Expectant moms can have very different ideas when it comes to where they plan to have their babies. Some women even choose to give birth in a warm tub of water. But 50 million years ago, whales, it seems, crawled out of the ocean to give birth on land.

You’ve probably heard that whales evolved from animals that lived on terra firma. But what were things like during the transition, when early whales spent some time on shore and the rest in the sea? A new report in the journal Public Library of Science ONE offers one idea. Because scientists from the University of Michigan Museums of Natural History recently unearthed the first fossil of an ancient pregnant whale. And they found that the foot-long fetus, who was probably only a day or two from being born, was positioned for a headfirst delivery. That’s how land mammals tend to give birth, so their babies can breathe as soon as they arrive. Modern whales, on the other hand, come out tail-first, to make sure they don’t drown during delivery.

Some people never forget a face. Others never forget a flu. Even if they were infected more than 90 years ago. A team of American scientists studied 32 people who survived the 1918 flu epidemic. That virus, also called the Spanish flu, killed an estimated 20 to 100 million people worldwide.

Of course many more survived, and some are still around today. The scientists tracked them down and took a small sample of their blood. And they found that all 32 people they tested still had circulating antibodies that could recognize the 1918 flu strain. What’s even more remarkable is that these immune molecules still work. Injecting the antibodies into mice protected the animals from experimental infection with the virus. The results were published online in the journal Nature on August 13th.

Laundry detergents and air fresheners have long promised to keep your house and clothes smelling sunshine fresh and rain shower clean. But what they haven't said is what exactly you're sniffing when you snuggle up in your just-washed sheets. After hearing from people who said strong scents made them sick, University of Washington researcher Anne Steinemann scratched the surface and found almost a hundred chemicals that weren't listed on the labels. According to her report in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review, plug-in air fresheners, scented sprays, dryer sheets and detergents all contained a mixture of volatile organic compounds.

Unless you’re talking about killer bees, it’s hard to imagine a situation in which “killers” and “bees” would be related. But it turns out that scientists are using the same mathematical model to describe the behavior of both bumblebees and human serial killers. 

Since so many species in a food web are interconnected, the demise of a one can mean extinction for several others that depend on it for food. Thanks to things like climate change and habitat destruction, this "bottom-up extinction" has ecologists scrambling to save key species. Stefano Allesino says they may just want to Google the problem.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=B3E0375D-C541-44C9-63192754C70CCF50

Some peppers have a mild, fresh flavor. But others burn your lips and leave a lingering, numbing kick. If you enjoy that tingling thrill, you might want to say thanks. But not to the peppers themselves—to bugs. Peppers are tasty so they’ll be eaten and have their seeds despersed. But the snacker has to be the right creature—which the peppers need to be birds. Some insects also like to munch peppers, and they may puncture the skin. The wound leaves an opening for a microbial fungus. The fungus wriggles inside and snacks on the seeds, destroying them.