Termites, ants, and hermit crabs build elaborate homes with no boss and no plan, and scientists are decoding how.

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. This is more than just an interesting scientific find or historical curiosity. It offers a window into what our planet looked like ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In this undated photo provided to the Associated Press by Stellenbosch University researcher, Michele Francis, right, and other ...

Agriculture is not unique to humans: some insect groups have also evolved this way of life. One such group is the fungus-farming termites, which cultivate fungi as food inside their nests. Such ...

Scientists recently found the planet’s longest continuously occupied termite colony in an arid region of South Africa. It dates to the time of the Neanderthals. By Franz Lidz Last month, Michele ...

When it comes to building sustainable buildings, humans have a lot to learn from termites. A recent study that colleagues and I published in Science Advances explains how some African termites ...

A clear plastic container holding watery yellow-brown termite faeces has pride of place in the office of dipterologist, John Midgley, at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in South Africa. He often searches the ...

Termite farms are a familiar sight on the African savannah. Big, clay-colored, and bulky, these mounds rise from flat land to unreal proportions. Termite mounds can reach 10 feet or more in height, ...

Unlike chimpanzees in East and West Africa, who use a single tool to extract termites, chimpanzees in Central Africa's Congo Basin use tool sets -- puncturing sticks or perforating twigs plus fishing ...

Imagine a lush forest with tree-ferns, their trunks capped by ribbon-like fronds. Conifers tower overhead, bearing triangular leaves almost sharp enough to pierce skin. Flowering plants are both small ...