http://www.biology-blog.com/ New article alert from biology-blog.com, the place for biology information. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 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/3-2010/mexican-cave-scorpions.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/mexican-cave-scorpions.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT Blind scorpions that live in the stygian depths of caves are throwing light on a long-held assumption, showing that specialized adaptations aren't always an evolutionary dead-end. Looking at the phylogenetic relationships among species of the scorpion family Typhlochactidae, endemic to Mexico, Associate Curator Lorenzo Prendini and his colleagues observed that species currently living closer to the surface (under stones and in leaf litter) evolved independently on more than one occasion from specialized deep-cave ancestors adapted to life further below the surface (in caves). This finding puts a dent in both Cope's Law of the unspecialized, which assumes that novel evolutionary traits tend to originate from a generalized member of an ancestral taxon, and Dollo's Law of evolutionary irreversibility, which theorizes that specialized evolutionary traits are unlikely to reverse........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/dogs-likely-originated-in-the-middle-east.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/dogs-likely-originated-in-the-middle-east.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, not Asia or Europe, as per a new genetic analysis by an international team of researchers led by UCLA biologists. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Searle Scholars Program, appears March 17 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/spider-silk-reveals-a-paradox.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/spider-silk-reveals-a-paradox.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT Since its development in China thousands of years ago, silk from silkworms, spiders and other insects has been used for high-end, luxury fabrics as well as for parachutes and medical sutures. Now, National Science Foundation-supported scientists are untangling some of its most closely guarded secrets, and explaining why silk is so super strong........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/3-d-cell-culture.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/3-d-cell-culture.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT The film "Avatar" isn't the only 3-D blockbuster making a splash this winter. A team of researchers from Houston's Texas Medical Center this week unveiled a new technique for growing 3-D cell cultures, a technological leap from the flat petri dish that could save millions of dollars in drug-testing costs. The research is reported in Nature Nanotechnology....... ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/how-sea-lilies-got-their-get-up-and-go.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/how-sea-lilies-got-their-get-up-and-go.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT Nature abounds with examples of evolutionary arms races. Certain marine snails, for example, evolved thick shells and spines to avoid be eaten, but crabs and fish foiled the snails by developing shell-crushing claws and jaws. Common as such interactions appears to be, it's often difficult to trace their origins back in evolutionary time........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/opium-poppys-biggest-secret.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/opium-poppys-biggest-secret.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT Scientists at the University of Calgary have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, thus opening doors to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers either by manufacturing them in a lab or controlling the production of these compounds in the plant........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/sequencing-hydra-genome.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/sequencing-hydra-genome.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT UC Irvine scientists have played a leading role in the genome sequencing of Hydra, a freshwater polyp that has been a staple of biological research for 300 years. In the March 14 online version of Nature, UCI biologists Robert Steele and Hans Bode, along with nine other UCI researchers and an international team of researchers, describe the genome sequence of an organism that continues to advance research on regeneration, stem cells and patterning........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/why-female-moths-are-big-and-beautiful.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/why-female-moths-are-big-and-beautiful.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT In most animal species, males and females show obvious differences in body size. But how can this be, given that both sexes share the same genes governing their growth? University of Arizona entomologists studied this conundrum in moths and found clues that had been overlooked by prior efforts to explain this mystery of nature........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/600-million-year-old-origins-of-vision.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/600-million-year-old-origins-of-vision.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT By studying the hydra, a member of an ancient group of sea creatures that is still flourishing, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have made a discovery in understanding the origins of human vision. The finding is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British journal of biology........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/myths-about-amazon-rain-forests.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/myths-about-amazon-rain-forests.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT A new NASA-funded study has concluded that Amazon rain forests were remarkably unaffected in the face of once-in-a-century drought in 2005, neither dying nor thriving, contrary to a previously published report and claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "We found no big differences in the greenness level of these forests between drought and non-drought years, which suggests that these forests appears to be more tolerant of droughts than we previously thought," said Arindam Samanta, the study's main author from Boston University........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/yellow-fever-strikes-monkey-populations.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/yellow-fever-strikes-monkey-populations.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT A group of Argentine scientists, including health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society, have announced that yellow fever is the culprit in a 2007-2008 die-off of howler monkeys in northeastern Argentina, a finding that underscores the importance of paying attention to the health of wildlife and how the health of people and wild nature are so closely linked........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/hidden-habits-and-movements-of-insect-pests.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/hidden-habits-and-movements-of-insect-pests.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT For a high-resolution image of the Asota caricae moth referenced in the article, visit http://bit.ly/aB4PEb. The moth has a two-inch wingspan and a 2,500 mile distribution. Image is courtesy of Lauren Helgen, Smithsonian Institution. For a copy of the research paper, contact Jeff Falk at jfalk@umn.edu........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/musk-ox-population-decline-due-to-climate.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/musk-ox-population-decline-due-to-climate.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT team of researchers has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. "This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations," said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders. "We observed that, eventhough human and musk ox populations overlapped in a number of regions across the globe, humans probably were not responsible for the decline and eventual extinction of musk oxen across much of their former range." The team's findings would be reported in the 8 March 2010 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/snake-venom-charms-science-world.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2010/snake-venom-charms-science-world.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT The King Cobra continues to weave its charm with scientists identifying a protein in its venom with the potential for new drug discovery and to advance understanding of disease mechanisms. The novel protein named haditoxin has been described in the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry (March 12, 2010)........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2010/tree-dwelling-mammals-climb-to-the-heights-of-longevity.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2010/tree-dwelling-mammals-climb-to-the-heights-of-longevity.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:51 GMT The squirrels littering your lawn with acorns as they bound overhead will live to plague your yard longer than the ones that aerate it with their burrows, as per a University of Illinois study. Researchers know from prior studies that flying birds and bats live longer than earthbound animals of the same size. Milena Shattuck and Scott Williams, doctoral candidates in anthropology, decided to take a closer look at the relationship between habitat and lifespan in mammals, comparing terrestrial and treetop life. They published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences........ ]]>