Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Did rapid brain evolution make humans susceptible to Alzheimers?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Of the millions of animals on Earth, including the relative handful that are considered the most intelligent -- including apes, whales, crows, and owls -- only humans experience...
How does a heart know when it's big enough?
A protein discovered in fruit fly eyes has brought scienetists closer to understanding how the human heart and other organs automatically "right size" themselves, a piece of information that may...
Mother birds know best -- even before birth
Mother birds communicate with their developing chicks before they even hatch by leaving them messages in the egg, new research has found.
Bit of duck DNA might protect poultry from flu, scientists say
Influenza has for years ravaged domesticated chickens. Now scientists suggest that a small piece of duck DNA might protect the farm birds against the virus -- saving commercial flocks and...
How cells recognize viral toxins
New research has identified how specific proteins on the surface of cells, known as class A scavenger receptors, bind to double-stranded RNA and bring it into the cell, jumpstarting the...
Your fat may help you heal: Researcher extracts natural scaffold for tissue growth
A person's own fat cells may be the source of matrix material to grow new cells and, ultimately, new tissue for humans without risk of rejection.
Pictures: Giant Squid Get Extreme Plastic Surgery
See two giant squid corpses become "the most lifelike specimens yet"—a two-year process involving dissection, 396 gallons of silicon, and hundreds of needles.
Probing Question: What's the difference between frogs and toads?
Frogs and toads: Are there any non-furry creatures more prominent in popular imagination? Bug-eyed and frequently slimy, beloved as well as reviled, they have hopped their way into fairy tales...
Researchers Discover New Path to Antibiotics
Northeastern research team identifies, for the first time, a mechanism that enables new forms of bacteria to grow in lab.
Slackers and superstars of the microbial workplace
Drug companies often use yeast to manufacture drugs, especially proteins such as antibodies and enzymes. It has been assumed that a batch of genetically identical yeast will secrete such drugs...
Superstition could doom spooky creatures
Although the aye-aye weighs a mere 4 pounds in the wild, this tiny animal is viewed as the harbinger of death by locals in Madagascar, the only place on Earth...
Workshop for Journalists: Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine
A one-day intensive course on stem cells and regenerative medicine will enable journalists to learn the latest from world experts - from the scientist who developed and implanted the world's...
New understanding of protein's role in brain
How do we process thoughts and store memories? A team of researchers headed by Dr Nahum Sonenberg of McGill's Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Centre has discovered that brains...
The sexual tug-of-war -- a genomic view
The genes that are most beneficial to males are the most disadvantageous for females, and vice versa. However, this genetic conflict between the sexes is important in maintaining genetic variation...
Insulin-like signal needed to keep stem cells alive in adult brain
Most parts of the fruit fly brain, as well as the human brain, are devoid of neural stem cells, which means that once a nerve cell dies, it can't be...
Move over predators: Plants can control the food chain too - from the bottom up
Forget top-to-bottom only. New Cornell University evolutionary biology research shows how plants at the bottom of the food chain have evolved mechanisms that influence ecosystem dynamics as well...
New insights into the 3-D organisation of the human genome
Insights into the genomics of the human nucleolus have been revealed in a study by researchers from the University of Regensburg and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany and the...
100 150 Years Ago: Card Cheats
APRIL 1960 RADIATION --?“With the new measurement of the mean lethal dose for reproductive function of mammalian cells, it is now possible to explain the relatively low mean lethal dose...
Gene variations change metabolism of arsenic
Scientists from Taiwan have identified a genetic variation that could make certain populations more susceptible to arsenic poisoning
Cuttlefish lays eggs on seahorse
In a curious case of mistaken identity, a cuttlefish is seen laying its eggs on a passing seahorse.
The Trouble With Biology
I've heard a senior colleague say that there is nothing fundamental left to be discovered in biology. It's a nagging worry some people have, including myself. What's left, according to...
New population of rare giant-mouse lemurs found in Madagascar
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new population of rare giant mouse lemurs was discovered in southwestern Madagascar?s Ranobe forest, World Wildlife Fund said.
Video: Bees Dying at Alarming Rates
Colony collapse disorder has wiped out 30 percent of be hives in the U.S. over the past four winters. But, as John Blackstone reports, the cause of the die-off is...
Tyrannosaur bone found in Australia
It is the first such discovery in the Southern Hemisphere and raises questions about why the carnivores may have failed to become dominant predators below the equator. ...
Roundup 3/25: Large and Small Edition
The situation is growing graver for wild gorillas. A report released yesterday by INTERPOL...
UN meeting fails to protect marine species
(AP) -- Aggressive lobbying from Asian nations led by Japan killed all efforts to protect marine species at a U.N. meeting, leaving environmentalists fuming Thursday that efforts to conserve...
New period of brain 'plasticity' created with transplanted embryonic cells
UCSF scientists report that they were able to prompt a new period of "plasticity," or capacity for change, in the neural circuitry of the visual cortex of juvenile mice. The...
Gorillas could vanish from Congo by 2025
UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (UPI) -- Gorillas could disappear from much of Africa's Congo River Basin within 15 years without urgent action to protect them, a United Nations and...