The nectar of coffee and citrus flowers contains low doses of caffeine. In lab tests, bees fed caffeinated nectar at those levels were three times as likely to remember the flower's scent 24 hours later. For the plant, it's a way to keep pollinators coming back. You're not the only one hooked on a little coffee.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.