Utterances like um, wow and mm-hmm aren’t garbage – they keep conversations flowing.

Some species make venoms that are deadly. With more research, those toxic compounds could yield useful medicines.

Hint: It involves finding just the right proteins. With new ingredients and processes, the next generation of substitutes will be not just more egg-like, but potentially more nutritious.

Soldiering through nightly suspended animation, a (nearly) all-sugar diet, backwards flight and long migrations, the birds’ tiny physiques prove mighty.