Trees News

October 5, 2026

Top Headlines

A Forgotten 30-year Forest Experiment Just Delivered a Huge Surprise

Oct. 4, 2026 A 30-year forestry experiment in Australia found that heavily thinned mountain ash forests grew unusually large trees while recovering enough carbon to match or exceed untouched areas. The results suggest carefully managed thinning could support ...

New “Plant Armor” More Than Triples Strawberry Yields

Oct. 1, 2026 A new protective fabric boosted strawberry yields by as much as 3.56 times while blocking insects and still allowing sunlight, rain, and airflow to reach the plants. Originally inspired by research on military clothing, Plant Armor could also help ...

Mulberry May Reshape Gut Bacteria and Influence Metabolism

Sep. 30, 2026 Mulberry compounds may reshape the gut microbiome in ways that support intestinal health and metabolism, with some combinations showing especially strong effects in animal studies. However, the results vary depending on the plant part and processing ...

“Parachute Science” Is Failing the Tropics, Home to More Than 80% of Insect Species

Sep. 9, 2026 Insects quietly hold much of the natural world together, yet conservation efforts are overlooking the tropical regions where more than 80 percent of insect species live. Monash University researchers ...

Why Are so Many Dead Bumblebees Appearing on Sidewalks?

July 29, 2026 Bumblebees naturally have short lives, but extreme heat and human activity are making survival harder. Pesticides can poison bees or destroy the flowers they depend on, while habitat loss leaves them with fewer safe places to live and feed. ...

The Best Way to Save Giant Sequoias May Be More Fire

July 26, 2026 Giant sequoias are built to withstand ordinary fires, but recent extreme wildfires killed thousands of trees that had survived for centuries or even millennia. A new analysis of about 26,400 sequoias found that trees in areas treated with prescribed ...

Trees Keep Absorbing Carbon Long After They Stop Growing

July 9, 2026 Oak trees keep absorbing carbon dioxide long after their annual growth has ended, revealing that photosynthesis and wood production are not as closely linked as scientists once believed. The finding could reshape forecasts of how much carbon forests ...

A New York Cemetery Was Hiding 5.5 Million Bees Underground

May 28, 2026 A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented ...

Scientists Warn About Golden Oyster Mushrooms Sold in Florida Markets

Apr. 24, 2026 The golden oyster mushroom may be a culinary hit, but it’s becoming an ecological problem. Scientists warn it’s spreading quickly through U.S. forests, where it outcompetes native fungi and reduces biodiversity. In just a decade, it has appeared ...

95% Success Rate: This New Trick Lures Termites Straight to Their Death

Apr. 20, 2026 Scientists at UC Riverside have found a clever new way to outsmart termites—by turning their own instincts against them. Using a natural pine scent called pinene, which smells like food to termites, researchers can lure the pests straight toward a ...

Dragonflies Can See a Color Humans Can’t and It Could Change Medicine

Apr. 9, 2026 Dragonflies may see the world in a way that pushes beyond human limits—and surprisingly, they do it using the same molecular trick we evolved ourselves. Scientists discovered that these insects can detect extremely deep red light, even edging into ...

Scared of Spiders? Scientists Say the Real Nightmare Is Losing Them

Mar. 14, 2026 Spiders and insects may not be fan favorites, but they are vital to the health of ecosystems—and scientists barely know how they’re doing. Researchers found that nearly 90% of North America’s insect and arachnid species have no conservation ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:09am EDT

97-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal the Earliest Known Animal “GPS”

Oct. 2, 2026 Mysterious 97-million-year-old magnetic fossils may be the oldest evidence of an animal using Earth’s magnetic field like a built-in GPS. Their sophisticated magnetic structure could have helped an ...

This Giant Stick Insect Fooled Scientists for Decades

Oct. 1, 2026 Scientists have identified two new species of large Australian stick insects, including one that lays extraordinary “lidded” eggs never before recorded in the group. The discovery also revealed ...

New Chemical Wipes out 95% of Termites Without Harming Humans

Sep. 19, 2026 A chemical that stops drywood termites from building new exoskeletons killed about 95% of colonies in testing, offering a potentially safer alternative to traditional fumigation. Because termites ...

Your Dislike of Eating Bugs May Be 9,000 Years Old

Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient teeth and human DNA are revealing a surprising history of insect eating. Modern humans in northern Eurasia appear to have eaten insects only occasionally, while Neanderthals may have consumed ...

324-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals How Insects Conquered Land

Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient fossils suggest insects conquered land through a long amphibious phase rather than making an abrupt jump from water to dry ground. A newly identified 324-million-year-old species still ...

A 60-Year-Old Theory About Ants, Bees and Wasps May Be Wrong

Aug. 15, 2026 Scientists have long thought an unusual genetic system helped ants, bees, and wasps evolve their extraordinary social colonies. A massive new analysis suggests that genetics alone can’t explain ...

Scientists Went Looking for Giant Trees in Taiwan and Found a Lost World

Aug. 3, 2026 Taiwan’s steep, remote mountains have sheltered extraordinary forests containing hundreds of giant Taiwania firs. After years of difficult expeditions, LiDAR mapping, and citizen-science detective ...

Scientists Found Evolution Repeating Itself in the Galápagos Islands

July 30, 2026 More than 150 years after Darwin’s finches helped reshape biology, Galápagos plants are exposing another evolutionary surprise. Giant daisies repeatedly developed similar heat-tolerant leaf ...

Researchers Discover New Beetle Species Hiding Just Steps from Their Lab

June 30, 2026 A tiny new species of ladybird beetle was discovered on a pine tree at Kyushu University, proving that unknown wildlife can exist right under our noses. The research also uncovered a second new ...

Hidden Bird Species Discovered in Japan After DNA Reveals a Stunning Secret

June 23, 2026 A bird long thought to be a single rare species in Japan has turned out to be two. Scientists discovered that the elusive Ijima’s Leaf Warbler and a newly identified Tokara Leaf Warbler look almost ...

Scientists Mapped Every Neural Connection in a Fruit Fly and Found a Surprise

June 10, 2026 A groundbreaking new connectome maps every neural connection in an adult fruit fly’s central nervous system, creating an unprecedented view of how the brain and body work together. The findings ...

Oak Trees Are Delaying Spring to Starve Caterpillars

May 5, 2026 Oak trees have a surprising trick to fight back against hungry caterpillars: they simply wait. When trees are heavily attacked one year, they delay leaf growth by just three days the next ...

100-Million-Year-Old Bug Had Crab-Like Claws Unlike Any Known Insect

May 25, 2026 Deep inside 100-million-year-old amber from Myanmar, scientists uncovered a bizarre ancient bug with clawed front legs that look more like a crab’s pincers than anything seen in modern insects. The ...

Scientists Just Captured Trees Glowing With Electricity During Storms

Apr. 21, 2026 Scientists chasing thunderstorms in a retrofitted minivan finally captured something never seen before in nature: faint electrical glows shimmering from treetops during a storm. These “corona ...

Scientists Discover the Perfect Temperature to Keep Mangoes Fresh Much Longer

May 23, 2026 Scientists found that storing mangoes at 54°F dramatically slows ripening and keeps the fruit fresh far longer than typical tropical temperatures. The cooler conditions helped mangoes stay firm, ...

Giant Prehistoric Insects Didn’t Need High Oxygen After All, Study Finds

Apr. 25, 2026 Ancient Earth once buzzed with enormous dragonfly-like insects, and scientists long thought high oxygen levels made their size possible. A new study overturns that idea, revealing insect flight ...

Scientists Found a Bug That Generates Its Own Heat in Freezing Cold

Mar. 26, 2026 Snow flies have an unexpected way of surviving freezing temperatures. They produce antifreeze proteins to block ice formation and can even generate their own heat. Scientists also found that their ...

Scientists Discovered a Secret Deal Between a Plant and Beetles

Mar. 12, 2026 A study from Kobe University has uncovered a surprising partnership between Japanese red elder plants and Heterhelus beetles. The beetles pollinate the flowers but also lay eggs inside the developing ...

Tiny Clump of Moss Helped Solve a Shocking Cemetery Crime

Mar. 6, 2026 A tiny piece of moss helped expose a cemetery scandal in Illinois, where workers allegedly dug up graves and resold burial plots. By identifying the moss and analyzing its chlorophyll to estimate its ...

Half of Amazon Insects Could Face Dangerous Heat Stress

Mar. 5, 2026 A sweeping new study of more than 2,000 insect species reveals a troubling reality: many insects may be far less capable of coping with rising temperatures than scientists once hoped. Researchers ...

For Every Known Vertebrate Species, Two More May Be Hiding in Plain Sight

Mar. 3, 2026 Earth’s vertebrate diversity may be far richer than anyone realized. A sweeping analysis of more than 300 studies suggests that for every known fish, bird, reptile, amphibian, or mammal species, ...

Scientists Boost Strawberry Flavor and Nutrition Without Changing Growth

May 5, 2026 A surprising genetic twist shows that boosting a seemingly ordinary “housekeeping” gene can dramatically improve fruit quality without any trade-offs. By increasing the activity of a tRNA-related ...

This Weird Deep-Sea Creature Was Named by Thousands of People Online

Feb. 7, 2026 A newly discovered deep-sea creature has become an unlikely Internet star. After appearing in a popular YouTube video, a rare chiton found nearly three miles beneath the ocean surface sparked a ...

Forests Are Changing Fast and Scientists Are Deeply Concerned

Feb. 9, 2026 Forests around the world are quietly transforming, and not for the better. A massive global analysis of more than 31,000 tree species reveals that forests are becoming more uniform, increasingly ...

T. Rex Took 40 Years to Reach Full Size, Scientists Find

June 22, 2026 Tyrannosaurus rex may have been a much slower grower than scientists realized. A new study of 17 tyrannosaur fossils found that the giant predator likely took about 40 years to reach its full size of ...

T. Rex Took 40 Years to Reach Full Size, Study Finds

Mar. 5, 2026 Tyrannosaurus rex may have taken far longer to grow up than scientists once thought. By analyzing growth rings in fossilized leg bones from 17 tyrannosaur specimens and using new statistical methods, ...

Scientists Are Rethinking Bamboo as a Powerful New Superfood

Jan. 16, 2026 Bamboo shoots may be far more than a crunchy side dish. A comprehensive review found they can help control blood sugar, support heart and gut health, and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. ...

Scientists Found the Soil Secret That Doubles Forest Regrowth

Jan. 15, 2026 New research shows tropical forests can recover twice as fast after deforestation when their soils contain enough nitrogen. Scientists followed forest regrowth across Central America for decades and ...

Breakthrough Lets Scientists Watch Plants Breathe in Real Time

Jan. 7, 2026 Scientists have created a new way to watch plants breathe—live and in high definition—while tracking exactly how much carbon and water they exchange with the air. The breakthrough could help ...

A Hidden Chemical War Is Unfolding Inside Spruce Trees

Jan. 1, 2026 Spruce bark beetles don’t just tolerate their host tree’s chemical defenses—they actively reshape them into stronger antifungal protections. These stolen defenses help shield the beetles from ...