Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Beluga sturgeon in Caspian Sea reclassified as 'critically endangered'
Beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea have been reclassified as "critically endangered" placing them on IUCN's Red List, providing strong evidence that fishing and international trade should be halted and...
Bees engage sperm warfare
According to recent research, some bees have seminal fluid that is competitive, damaging the sperm of other males.
Tryptophan-enriched diet reduces pig aggression
Feeding the amino acid tryptophan to young female pigs as part of their regular diet makes them less aggressive and easier to manage, according to a new study.
Songbirds yield insight into speech production
With the help of a little singing bird, physicists are gaining insight into how the human brain functions, which may lead to a better understanding of complex vocal behavior, human...
SU biologists' work with 'glow-in-the-dark' sperm sheds light on sexual selection
Previously unobservable events occurring between insemination and fertilisation are the subject of a groundbreaking new article in Science magazine (March 18) by Mollie Manier, John Belote and Scott Pitnick, professors...
What makes you unique? Not genes so much as surrounding sequences
The key to human individuality may lie not in our genes, but in the sequences that surround and control them, according to new research by scientists at the Stanford University...
Transcription factors may dictate differences between individuals
Researchers are only beginning to understand how individual variation in gene regulation can have a lasting impact on one's health and susceptibility to certain diseases. Now, an ambitious survey of...
Bacteria divide like clockwork
A team of researchers at MIT and the University of California at San Diego has shown how cell division in a type of bacteria known as cyanobacteria is controlled by...
New statistical method for genetic studies could cut computation time from years to hours
In the ongoing quest to identify the genetic factors involved in disease, scientists have increasingly turned to genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, which enable the scanning of up to a...
Multifunctional polymer neutralises both biological and chemical weapons
In an ongoing effort to mirror the ability of biological tissues to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing environments, scientists from the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine have synthesised a...
Flat-headed cat is now endangered
Habitat loss and deforestation are now endangering the survival of Asia's flat-headed cat, a diminutive and little studied feline species.
Even oysters pay taxes
In physical, as in financial growth, it's not what you make but what you keep that counts, USC marine biologists believe. Their study of genes associated with growth in oysters suggests...
How Does a Worm Wriggle?
Simplest curves, remote-controlled worms shed light on C. elegans movement
Scientists take animal breeding to the next level
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Alberta scientists have successfully sequenced the genome of two influential bulls, one beef and one dairy, the first animals to have been fully sequenced in Canada.
Researchers Sequence Pea Aphid Genome
A better understanding of the pea aphid genome could help control agricultural pests.
Rare Hawaiian monk seal brought to Long Marine Lab for study and treatment
(PhysOrg.com) -- A young Hawaiian monk seal that was removed from the wild last year for treatment and rehabilitation is providing researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with...
Poisoned eggs may protect Cape Cod plovers
WELLFLEET, Mass., March 18 (UPI) -- U.S. biologists plan to experiment this spring with placing poisoned chicken eggs near piping plover nests on Cape Cod to kill egg-eating crows.
Playing on our instincts: Psychology professor says 'supernormal stimuli' drive many unnatural urges
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have long known that lab animals` behavior can be manipulated by artificially stimulating their natural instincts. Over-stimulating animals can provoke such extreme responses that they end up...
Apple Director Jerome York Dies
Apple Director, Auto Industry Reformer And Kerkorian Adviser Dies At Age 71
Manufacturing antibodies
New antibodies and recombinant proteins with a key signaling role in immune response to disease have been produced through collaboration between molecular immunology institutes in the Czech Republic and Germany...
Stem cells used to model infant birth defect
Researchers recently discovered that infantile hemangiomas originate from stem cells, and have used these stem cells to better understand this tumor in the laboratory. They show that steroids target hemangioma...
Large mammals need protected areas, forest cover in India
A study of extinction patterns of 25 large mammal species in India finds that improving existing protected areas, creating new areas, and interconnecting them will be necessary for many species...
Glue, fly, glue
Like silkworm moths, butterflies and spiders, caddisfly larvae spin silk, but they do so underwater instead on dry land. Now, University of Utah researchers have discovered why the fly's silk...
Researchers determine how ATP, molecule bearing 'the fuel of life,' is broken down in cells
Researchers at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Centre have figured out how ATP is broken down in cells, providing for the first time a clear picture of the key...
Breaking the Growth Habit (preview)
Editor’s introduction: Scientists have proposed compelling steps to ease specific kinds of environmental damage and slow consumption of certain resources [see “ Solutions to Environmental Threats ,”].
Pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs into females
Atrazine, one of the world's most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females,...
Experimental vaccine protects monkeys against chikungunya
Imagine a mosquito-borne virus that has already infected millions of people in recent outbreaks in South and Southeast Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Africa and northern Italy. Although...
Genome sequencing complete on plodding amoeba that flips into free-swimming flagellate
In the long evolutionary road from bacteria to humans, a major milestone occurred some 1.5 billion years ago when microbes started building closets for all their stuff, storing DNA inside...