http://www.biology-blog.com/ New article alert from biology-blog.com, the place for biology information. Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT en-us http://www.biology-blog.com/images/blogs/tiger-thumb-589910.jpg http://www.biology-blog.com/ 90 99 http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/relocation-of-endangered-chinese-turtle.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/relocation-of-endangered-chinese-turtle.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT There are only four specimens of the Yangtze giant softshell turtle left on Earthone in the wild and three in captivity. In order to save this species from extinction, conservation partners from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), working in conjunction with partners from two Chinese zoos and the China Zoo Society, recently paired two of them. A still reproductive, more than 80-year-old, female, living in Chinas Changsha Zoo has been introduced to the only known male in China, a more than 100-year-old living more than 600 miles away at the Suzhou Zoo........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/north-pacific-humpback-whale-populations.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/north-pacific-humpback-whale-populations.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT The number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean has increased since international and federal protections were enacted in the 1960s and 70s, as per a new study funded primarily by NOAA and conducted by more than 400 whale scientists throughout the Pacific region. However, some isolated populations of humpbacks, particularly those in the Western Pacific Ocean, have not recovered at the same rate and still suffer low numbers........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/scientists-discover-a-molecular-scaffold.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/scientists-discover-a-molecular-scaffold.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Brain cells known as neurons process information by joining into complex networks, transmitting signals to each other across junctions called synapses. But "neurons don't just connect to other neurons," emphasizes Z. Josh Huang, Ph.D., "in a lot of cases, they connect to very specific partners, at particular spots."....... ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/childrens-gardens-mushrooming.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/childrens-gardens-mushrooming.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Scientists have discovered the secrets to enhancing youth participation in school- and community-based garden programs. A 3-year study entitled Greener Voices proves that children will engage in learning more readily when given responsibility for decisionmaking and planning. Childrens gardens have mushroomed during the past two decades. Gardens are popping up in schools, communities, public venues, and informal settings. Despite recent interest in gardening with children, little credence has been given to what children think about the experience: what interests them, how they may be involved in decisionmaking and planning, and how they can benefit from their involvement. Adults make a number of assumptions about children and gardening, and instead of enlisting the creativity and innovative thinking of young people, they often involve children in the more mundane tasks of planting, weeding, and watering notes Marcia Eames-Sheavly, lead researcher and Senior Extension Associate at Cornell Universitys Garden-Based Learning Program (http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl)........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/greener-offices-make-happier-employees.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/greener-offices-make-happier-employees.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT As per the 2000 census, Americans office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks or work stations. A number of recent studies on job satisfaction have shown that workers who spend longer hours in office environments, often under artificial light in windowless offices, report reduced job satisfaction and increased stress levels........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/new-recommendations-for-grape-growers.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/new-recommendations-for-grape-growers.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT The inland areas of the Pacific Northwest, where rainfall averages only 4 to 12 inches per year, present growing challenges for vineyard owners and wine grape producers. The arid conditions in this part of the country have not been conducive for vineyard owners who produce and market high-quality wine grapes........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/wanted-a-reason-to-divorce.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/wanted-a-reason-to-divorce.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Divorce is widespread, not only in humans, but also in socially monogamous birds like the blue tit. Behavioural ecologists Mihai Valcu and Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen found divorce rates of up to 50% in a long-term study of this species. But why do partners split up? To answer this question, it helps to know who suffers and who benefits from the separation (Animal Behaviour, April 23, 2008)........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/explorers-marvel-at-brittlestar-city-on-seamount.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/explorers-marvel-at-brittlestar-city-on-seamount.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists, plumbing the secrets of a vast underwater mountain range south of New Zealand, captured the first images of a novel Brittlestar City established against daunting odds on the peak of a seamount an underwater summit taller than the worlds tallest building........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/simple-model-cell-is-key.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/simple-model-cell-is-key.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT A team of Penn State scientists has developed a simple artificial cell with which to investigate the organization and function of two of the most basic cell components: the cell membrane and the cytoplasm--the gelatinous fluid that surrounds the structures in living cells. The work could lead to the creation of new drugs that take advantage of properties of cell organization to prevent the development of diseases. The team's findings will be published later this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/gravity-defying-bird-beak-mystery.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/gravity-defying-bird-beak-mystery.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT As Charles Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds' feeding strategy. A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has now explained exactly how some shorebirds use their long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into their mouths. The phalarope, usually found in western North America, takes advantage of surface interactions between its beak and water droplets to propel bits of food from the tip of its long beak to its mouth, the research team reports in the May 16 issue of Science........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/deep-sea-methane-scavengers-captured.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/deep-sea-methane-scavengers-captured.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Researchers of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena succeeded in capturing syntrophic (means "feeding together") microorganisms that are known to dramatically reduce the oceanic emission of methane into the atmosphere. These microorganisms that oxidize methane anaerobically are an important component of the global carbon cycle and a major sink for methane on Earth. Methane -- a more than 20 times stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide -- constantly seeps out large methane hydrate reservoirs in the ocean floors, but 80 percent of it are immediately consumed by these microorganisms. The importance of the anaerobic oxidation of methane for the Earth's climate is known since 1999 and various international research groups work on isolating the responsible microorganisms, so far with little success. Pernthaler and co-workers developed a new molecular technique to selectively separate these microorganisms from their natural complex community, and subsequently sequenced their genome. The findings were exciting: Besides identifying all genes responsible for the anaerobic oxidation of methane, new bacterial partners of this syntrophic association were discovered and the ability to fix N2 could be demonstrated. The work has been reported in the current issue of the renowned Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/monarch-butterflies-parasites-harm-hosts.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/monarch-butterflies-parasites-harm-hosts.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT It's a paradox that has confounded evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859: Since parasites depend on their hosts for survival, why do they harm them? A new University of Georgia and Emory University study of monarch butterflies and the microscopic parasites that hitch a ride on them finds that the parasites strike a middle ground between the benefits gained by reproducing rapidly and the costs to their hosts. The study, reported in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first empirical evidence in a natural system of what's called the "trade-off hypothesis"........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/likely-causative-gene-for-alzheimers.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/likely-causative-gene-for-alzheimers.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT The genetic profile of two large Georgia families with high rates of late-onset Alzheimer's disease points to a gene that may cause the disease, scientists say. Genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, are common in DNA, but this pattern of SNPs shows up in nine out of 10 affected family members, says Dr. Shirley E. Poduslo, neuroscientist in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies and the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/mouse-mans-most-treasured-genes.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/mouse-mans-most-treasured-genes.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT The mouse is a stalwart stand-in for humans in medical research, thanks to genomes that are 85 percent identical. But identical genes may behave differently in mouse and man, a study by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Ben-Yang Liao and Jianzhi Zhang reveals. Their results, which have implications for the use of mouse models in studying human disease, appear in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/window-of-opportunity-for-restoring-oaks-small.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/window-of-opportunity-for-restoring-oaks-small.html Thu, 22 May 2008 02:54:36 GMT Communities of Oregon white oak were once widespread in the Pacific Northwests western lowlands, but, today, they are in decline. Fire suppression, conifer and invasive plant encroachment, and land use change have resulted in the loss of as much as 99 percent of the oak communities historically present in some areas of the region........ ]]>