Evolution Of Hot Springs MicroorganismsSince their discovery in the late 1970s, microorganisms known as archaea have fascinated researchers with their ability to thrive where no other life can - in conditions that are extremely hot, acidic or salty.
In the 1990s, however, researchers discovered that archaea occur widely in more mundane, low-temperature environments such as oceans and lakes. Now, scientists from the University of Georgia and Harvard University find evidence that........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 6/5/2006 11:43:34 PM)
About Beaver DamsBeavers, long known for their beneficial effects on the environment near their dams, are also critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems downstream. Scientists have found that ponds created by beaver dams raised downstream groundwater levels in the Colorado River valley, keeping soil water levels high and providing moisture to plants in the otherwise dry valley bottom. The results will be published 8 June in Water Resources Research, a journal........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/5/2006 9:30:22 PM)
Eardrum Could Lead To Tiny MicrophonesBeing able to hear the smallest of noises is a matter of life or death for a number of insects, but for the researchers studying their hearing systems understanding how insect ears can be so sensitive could lead to new microphones able to capture and analyse extremely faint sounds.
A multidisciplinary team at the University of Bristol have used funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to explore the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/3/2006 6:47:13 PM)
Ancient Ecosystem FoundScientists in Israel say that a cave containing an ecosystem with unknown life forms have been discovered in the Israeli city of Ramle. The cave was found when miners were drilling in a rock quarry.
"Until now eight species of animals were found in the cave, all of them unknown to science," said a biologist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr Hanan Dimantman. He also said that all of the life forms were found alive except for one.
At........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/3/2006 11:58:04 AM)
Prime-ate DiscoveryWCS scientists knew it was an unusual find, but they had no idea how unusual. Their discovery: a long-haired monkey with a whiskery face, shy temperament, and unique "honk bark" living high in the trees of Tanzania's Mt. Rungwe. At the time of their discovery, they believed it to be correlation to the mangabeys, forest-dwelling African primates found near the equator.
But a year after the species was described, the results of a recent........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/1/2006 11:47:38 PM)
Algae's Protein Ttails" Create MotionWhen single-celled organisms such as sperm crack their whip-like appendages called flagella, the beating sets them in motion. But in certain colonies of green algae, flagella also boost nutrient uptake, as per surprising new research.
In the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Arizona and Brown University explain how flagella allow these algae to get the energy they........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/31/2006 9:22:49 PM)
Race Horse Physiology Is Model For SpeedWhen the elite horses of the Kentucky Derby jump from the gate on May 6, will the physiologists who study them be able to predict the likely winner?
Exercise physiologists have used horses for research for hundreds of years because the equine athlete's blood vessels are large, they love to exercise, and they are domesticated, noted Eric K. Birks, assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/30/2006 11:11:01 PM)
Cassava Plants To Fight Hunger In AfricaIn a recent study, genetically modified cassava plants produced roots that were more than two-and-a-half times the size of normal cassava roots.
The findings could help ease hunger in a number of countries where people rely heavily on the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta) as a primary food source, said Richard Sayre, the study's lead author and a professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State University.
The scientists........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/24/2006 7:13:45 PM)
Beavers In MassachusettsThe beaver is a valuable component of Massachusetts' fauna. Not long ago the beaver was absent from the state. In fact, it was absent from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Beavers are semi-aquatic mammals spending approximately 80% of their time in water. They feed on aquatic vegetation and twigs from trees. Their conspicuous lodges and dams are built from trees. As early Massachusetts farmers cleared the land for pasture and crops, beaver........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/17/2006 10:21:46 PM)
What Do Black Bears Eat?Black bears may be the least carnivorous of the "carnivores" of North America. They consume a wide variety of seasonally abundant herbs, forbs, fruits, berries, nuts, and other plant parts and products. The specific plants may differ among the a number of ecoregions of North America. However, certain trends are evident. Spring foods are predominantly grasses, sedges, shoots and other high-protein lush green vegetation. Deer and other carcasses........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/17/2006 10:16:03 PM)
Plants Tell Caterpillars When It's Safe To ForageThe world is filled with cues that could influence the daily feeding patterns of an organism. A number of plants, for example, respond to foraging damage by releasing specialized chemical signals - volatile organic compounds that evaporate in the air - that attract the forager's natural enemies. This strategy is obviously no use against a cow, but proves effective when the offender is a caterpillar and the summoned predator is a wasp. Just how........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/16/2006 12:13:59 AM)
Ray Grizzle Is Restoring Oyster ReefsIn the past decade, the oyster population in New Hampshire's Great Bay estuary has plummeted by 90 percent, due to the 1995 arrival of the oyster disease MSX. The previous century saw a slower but equally devastating demise of oysters from exuberant overharvesting. "We have seen local extinction on some reefs," says Ray Grizzle, research associate professor at the University of New Hampshire's Jackson Estuarine Laboratory.
Now Grizzle is........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/12/2006 12:11:18 AM)
Wasps Queue For Top JobScientists at UCL (University College London) have discovered that even wasps are driven by their status. The study, published recently in Nature, shows that lower-ranked female wasps work harder to help their queen than those higher up the chain because they have less to lose, and consequently are prepared to take more risks and wear themselves out.
The study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reveals that those........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/11/2006 12:25:41 AM)
Robots Manipulating Animal BehaviourA pet dog sits on command, but nobody expects an insect to follow human instructions. So it may come as a surprise to learn that scientists recently succeeded in controlling cockroaches with tiny mobile robots. The results hint at a future where we can interact and communicate with a number of different kinds of animal.
Little larger than a thumbnail, the cubic insect-like robots or 'insbots' are technological marvels. Developed under the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/10/2006 11:14:55 PM)
Importance Of Fungi In Arctic Nitrogen CycleA new method to calculate the transfer of nitrogen from Arctic mushrooms to plants is shedding light on how fungi living symbiotically on plant roots transfer vital nutrients to their hosts. The analytical technique, developed by John E. Hobbie, MBL Distinguished Scientist and co-director of the laboratory's Ecosystems Center and his son, Erik A. Hobbie of the University of New Hampshire, may be applied to nearly all conifers, oaks, beeches,........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/10/2006 12:18:25 AM)
Social Stress Prompts Hamsters To OvereatPut a mouse or a rat under stress and what does it do? It stops eating. Humans should be so lucky. When people suffer nontraumatic stress they often head for the refrigerator, producing unhealthy extra pounds.
When Syrian hamsters, which are normally solitary, are placed in a group-living situation, they also gain weight. So scientists at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University are using hamsters as a model for........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/8/2006 11:45:21 PM)
What A Patient Puma!It took four months of training, but Felix the mountain lion (a.k.a. puma), has become a star patient by any vet standards. In fact, his cool demeanor would impress a number of doctors to squeamish human patients, too. The Queens Zoo's two-and-a-half-year-old, 140-pound frisky male puma now voluntarily tolerates the prick of a needle without requiring any anesthesia. As part of routine veterinary procedures at the WCS zoos and aquarium, our........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/7/2006 10:52:30 PM)
'Cellular Antennae' On AlgaeBy studying microscopic hairs called cilia on algae, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that an internal structure that helps build cilia is also responsible for a cell's response to external signals.
Cilia perform a number of functions on human cells; they propel egg and sperm cells to make fertilization possible, line the nose to pick up odors, and purify the blood, among other tasks.
With such a range of abilities,........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/4/2006 5:06:38 PM)
Use Of Switchgrass Could Solve Energy WoesCarnegie Mellon University researchers say the use of switchgrass could help break U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and curb costly transportation costs.
"Our report indicates the time is right for America to begin a transition to ethanol derived from switchgrass," said Scott Matthews, an assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. A 25 percent hike in gas prices at the pump since December adds to the........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/4/2006 4:44:07 PM)
Monkey Business And Human BusinessLittle attention has been paid to whether systematic economic biases such as risk-aversion are learned behaviors - and thus easily ameliorated through market incentives - or biologically based, arising in novel situations and in spite of experience. In a groundbreaking new study from the Journal of Political Economy, Yale researchers extend this question across species, exploring how a colony of capuchin monkeys responds to economic decisions.........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/3/2006 10:40:03 PM)
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Rediscovery Of Endangered Colombian FrogsThe rediscovery of two frog species feared extinct has made a new Colombian protected area the focal point for efforts to save amphibians from a deadly fungus decimating their populations in Central and South America.
Researchers recently found the two Critically Endangered frogs - the Santa Marta harlequin frog (Atelopus laetissimus) and the San Lorenzo harlequin frog (Atelopus nahumae) - for the first time in 14 years in the El Dorado........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/6/2006 11:33:22 PM)
Plant Diseases Threaten Chocolate ProductionChocolate lovers, beware. Each year 20 percent of the cacao beans that are used to make chocolate are lost to plant diseases, but even greater losses would occur if important diseases spread.
"Plant diseases are the most important constraints to cacao production and the continued viability of the world's confectionary trades," said Randy Ploetz, plant pathology professor at the University of Florida, Homestead, FL. Currently, 4 million........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 6/5/2006 9:24:19 PM)
Indonesian Coelacanth Caught On VideoRobin Stobbs, a coelacanth researcher in South Africa, has informed me that an individual of the Indonesian coelacanth was filmed at the depth of 170 m, 17, at 8:30 am on May 30, 2006, off shore Buol, about 350 km west from Manado, Sulawesi Island, with a ROV operated by the Aquamarine Fukushima Survey team. This town is only a few miles (east) from where the Jago team saw two coelacanths in a cave near ToliToli. Word now comes that two other........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/3/2006 2:10:18 PM)
Wrapped Up Tight"Venom is the weapon of choice for most spiders, but some prefer a satisfying "crunch." Philoponella vicina wraps its prey in hundreds of meters of silk to make a crushing shroud, scientists [William Eberhard, STRI, and Gilbert Barrantes and Ju-Lin Weng from Universidad de Costa Rica] report in the recent issue of Naturwissenschaften.........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/1/2006 11:52:37 PM)
Sugar Maples In JeopardyIn 2005, Mount Royal was declared a historic and natural district - one of the few sites in Canada to merit that double designation. But the mountain's natural environment is undergoing a profound transformation - and may be en route to disappearing altogether, says botanist Jacques Brisson, a professor at the Institut de recherche en biologie vegetale.
The forest that originally covered Mount Royal consisted of sugar maples, hickories, and........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 6/1/2006 11:28:04 PM)
What Lies BeneathWhen most people think of Louisiana as being unique, they think of Mardi Gras, crawfish and Cajun culture. Few realize that what lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana's coast is also unique, from the terrain and habitat to the animals living there. And two LSU scientists are diving down some 3,000 meters to explore it.
Scientists Harry Roberts and Bob Carney are combing the most unique continental slope in the world to study some........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/27/2006 10:42:47 AM)
Tracking Caspian Sea SturgeonsResearchers working in the Ural River, Kazakhstan, have successfully attached Pop-up Archival Transmitting (PAT) tags to four sturgeons and have released the animals into the Caspian Sea, hoping to get a clear picture of Caspian Sea sturgeon movement and behavior never before available.
Led by Dr. Phaedra Doukakis of the University of Miami's Pew Institute for Ocean Science and researchers from the Research and Production Center for the Fish........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/24/2006 12:24:06 AM)
Giant Deep-sea Tubeworm's Meal TicketGiant tubeworms found near hydrothermal vents more than a mile below the ocean surface do not bother to eat: lacking mouth and stomach, they stand rooted to one spot. For nourishment, they rely completely on symbiotic bacteria that live within their bodies to metabolize the sulphurous volcanic soup in which they both thrive.
But the microscopic larvae of these giants are born bacteria-free, with a complete digestive system. Juveniles swim,........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/21/2006 9:37:31 AM)
Trees Suffer From Diseases In Rain-soaked MidwestHomeowners across the Midwest are finding their trees suffering from diseases sparked by the heavy late-spring rainfall.
Diseases affecting tree leaves are being found in sycamore, ash, crabapple and oak trees. Eventhough these foliar diseases are often not the most life-threatening of plant diseases, they frustrate homeowners, said Janna Beckerman, a plant pathologist in Purdue University's Department of Botany and Plant Pathology.
........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/18/2006 11:51:23 PM)
Young Scientist Finds Frog Thought To Be ExtinctJustin Yeager, a University of Delaware junior, had no idea his study abroad trip to Costa Rica last summer would present the kind of opportunity a scientist can wait a lifetime to experience. The amateur herpetologist rediscovered the Harlequin frog (Atelopus varius), an amphibian species believed to be extinct in the tropical rainforest of that country. Tiny at 1 to 1.5 inches long, this colorful frog species had last been seen in Costa Rica........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/18/2006 11:17:34 PM)
Mystery Of Flowering PlantsResearchers from the Floral Genome Project at Penn State University, with an international team of collaborators, have proposed an answer to Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery:" the inexplicably rapid evolution of flowering plants immediately after their first appearance some 140 million years ago. By developing new statistical methods to analyze incomplete DNA sequences from thirteen strategically selected plant species, the researchers........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/18/2006 9:19:47 PM)
Chimpanzee study reveals genome variation hotspotsScientists think that dynamic regions of the human genome -- "hotspots" in terms of duplications and deletions -- are potentially involved in the rapid evolution of morphological and behavioral characteristics that are genetically determined.
Now, an international team of researchers, including a graduate student and an associate professor from Arizona State University, are finding similar hotspots in chimpanzees, which has implications for........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/17/2006 12:04:55 AM)
Female Guppies Risk Their Lives To Avoid Male HarassmentSexual harassment is a burden that females of a number of species face, and some may go to extreme lengths to avoid it. In a new paper from the recent issue of the American Naturalist, Darren Croft (University of Wales) and a research team from the University of Leeds suggest that female guppies, a popular aquarium fish, may risk their lives to avoid too much attention from males. Observing wild population of guppies in the rainforest of........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/14/2006 3:52:59 PM)
Tracking DNA Damage In FishLike coal-mine canaries, fish DNA can serve as a measure of the biological impact of water and sediment pollution--or pollution clean-up. That's one of the conclusions of a new study* by scientists from the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Research over the past several years has demonstrated the adverse........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/14/2006 3:43:43 PM)
Scientists Discovers New Primate GenusIn January 2006, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society were in the forests of Tanzania searching for a grayish, tree-dwelling primate that had been identified in photographs as a new species the prior summer.
Half a world away, in a laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Assistant Professor Link Olson and undergraduate biology major Kyndall Hildebrandt were looking at DNA test results that pointed to an even more........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/12/2006 12:01:20 AM)
The Higher The Hierarchy, The Greater The AggressionIndividual variation in social behavior is one of the most striking features of cooperative animal societies. In a new study from the recent issue of American Naturalist, Michael A. Cant (University of Cambridge), Justine B. Llop (University of Cambridge), and Jeremy Field (University College London) investigate the extent to which differences in aggressive behavior within a cooperative society can be explained by "inheritance rank"--the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/11/2006 12:12:28 AM)
Red List of Threatened SpeciesThe total number of species declared officially Extinct is 784and a further 65 are only found in captivity or cultivation. Of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria, 16,119 are now listed as threatened with extinction. This includes one in three amphibians and a quarter of the world's coniferous trees, on top of the one in eight birds and one in four mammals known to be in jeopardy.
The 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/10/2006 12:26:25 AM)
Where Have All the Butterflies Gone?Cold, wet conditions early in the year mean that 2006 is shaping up as the worst year for California's butterflies in almost four decades, as per Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis.
That's a turnaround from last spring, when millions of painted lady butterflies migrated through the Central Valley. But other species have seen steep declines in recent years and could disappear from the region altogether.
"It has........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/8/2006 11:26:04 PM)
Endangered Species Day on May 11Can you imagine a world where big cats do not roam, forests are silent, and the oceans are empty? We can't. Today, the Wildlife Conservation Society employs 1,200 staff in New York and 3,000 field staff around the world to ensure that our planet can sustain its remarkable diversity of life. We work to conserve landscapes and species threatened by natural forces, global climate change, introduced exotic species, and human development.
The........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 5/7/2006 10:47:49 PM)
No-Mow Grass May Be Coming SoonFor anyone tethered to a lawnmower, the Holy Grail of horticultural accomplishment would be grass that never grows but is always green.
Now, that vision of suburban bliss-and more-seems plausible as scientists have mapped a critical hormone signaling pathway that regulates the stature of plants. In addition to lawns that rarely require mowing, the finding could also enable the development of sturdier, more fruitful crop plants such as rice,........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 5/6/2006 5:50:10 PM)
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