It’s becoming ever clearer that we live in a microbial world. By now, we are well aware that microbes play important roles in digestion, training the immune system, and protection from pathogens. Although many studies have been done in model organisms like mice, some researchers are now asking similar questions about the microbiota of other animals in the hopes that this could help us take better care of our furry friends.

For many years, researchers have made certain assumptions about same-sex sexual behaviors in animals — but what if their assumptions have been wrong?

The creation of so-called designer babies could begin within two years, according to new research. Dr Kevin Smith, a bioethicist from Abertay University in Dundee, has published analysis that claims the risks of gene editing are now low enough to warrant its use with human embryos.

We have seen the depths of hell, and it is a sloth. A cheerful-faced, slow-moving two-toed sloth, peering out of its comfortable position, snugly ensconced in... a human toilet.

New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.

Scientist have detected the same eye patterns in humans, chimpanzees and bonobos despite contradictions from previous studies. Scientists have shown that the contrast between the white of human eyes, the sclerae, and the iris allows others to tell the direction of our gaze. Such ability allows humans to commence social learning and other social skills.

A newly discovered species of electric eel can produce an 860-volt electric shock.

Chile’s desiccated Atacama Desert was once considered a dead zone, but it hides great riches that could help us tackle a major threat to human health.

Babies learn to speak by mimicking their parents – just ask anyone who’s caught their child casually repeating an obscenity they didn’t realize they'd heard. While studying just what’s going on in the brain during this kind of vocal learning, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern have managed to implant “memories” into the brains of zebra finches, teaching them to sing a song they’ve never actually heard.

Scientists are perplexed by the slime mould, which has no brain, mouth, stomach or eyes, yet is capable of learning, digesting food, has almost 720 sexes, can move without legs or wings and heals itself within two minutes if cut in half.

Knowing an animal's normal lifespan is hugely important for conservation efforts, but it's harder to find out than you'd think.

Scientists seek to crack an evolutionary code.

The aesthetically challenged naked mole rat could offer clues to battling disease and slowing the effects of aging.

As our brains become increasingly intertwined with our technologies, we run the risk of exposing our minds to hackers. As this new video from AsapScience shows, the possibility is very real.

Three scientists won the Nobel medicine prize on Monday for plotting how cells transfer vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals to other cells, giving insight into diseases such as Alzheimer's, autism and diabetes.

There have been some interesting creatures popping up in the Arctic. Canadian hunters have found white bears with brown tints—a cross between Ursus maritimus, the polar bear, and Ursus arctos horribilis, the grizzly. A couple of decades ago, off the coast of Greenland, something that appeared to be half-narwhal, half-beluga surfaced, and much more recently, Dall’s porpoise and harbor porpoise mixes have been swimming near British Columbia.

While death's cold, bony fingers will inevitably reach all creatures, Mother Nature has imbued a few of her quirkier children with resilient biology seemingly predisposed to keep mortality at bay. Tapping into their secrets has long been a quest for scientists, not least because the thought of our minds flickering out one day continues to bother most people. Here, in no particular order, are five animals who may just hold to clues to unlocking everlasting life

Tony Goldberg, a US professor of pathobiological science, recently returned from an Africa research trip only to discover that a potentially new species of tick had come back with him hidden up his nose. 

Twenty years ago, sequencing the human genome was one of the most ambitious science projects ever attempted. Today, compared to the collection of genomes of the microorganisms living in our bodies, the ocean, the soil and elsewhere, each human genome, which easily fits on a DVD, is comparatively simple. Its 3 billion DNA base pairs and about 20,000 genes seem paltry next to the roughly 100 billion bases and millions of genes that make up the microbes found in the human body.

The idea that there were several different human species walking the Earth two million years ago has been dealt a blow. Instead, scientists say early human fossils found in Africa and Eurasia may have been part of the same species.