Natural-Intelligence

A comparative study across arthropods finds that sperm cooperation is far more widespread and evolutionarily recurrent than previously assumed. In many insects, spiders, crustaceans and related animals, sperm bind into coordinated groups or use sperm-associated material to form organised structures.

Observations from Mexico’s Gulf of California document orcas cooperating to dismantle large sharp-tail sunfish. One whale stabilised the prey while another accelerated into it, requiring precise positioning, timing and apparent coordination between participants.

Groups of American cockroaches can continue occupying a shelter after environmental cues change, even though isolated individuals quickly move elsewhere.

Ultra-weak ‘biophotons’ might be used to diagnose disease, or could even represent a new signalling mechanism in cells. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02311-z

Long before a distant herd comes into view, an elephant likely already knows it is coming, thanks to silent messages sent through the ground.

Female Megalopta sweat bees must choose whether to remain as helpers in their mother’s nest or leave to reproduce independently.

A minimal wake-vortex model explains how a bird following behind and to the side of another can reduce the mechanical power needed for flight by about 11 percent.

Kagoshima University researchers identified methyl benzoate as an airborne plant-defence signal whose release rises around dusk. Plants receiving the compound activate defence-related genes through NPR1, a central regulator of plant immunity, using a response pattern distinct from the better-known signal methyl salicylate.

Researchers selectively silenced neural circuits associated with the doublesex gene in older honeybee workers and caused them to resume queen-care duties normally performed by younger bees.

A new agent-based model suggests that Andean condors can reduce the energetic cost of long-distance flight by using the movements of other birds as continuously updated social information.