming Birds Are Starting Wildfires

Devastating wildfires have unfortunately become annual (and often year-long) problems almost all over the country. With the way the climate’s going, we sure don’t need anything additional, like gender-reveal parties, to set things on fire. Oh, look, the undergrowth just caught fire because a flaming bird fell in there. That sounds like a comedy routine, …

Scientists Give Fungus a Cute Robot Body, It Proceeds to Flop Around

It’s happened plenty of times in science fiction novels and movies. Scientists put something in a robot body — whether an AI or some seemingly innocuous creature — and it promptly uses its newfound power to annihilate humanity. Well, now they’ve gone and done it for real. A U.S.-Italian research team has placed a fungus …

Scientists Plan to Stop Albatross-Eating Mice by Carpet Bombing Them to Oblivion

Imagine you’re facing a difficult problem. How would you go about solving it most efficiently? The mature and sophisticated way would be to carefully analyze its root causes and address them with intricately planned measures. Or you could just bomb it until everything in a 100-mile radius around the problem is a lifeless wasteland. Look, …