Ari Daniel
Stories
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Study suggests humans' ability to communicate goes back farther than we thought
A new study finds that chimpanzee babies pick up communication styles from their mothers.
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Decades of songbird mapping in New Hampshire yields insights about their changing home
In 1969, a team of researchers took a patch of forest in central New Hampshire and mapped the territories of the songbirds inhabiting it. For more than half a century, that work has continued, revealing insights about the forest and its birds with evermore modern techniques.
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The potato's origins, unearthed
The potato may seem rather ordinary. But this tuber's origins story is quite fascinating, and we don't really know all the details yet.
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Brazil aims to reduce dengue with modified mosquitoes
For years, researchers have been trying to shut down a mosquito's ability to transmit certain diseases. Brazil is making a massive investment in the effort, aimed at throttling dengue levels.
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Get ready, Brazil. The 'good mosquitoes' are coming
Scientists are driving around in white Chevys, releasing thousands of specially engineered mosquitoes from tubes — part of a pioneering project to reduce the spread of dengue, a terrible disease.
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Stand back! This explosive cucumber is bursting with seeds
A small, hairy, toxic version of the cucumbers found in the produce aisle does have an advantage over its more palatable cousins — a feat of ballistic seed dispersal.
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This squirting cucumber uses ballistics to spread its seeds far and wide
The squirting cucumber doesn't get its name for nothing. And it's why her supervisor, who studies biomechanics, was so excited about them. Gorges searched for the plant on YouTube, and turned up this David Attenborough video.
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Farewell to USAID: Reflections on the agency that President Trump dismantled
July 1 is the official end date for the agency that President Trump dismantled. We talk to four former top officials about this milestone event.
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This federal program helps track America's ecosystems. Trump's budget would gut it
Buried in the Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget is the near elimination of something called the Ecosystems Mission Area. It's a program that monitors living things and the health of the land and water they inhabit. NPR's Ari Daniel reports that career scientists are deeply concerned about the potential cut.
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How migrating Australian moths find caves hundreds of miles away
Billions of nocturnal Bogong moths migrate up to 1,000 km to cool caves in the Australian Alps that they have never previously visited. New research shows how they may find their way there and back.
