Comics

Photograph of the deck of a large commercial fishing vessel. Fish are falling from a massive net and piling on the deck floor, as fishermen look on.

The human hand in fish evolution

Fishery practices that go for the big ones may be counterproductive when mostly the small survive

Aerial photograph showing piles of logs in a clearing in a forest.

Does it work to pay people not to cut the forest?

Evidence that the approach helps to save trees, preserve ecosystems and reduce carbon emissions is often hard to come by. But it can succeed if it’s done right, says an economist.

Five yellow-and-black-striped insects with long antennae are walking over a piece of very battered-looking leaf.

Food & Environment

Natural pest control: Plants enlist their enemies’ enemies

These stealthy survival tactics could teach us how to curb the widespread use of chemical pesticides in agriculture. But first, researchers must learn how seemingly helpless flora deploy this masterful strategy.

Photo of surface-dwelling Mexican tetra on the left and a blind cave fish on the right. The color of the blind cavefish is much paler and pinker than its counterpart.

Living World

How the cavefish lost its eyes — again and again

Mexican tetras that got swept into pitch-black caverns had no use for the energetically costly organs. They lost their eyes in multiple ways — and gained some nifty traits too.