Biology

The Grand Prairie Bird Alliance says it needs people who are willing to help address a housing shortage — not of houses for people, though. It's a dearth of purple martin dwelling space.

This year was already a rare one in central Illinois for a solar eclipse. The next happening is even rarer — two broods of cicadas will emerge from the ground this year at the same time.

In an ironic twist, an Illinois Wesleyan University biologist has named a new species of snake after the actor Harrison Ford. In the iconic movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Ford's character Indiana Jones doesn’t like snakes.

Biologists try to understand complex sub-molecular processes by creating movies in their heads. They're getting more help with that these days from Janet Iwasa, a biochemist at the University of Utah who uses 3-D animation software to visualize how cells and proteins work.

An Illinois State University graduate student has been recognized for her research in how the body fights off bacteria with bleach that our body creates. Sadia Sultana won first prize at ISU's annual Three Minute Thesis competition at the Normal Theater.

Edgar Lehr spent two weeks camping in a Peruvian park at 10,000 feet and found the lizard with a black belly on the second day of the expedition. Lehr was given the honor of selecting a name for the new lizard species, though it has not yet been revealed.

A savanna restoration just off Normal’s Main Street could transform a long-forgotten space into an urban ecology showcase for Illinois State…

North and west of Mason City, Iowa, there is a quarry belonging to the LeHigh Cement Company. It's huge. In a "what I did on my summer vacation" moment,…