Thank you to everyone who chose to read our papers and publish in our journals this year! As we count down to 2025, we’re celebrating the top 10 most popular articles of the year according to Altmetric.
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10. Humpback whales build their own custom fishing nets
Researchers have known that humpback whales create ‘bubble-nets’ to hunt, but a study published in Royal Society Open Science has discovered that the animals don't just create the nets, they manipulate them as a tool in a variety of ways to maximize their food intake in Alaskan feeding grounds. This innovative research demystifies a behaviour key to the whales' survival and offers a compelling case for including humpbacks among the rare animals that manufacture and wield their own tools.
9. Vampire bats get their energy from an unusual source
This Biology Letters paper found that vampire bats are able to burn amino acids as a fuel source, in a similar way to blood-sucking insects. In the study, researchers coaxed vampire bats in their lab to run on a treadmill as a way to measure their metabolism. Sensors monitored oxygen intake and carbon dioxide released in the bat’s breath, while the source of the energy for respiration was determined using isotopically labelled cow blood. The results revealed that the vampire bats were using amino acids for energy, rather than carbohydrates or fats, which derive from the digestion of proteins and are a common component in blood.
8. Time spent alone correlates to heightened ‘threat alert’ in teenagers
Research published in Royal Society Open Science has found that teenagers who spend time alone in their bedrooms could be more prone to feeling threatened. Forty young people from Cambridge were tested before and after several hours alone as part of the study. Periods of isolation, including when participants could use their phones, led to an increased threat response. The study suggests loneliness could lead to excessive ‘threat vigilance’, even when online, which could negatively impact adolescent mental health over time.
7. AI reveals decline in humpback whales linked to climate change
A Royal Society Open Science study has found that climate change could be causing a decline in the number of humpback whales. Using artificial intelligence-powered image recognition, the research found that the humpback population in the North Pacific Ocean dropped 20% from 2012 to 2021. The decline coincides with a severe marine heat wave that raised water temperatures from Alaska to California. The impacts cascaded through the food web, affecting fish, birds and whales.
6. Curly carrots
This paper published in Royal Society Open Science has uncovered the secret science of what makes carrot sticks curl up if left uneaten for too long. The research team concluded that residual stresses and dehydration were the two key factors behind the curling behaviour. The starchy outer layer of the carrot is stiffer than the soft central vein, and when cut lengthwise, the two carrot halves curl because the difference in stress becomes unbalanced. Dehydration leads to further loss of stiffness, further driving the curling effect.
5. Are these killer whales actually two separate species?
This paper published in Royal Society Open Science uses various types of data to argue that orcas in the North Pacific, known as residents and transients, are different enough to be distinct species. The two proposed species may look indistinguishable to the untrained eye, but there are subtle differences in their fins and markings, as well as many more unseen ones. They don't speak the same ‘language’, eat the same food, and have no interest in hanging out with one another, despite often dwelling in the same waters.
4. World’s largest trees are thriving in the UK
Research published in Royal Society Open Science has found that the biggest species of redwood trees, known as the giant sequoia, are well adapted to the UK. They are growing at rates close to their native ranges in California and capture large amounts of carbon during their long lives. Though introduced to the UK 160 years ago, this is the first time the trees’ growth rate and resilience in the UK have been analysed.
3. Dogs have great long-term memory skills
In a study published in Biology Letters, researchers taught toy names to several dogs and then hid the toys away for two years to learn more about the dogs’ long-term memory. They found that overall, the dogs were accurate in retrieving the toy specified 44% of the time, while some had an accuracy rate of up to 60%. These results are far better than chance, providing a clear indication that the dogs had stored the information in their long-term memories.
2. First glow-in-the-dark animals originated deep in the ocean
Some creatures have the ability to glow naturally in a phenomenon known as bioluminescence. This Proceedings B study discovered that octorals, marine invertebrates that existed around 540 million years ago, are the oldest known bioluminescent organism. These findings significantly predate previous records, which dated the earliest emergence of this glowing trait in animals to about 267 million years ago in ostracods, a type of small marine crustacean.
1. Do great apes have a sense of humour?
This paper published in Proceedings B demonstrates that great apes aren't so different from humans when it comes to joking around - they also enjoy making funny faces, poking one another, randomly pulling each other’s hair, and other forms of teasing. The study reports evidence of ‘playful teasing’ in four great ape species including orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas.
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Image credits:
Humpback whale lunging in the centre of a bubble net spiral. Credit: Christin Khan, NOAA / NEFSC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Vampire bat on a metabolic treadmill. Credit: Price Sewell.
Humpback whale tail. Credit: Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Luminous jellyfish. Credit: Alexandpilat, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Giant sequoias. Credit: Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
An adult male Bigg’s killer whale (a) and an adult male resident killer whale (b). Collected using an octocopter drone, provided by John Durban and Holly Fearnbach.
