Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Researchers to send bacteria into orbit aboard space shuttle Atlantis
A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will send an army of microorganisms into space this week, to investigate new ways of preventing the formation and spread of biofilms,...
Feeling stressed? So is the poplar -- but hormone suppression could help the tree
Scientists have identified the molecular mechanism that poplar trees use to adapt to changing soil conditions, as well as some of the genes that turn the process on or off.
Marine Food Chain Seen at Risk After Oil Spill
Scientists Already See Threat to Links in Ocean Food Chain
DNA barcoding exposes mislabeled ferns
DURHAM, N.C., May 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered some garden ferns sold at plant nurseries as American natives might actually be species from other nations.
Near misses are like winning to problem gamblers
The brains of problem gamblers react more intensely to near misses than casual gamblers, new research from the University of Cambridge has found. The results could help explain what keeps...
Blinking neurones give thoughts away
Electrical currents are invisible to the naked eye - at least they are when they flow through metal cables. In nerve cells, however, scientists are able to make electrical signals...
WHO launches snake bite website
The World Health Organization says it hopes its new online database of poisonous snakes and available antidotes to their venom will help reduce the estimated 100,000 deaths a year worldwide...
Researchers investigate fishy sense of smell with hammerhead shark model
As every Jaws fan knows, sharks can smell a drop of blood from up to a kilometer away, but how are their noses so sensitive? Researchers in the UK are...
Male or female? In flies, some cells can't tell
An experienced fruit fly researcher can tell at a glance whether the fly she is observing is male or female; a distinct pigmentation pattern on a fly's body (a type...
Bees that nest in petals
In a rare coincidence, researchers working in both Turkey and Iran discovered on the same day how a rare species of bee builds its underground nests. The females from the...
Novel processing technologies developed for extending use of oats in gluten-free diet
Oats is a highly nutritious cereal, which can be tolerated by large number of celiac patients. A range of commercial oat flours as well as specific oat flours produced from...
New study sheds light on corals' susceptibility to temperature change
An international team of marine biologists has found that existing diversity in some coral populations may significantly influence their response to extreme temperature disturbances - such as those predicted...
Researchers find melanoma not caused by early UVA light exposure
Early life exposure to ultraviolet A light does not cause melanoma in a fish model that previously made that connection, scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre...
Sniffing carbs boosts muscle
According to research, the mere smell or taste of carbohydrates is enough to tell our brains to start increasing muscle activity.
Manufacturing antibodies
New antibodies and recombinant proteins with a key signaling role in immune response to disease have been produced. The proteins have their own direct uses in immunization and are also...
Gene linked to schizophrenia: New clues to disorder
An international study suggests that gene mutations may predispose some individuals to schizophrenia and provides new clues about the causes of this ambiguous disorder. The findings demonstrate that new mutations...
Synchronized Swimming for Submarines
(PhysOrg.com) -- Nature shows and Caribbean vacation commercials often depict a school of fish moving as a single entity to avoid obstacles and elude prey. Engineers hope to give unmanned...
MicroRNA can move between cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- MicroRNAs can move between cells and play a role in their communication. This discovery was made by plant researchers at Uppsala University together with colleagues from Finland and...
Scientists identify genetic resistance to rice sheath blight
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have identified sources of genetic resistance to sheath blight, a major disease affecting rice production worldwide.
High-altitude research advances low-altitude medicine
High altitude medicine is a "natural research laboratory" for the study of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. It can shed light on conditions and diseases that mimic the low oxygen content...
Odors classified by networks of neurons
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), are unraveling how odors are processed by the brain. As they report in Nature, odors in the olfactory...
Early Misdiagnosed Stem Canker Poses Risk for Soybean Growers
Stem canker caused by a fungus, can severely create losses in soybean crop yield. Midwestern and north central regions of the United States and Ontario, Canada were plagued by the...
Birds Of A Feather Attack Together
Last summer, physicist Suzanne Amador Kane at Haverford College in Pennsylvania set up an experiment looking at how flocks of small birds on her campus -- swallows -- defend themselves...
Returning farmland to wilderness in Tanzania
The Swiss wanted to rear cattle in Tanzania and in so doing completely disturbed the ecosystem: the example of the Mkwaja Ranch shows how dependent agriculture is on a functioning...
Detective mice help scientists study baboons
Human noses are often quite weak compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, making it hard for us to find out if baboons can be told apart by smell....
AGU journal highlights -- May 4, 2010
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published or are "in press" (accepted, but not yet published) in Water Resources Research (WRR) and Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In...
Fragmented forests result in more snakes, fewer birds
Monitoring both prey and predator, researchers learned that rat snakes accounted for a high percentage of cases of nest predation. Because snakes spend so much more time on the edges...
Chemical Cocktail Keeps Resurrected Heart Alive for 10 Days Outside of Body
The "Somah" solution could preserve organs for transplant in a state of suspended animation Staying alive on the organ transplant waiting list could get a bit easier with organs that last longer outside...