When it comes to body armor, there's typically a trade-off – it can either be highly impact-resistant or flexible, but not both. That may not be the case for much longer, however, thanks to an ...

Using eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal, a simple mollusk may have evolved enough vision to spot potential predators, scientists say. Daniel Speiser, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of ...

A rare iron mineral has been discovered in the teeth of a living organism for the first time – one that bears the pet name “wandering meatloaf.” While it sounds like a tour update for the musician ...

You’d probably walk past a chiton without even seeing it. These creatures often look like nothing more than another speck of seaweed on the crusty intertidal rocks. But it sees you. At least, if it’s ...

As a fish swims over the ocean floor, it’s being watched by hundreds of rocks. The rocks are actually the eyes of a chiton, an armoured relative of snails and other molluscs. Perhaps uniquely among ...

The chiton is a rather timid sea creature that spends its time clinging to rocks and grazing. But one fascinating aspect of its anatomy is probably what keeps it alive. The chiton's body is covered ...

Diagrams (top) and electron microscope images (bottom) of chiton shells. From left to right: Aesthetes (green) are fount on all chitons, while shell eyes (blue) and eyespots (red) only evolved in a ...

It’s easy to start ticking off the natural wonders of the Northwest: old-growth forests, Mount St. Helens, orcas, salmon, Mount Rainier, Columbia Gorge, Crater Lake, the Hoh rain forest, the list goes ...

A research paper titled Biological Organisms as End Effectors explores the oddball approach of giving small animals jobs as grippers at the end of a robotic arm. Researchers show that pill bugs and ...

The way the scale armor works is that when in contact with a force, the scales converge inward upon one another to form a solid barrier. When not under force, they can 'move' on top of one another to ...

(CNN) — A rare iron mineral has been discovered in the teeth of a living organism for the first time — one that bears the pet name “wandering meatloaf.” While it sounds like a tour update for the ...