Makes sense, doesn't it?

Overhunting is one reason for wildlife population decline, but do these animals even know what we’re doing to them? New research suggests that they do. Woolly monkeys in the Amazon were observed to react differently to people in their territory, depending on the behavior of the human.

In areas where hunting is heavy, humans gathering food or performing research do not elicit much of a response from the monkeys. Hunters, however, result in the monkeys becoming very quiet and motionless. In quieter areas where human contact is less frequent, the monkeys are more wary of the researchers and gatherers. This indicates that the monkeys are behaving based on experience.

The long term advantage of this behavior is uncertain. Woolly monkeys are highl ...

A dolphin with a severe spinal deformity was adopted by a group of sperm whales. Friendly interactions between whales and dolphins had not been observed prior to this discovery in 2011. Researchers speculate that the dolphin was separated its original group either by an inability to keep up or it may have been ostracized.

Dolphins are social creatures, so it makes sense why one who is alone would seek out a new slower-moving group. It is unclear what the whales gained from the relationship, though many of the whales did return affectionate rubs from the dolphin. ...

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal have discovered a bacterium living in the frozen permafrost of the high Arctic. The permafrost bacterium, Planococcus halocryophilus strain Or1, grows and divides at -15°C and can even remain metabolically active at -25°C.

This bacteria is yielding clues about how extraterrestrial organisms might endure extreme conditions - as one of the things that makes it extremely hard for life to flourish in foreboding places like Mars and the moons of Saturn is the punishing cold. ...

It's estimated that one in every two million American lobsters are blue. The genetic mutation causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein, which combines with a red carotenoid molecule already present to form a blue complex. This gives the lobster its coloration.

Only six blue lobsters have ever been recorded as caught alive. They're all in aquariums today.

By manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, the behavior of crystal growth can be controlled, creating precisely tailored structures – “flowers” at the scale of microns – that bloom in a beaker.

Though these minuscule sculptures don't resemble the cubic or jagged forms normally associated with crystals, they “bloom” from the surface of a submerged glass slide, assembling themselves one molecule at a time.

The precipitation of the crystals depends on a reaction of compounds that are diffusing through a liquid solution. The crystals grow toward or away from certain chemical gradients as the pH of the reaction shifts back and forth. The conditions of the reaction dictate whether the structure resembles broad, radiating leaves, a thi ...

In the Amazon rainforest salt is a highly sought after commodity. Tears are full of salt, so these butterflies are literally drinking the turtles tears to get the vital mineral.

This is a fairly common sight in the Amazon, and it's not restricted to butterflies.