On a cool, starry night six years ago, a young scientist crept barefoot across dunes in the Namib Desert in southern Africa. With his pants slung over one arm and his flashlight sweeping the sand, the ...

"I had no idea that a gecko would be heavy enough to work the touch screen," she said. "Every time he shifted his foot, he would call somebody else on our recent call list." Geckos, found on every ...