Why Do Male Bats Let Females Steal Fruit Right From Their Mouths? For Sex
Females trade sex for fruit but don't think of it as batty prostitution: they eat from particular males with whom they will have pups, Tel Aviv University researchers say
Ruth Schuster
Ruth Schuster is Senior Editor at the Haaretz-TheMarker English Edition.
Schuster has worked in writing, editing and translation for English and Hebrew-language publications for more than two decades. She holds a BSc in biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
She lives in Tel Aviv with her daughter and multiple pets and in her spare time, promotes animal rights.
Billion-year-old ‘Earliest Fungus Among Us’ Only Deepens Mystery of Life
Primordial fungoid found in fossilized river mud in arctic Canada can’t have been the ancestral fungus, it’s too sophisticated, researcher tells Haaretz
Moon Secret Discovered: It Collided With Dwarf Planet Over 4 Billion Years Ago
Shortly after the moon’s own genesis from a wayward planet’s cosmic crash into Earth, a second smaller planet slammed into the moon itself, suggest Meng Hua Zhu of Macau University and colleagues
Jewish Mother Gene Found in Bonobo Chimpanzees?
You think your mom is bad: Lady bonobos literally drag their sons to females in heat to get more grandchildren
Coffee Really Does Make You Go and the Science Shows
But it isn’t the caffeine content that sends espresso hounds to the bathroom
Israeli Study Finds How Obesity Can Increase Breast Cancer Rates
Theory maps out previously unknown molecular mechanism that regulates both so-called ‘cancer genes’ and other genes that suppress cancer
How Ancient Rome Poisoned Not Only Itself but Europe’s Air With Lead
Roman-era mining activities increased atmospheric lead concentrations in Europe at least 10-fold, according to analysis of the Mont Blanc ice cores
Everything We Thought We Knew About the Moon Is Wrong
Moonquakes up to 5 on the Richter scale are shaking the moon as it continues to contract 4.5 billion years after its formation, and now the Chinese have found ancient magma on its far side
Apparently, There’s a Gene That Decides the Fate of Your Siesta
Mediterranean peoples and their fruit flies take siestas, and now researchers at Rutgers have found the regulatory mechanism in the insect
Who's Our Ancestral Species? Not This South African Hominin, Scientists Say
Team calculated the probability that Australopithecus sediba, which existed 800,000 years after the earliest-known human, was ancestral to the human lineage, and concluded it isn’t very likely
Giant Genetic Study Detects ‘Ghost’ Species in Today’s Horses
Horses have only been bred for speed in the last few centuries, says the study – and the passion for breeding thoroughbreds is diminishing resistance to disease
Mini T-rex Struck Fear Into Hearts of Jurassic Proto-rabbits Everywhere
The Suskityrannus probably weighed no more than a fat Labrador, and could have easily fit inside the skull of a true T-rex
Hurricanes to Slam Mediterranean as Global Warming Ramps Up
Storms in the Mediterranean basin will be rarer but stronger as the effects of warming become more severe, a new study predicts
Breakthrough in Human Evolution: Denisovan Fossil Found in Tibet
Jawbone found high up on the Tibetan Plateau, 2,400km from the low-lying Denisova Cave, sheds light on the mysterious origin of Sherpas' tolerance for hypoxia
Holocaust Movies: 18 of the Best Beyond Schindler's List
Exploring not only what was, but what could have been
Early Humans Were Roasting Tubers 120,000 Years Ago, Researchers Discover
Everyone loves starch, but we finally have proof from the South African coast that taste for it goes back to early human history, shedding some light on how our diet evolved
Microscopic Parasitic Jellyfish Discovered in Marine Worms (And Sushi)
Look and ye shall find: The enigmatic myxozoans may have lost most of their jellyfish genes but they found hosts everywhere, even on dry land
Two New Bird Species Discovered in Indonesia. Closest Relative Is 3,000 Km Away
Two new species spotted in Sulawesi: the Wakatobi white-eye had been known, but zoology hadn’t realized it was a species in its own right, and the Wangi-wangi has finally been noticed, too
This Is the Last Climate Change Story You Will Ever Read — if You Take Christiana Figueres’ Advice
It takes a world, not a village, to fix the problem we created, but the technology (mostly) already exists, says the architect of the Paris Agreement and co-winner of this year’s Dan David Prize
Israeli Startup Aims to Save the Planet From Thirst Using Algae
Pampering the bacteria needed to treat sewage is costly and just replaces one planetary blight with another. Enter Aqwind and its algae.
Debunked: Marijuana Munchies Don’t Make You Fatter
But no, you shouldn’t smoke pot in order to lose weight, scientist urges
I (Don’t) Feel the Earth Move: Study Detects 2 Million Quakes in California Over 10 Years
Southern California experiences a very small quake every three minutes, says Caltech big-data study that weeded out the noise from modern society
There’s a Way to Save Jordan. But It Might Kill the Dead Sea
Water crisis in the Hashemite kingdom can be eased by desalinating water from the Red Sea, with brine waste used to replenish the vanishing Dead Sea — but experts don’t agree if it will succeed
Scientists Revive Some Brain Functions in Dead Pigs Hours After Death
‘Frankenpork’ did not regain consciousness, thank heaven, but the team had anesthetic in place just in case and learned more than expected about the post-mortem brain
Israeli Startup Finds Holy Grail of Garbage Disposal
UBQ invented a patented new composite material based on trash that actually decarbonizes the atmosphere in net terms, and uses no water in the process
EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS Oldest Shipwreck in World May Have Been Carrying Copper to Minoans
The hull of the merchant vessel found off Antalya by Hakan Oniz and team is long gone, but the shape of the copper ingots is unmistakably the same as found in Minoan palaces, and depicted in ancient Egyptian tombs
2,600-year-old Jerusalem Discovery Leaves Archaeologists Shell-shocked
Until now archaeologists had believed that chickens were domesticated for the sake of watching them fight, which the ancients found marvelously entertaining
New Species of Hominin Found in Philippines Changes Paradigm of Human Evolution
Previously unknown Homo luzonensis is an enigmatic mosaic of primitive features like Australopithecus and modern ones like nobody else’s — and doesn’t seem to have descended from the same Homo erectus that we did, scientists say
Do Dolphins Lie About Orgasms Too? Some of Them May Have Sex for Fun, Study Implies
Bottlenose dolphins have big clitorises, scientists discover, and they may be able to get pleasure from sex
Primitive Whale Ancestor With Hooves on Its Toes Found in Peru
Amphibious proto-cetacean living 50 million years ago looked like a cross between a crocodile, a dog and a beaver and could swim as well as walk on land, paleontologists say