A research intern for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Muse Opiang, completed the first field study ever conducted on the long-beaked echidna, an egg-laying mammal found only in New Guinea.¹ Representing four years and 6,000 man-hours of work, Opiang’s field observations include a catalog of dwellings and habits that befit an animal clearly formed with a collection of mosaic featur

In 2003, the human genome was heralded as a near-complete DNA sequence, except for the repetitive regions that could not be resolved due to the limitations of the prevailing DNA sequencing technologies.¹ The chimpanzee genome was subsequently finished in 2005 with the hope that its completion would provide clear-cut DNA similarity evidence for an ape-human common ancestry.²

Imagine having skin that can mimic your surroundings, or even make you invisible. The Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes) in the central Pacific has just such an astounding ability. It is designed with special proteins called reflectins that are as beautiful to view as they are amazing in their role.