Barnacles go to great lengths to mateCompelled to mate, yet firmly attached to the rock, barnacles have evolved the longest penis of any animal for their size - up to 8 times their body length - so they can find and fertilize distant neighbours.
Graduate student Christopher Neufeld and Dr. Richard Palmer from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta have shown that barnacles appear to have acquired the capacity to change the size and shape of their........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 2/6/2008 8:39:36 PM)
Gotta have heart!According tohaps confirmed by their ubiquity on nature cable channels, crocodiles are among natures most fearsome predators. When the opportunity arises, crocodilians will gorge, voluntarily consuming meals weighing 23% of their own body weight. This is analogous to a 130 -pound woman eating, at one sitting, a hamburger weighing 30 pounds. But what to do with all of that food" If they do not digest their meal quickly, crocodilians risk death........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 2/4/2008 9:32:17 PM)
Genes That May Level Engineering Hurdleby Nicole Miller.
Denizens of oceans, lakes and even wet soil, diatoms are unicellular algae that encase themselves in intricately patterned, glass-like shells. Curiously, these tiny phytoplankton could be harboring the next big breakthrough in computer chips.
Diatoms build their hard cell walls by laying down submicron-sized lines of silica, a compound correlation to the key material of the semiconductor industry - silicon. "If we can........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/29/2008 10:03:51 PM)
Insects on coffee plantsEver since a forward-thinking trio of physicists identified the phenomenon known as self-organized criticality-a mechanism by which complexity arises in nature-researchers have been applying its concepts to everything from economics to avalanches.
Now, scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Toledo have shown that clusters of ant nests on a coffee farm in Mexico also adhere to the model. Their work, which has........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/29/2008 9:52:50 PM)
River plants may play major role in health of oceanRecent research at MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering suggests how aquatic plants in rivers and streams may play a major role in the health of large areas of ocean coastal waters.
This work, which appeared in the Dec. 25 issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (JFM), describes the physics of water flow around aquatic plants and demonstrates the importance of basic research to environmental engineering. This new........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/29/2008 9:33:53 PM)
Race against time to save Tasmanian devilsA delegation of Tasmanian government officials traveled halfway around the world to visit Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), to lend their support and extend their gratitude for research aimed at understanding a unique transmissible and rapidly spreading cancer that threatens the very existence of Tasmanian devils. To combat this especially aggressive disease, a CSHL research team in collaboration with 454 Lifesciences is committing........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/28/2008 10:15:11 PM)
When accounting for the global nitrogen budget, don't forget fishLike bank accounts, the nutrient cycles that influence the natural world are regulated by inputs and outputs. If a routine withdrawal is overlooked, balance sheets become inaccurate. Over time, overlooked deductions can undermine our ability to understand and manage ecological systems.
Recent research by the Universite de Montreal (Canada) and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, New York) has revealed an important, but seldom........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/24/2008 10:58:36 PM)
Captive carnivores not up to wild livingA study by the University of Exeter has highlighted the problems of reintroducing animals to the wild for conservation projects. Published online in the journal Biological Conservation, the research highlights the low survival rates of captive carnivores that are released into their natural habitats. On average only one in three captive-born carnivores survives in the wild, with most deaths correlation to human activities.
Recent........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/21/2008 9:10:31 PM)
Clams Convert Air Into FoodOnly plants can take nitrogen gas from the air and use it to make the protein they need to grow. Or so biologists thought.
Now researchers at Ocean Genome Legacy in Ipswich, Mass., and their colleagues at Harvard Medical School have shown that animals, too, can convert air into food. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded their research.
The animals are marine clams called shipworms. They burrow into and eat wood, causing more........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/17/2008 9:03:58 PM)
Fruit flies all aglow light the way to cancer preventionA green glow from a fruit fly is giving researchers the green light when they are on the right path in their quest to develop compounds that help prevent cancer.
The glow, the result of some tinkering in Drosophila, the workhorse of the genetics world, lets researchers know when powerful cancer-prevention signals similar to those spurred by protective chemicals in broccoli, cabbage, and other foods, have been turned on in the organism.
........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 5:22:03 PM)
Sea otter study reveals striking variabilityEcologists have long found that when food becomes scarce, animal populations exploit a wider range of food sources. So researchers studying southern sea otters at different sites in California's coastal waters were not surprised to find that the dietary diversity of the population is higher where food is limited. But this diversity was not reflected in the diets of individual sea otters, which instead showed dietary specialization in response........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 5:09:24 PM)
Unlocking tree geneticsUBC scientists have discovered some of the genetic secrets that enable pine and spruce trees to fight off pests and disease, uncovering critical new information about forests natural defense systems.
Assoc. Prof. Joerg Bohlmann says this genetic analysis will allow forest stewardship programs to reinforce a forests inherent strength, breeding trees that could in time repel insects such as British Columbias notorious mountain pine beetles.
........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 4:59:49 PM)
Tulipa hybridFrom last April, this is another unnamed errant tulip growing amongst the Tulipa ''Zurel''. I much preferred visiting the fields where these occasional oddballs would show up; fields of tulips that were perfect felt too managed.........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/8/2008 10:01:45 PM)
Mechanics Of Gene TranscriptionThe molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA -- isn't stationed in special "transcription factories" within a cell nucleus, as per Cornell researchers. Instead, the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and other key molecules can assemble at the site of an activated gene, regardless of the gene's position.
The findings, reported in the........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/8/2008 8:30:51 PM)
An "attractive" man-machine interfaceScientists at Children's Hospital Boston have developed a new "nanobiotechnology" that enables magnetic control of events at the cellular level. They describe the technology, which could lead to finely-tuned but noninvasive therapys for disease, in the recent issue of Nature Nanotechnology (published online January 3).
Don Ingber, MD, PhD, and Robert Mannix, PhD, of Children's program in Vascular Biology, in collaboration with Mara Prentiss,........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/8/2008 8:23:14 PM)
Insect attack may have finished off dinosaursAsteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new book argues that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force biting, disease-carrying insects.
An important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/3/2008 10:05:50 PM)
Missing Evolutionary LinkThe crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show scientists more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex.
By studying the three-dimensional version of the fungus protein bound to an RNA molecule, researchers from Purdue University and the University of Texas at Austin have been able to visualize how life progressed from an early self-replicating molecule that also performed........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/2/2008 9:52:34 PM)
Organic produce must-havesI interrupt my fall field trip adventures to direct your attention to a really helpful article article in the latest Delicious Living magazine that discusses what products or product ingredients that you should buy organically if all possible. The article goes beyond the usual health reasons and explores the environmental reasons for buying organic as wel
The 9 most important products to buy organically are milk, beef, apples, potatoes,........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 12/27/2007 10:06:29 AM)
Photo-monitoring whale sharksUp to 20 meters long and weighing as much as 20 tons, its enormous size gives the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) its name. Known as the gentle giant for its non-predatory behavior, this fish, with its broad, flattened head and minute teeth, eats tiny zooplankton, sieving them through a fine mesh of gill-rakers. Listed as a rare species, relatively little is known about whale sharks, which live in tropical and warm seas, including the western........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 12/27/2007 9:18:25 AM)
Abstinence by Mutual ConsentBiologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered a gene in plants that disrupts fertilization only when mutations in the gene are present in both the female and male reproductive cells.
Their discovery, detailed in a paper that appears online today in the journal Current Biology, has been named the "abstinence by mutual consent" mutation because of its unusual properties.
"Mutations that do not allow fertilization are........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 12/20/2007 9:20:35 PM)
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Wind as the Force Behind Fish Booms and BustsThe mid-20th century crash of the sardine fishery off California for decades has vexed marine ecologists searching for the root causes of large fluctuations in the sardine population. Before its collapse, the fishery was one of the world's most productive and formed the setting of John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" in Monterey, Calif.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have now shed light on the puzzle by........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 2/6/2008 5:30:04 AM)
Birds and bats hold secrets for aerospace engineersNatural flyers like birds, bats and insects outperform man-made aircraft in aerobatics and efficiency. University of Michigan engineers are studying these animals as a step toward designing flapping-wing planes with wingspans smaller than a deck of playing cards.
A Blackbird jet flying nearly 2,000 miles per hour covers 32 body lengths per second. But a common pigeon flying at 50 miles per hour covers 75.
The roll rate of the aerobatic........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 2/4/2008 8:37:18 PM)
African fruits could help alleviate hungerAfrica's own fruits are a largely untapped resource that could combat malnutrition and boost environmental stability and rural development in Africa, says a new report from the National Research Council. African science institutes, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals could all use modern horticultural knowledge and scientific research to bring these "lost crops" -- such as baobab, marula, and butterfruit -- to their........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/30/2008 9:18:18 PM)
The Pitter Patter of Little FeetBuilding upon several years of research into the gecko's uncanny ability to climb sheer walls, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an adhesive that is the first to master the easy attach and easy release of the reptile's padded feet. The material could prove useful for a range of products, from climbing equipment to medical devices.
Unlike duct tape or glue, the new material is crafted from millions of tiny,........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/29/2008 9:36:08 PM)
Lusty voles, mindless of danger, mate like rabbitsForgetful Casanovas are lucky in love.
At least thats how University of Florida scientists interpret the results of new research on the mating habits and nervous systems of prairie voles. An article about the research, which examined both the voles behavior and their brains, appears in this weeks edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Prairie voles, aka Microtus ochrogaster, are common native rodents in the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/28/2008 10:35:32 PM)
Elephant engineersIt is like the premise of a popular home improvement show: in the before photos, the surroundings are undesirable and in the after shot theres lots of attractive spaces to grab a meal, start a family and relax in seclusion from lifes stresses. The difference here is that the potential new homeowner is a lizard and the renovations come -- not from a sophisticated Manhattan designer -- but instead from a herd of elephants. An examination of........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/28/2008 10:32:41 PM)
Plant Gene that Affects Stress ResistanceA University of Saskatchewan team of researchers has isolated a gene that has never before been identified in helping plants to resist stress.
The study-published this month in the top-ranked plant journal The Plant Cell-could pave the way for development of agricultural and forestry crops that are more tolerant to environmental stresses such as ultra-violet light and other types of radiation.
"Our next step is to see if plant genes we've........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/28/2008 5:20:35 AM)
Storing on Svalbard Global Seed VaultAt the end of January, more than 200,000 crop varieties from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East-drawn from vast seed collections maintained by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)-will be shipped to a remote island near the Arctic Circle, where they will be stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), a facility capable of preserving their vitality for thousands of years.
The cornucopia of........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/22/2008 11:04:25 PM)
Predators do more than kill preyThe direct effect predators have on their prey is to kill them. The evolutionary changes that can result from this direct effect include prey that are younger at maturity and that produce more offspring.
But killing prey also has indirect effects rarely characterized or measured such as a decline in the number of surviving prey, resulting, in turn, in more food available to survivors.
In a new study characterizing the complex........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/17/2008 9:19:15 PM)
High-Vitamin Corn Could Improve NutritionResearchers have developed a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against deficiencies in dietary vitamin A, which cause eye diseases, including blindness, in 40 million children annually, and increased health risks for about 250 million people, mostly in developing countries.
This tool consists of "a new method of analyzing the genetic makeup of corn that will enable developing countries to identify and increase cultivation of corn........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/17/2008 8:45:04 PM)
Starfish outbreak threatens coralsOutbreaks of the notorious crown of thorns starfish now threaten the coral triangle, the richest center of coral reef biodiversity on Earth, as per recent surveys by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
The starfish a predator that feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to liquefy tissue were discovered in large numbers by the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 5:11:11 PM)
From the Journal of Biological ChemistryCOX-2 inhibitors like Celecoxib have come under scrutiny lately due to adverse cardiovascular side-effects stemming from COX-2 reduction. In both fruit fly and rat models, researchers reveal another adverse effect of Celecoxib; this drug can induce arrhythmia. More interestingly, this effect is independent of the COX-2 enzyme.
Satpal Singh and colleagues tested various Celecoxib doses on the heart rate of Drosophila, a good model for human........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 4:54:24 PM)
Critical ingredients for the soup of lifeAstronomers from Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids in a galaxy some 250 million light years away.
Just add water! said Robert Minchin, an Arecibo astronomer on the project, who explained that methanimine and hydrogen cyanide are two of the basic ingredients of life, because when........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/14/2008 3:16:08 PM)
Newly Patented Purplish 'Lily' Blooms All Summer LongMauve Majesty is one cool lily look-alike. This new pinkish-purple ornamental flower, just patented by Cornell, can last for two weeks in a vase, but when left in the garden, it blooms all summer long in the cooler, northern states until the first hard freeze in the fall.
The new hybrid of the Inca lily (Alstroemeria), which was developed by a Cornell professor, is a non-fragrant perennial that is set apart by its lavender-lilac flower color........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/8/2008 8:35:38 PM)
No convincing evidence for decline in tropical forestsClaims that tropical forests are declining cannot be backed up by hard evidence, as per new research from the University of Leeds.
This major challenge to conventional thinking is the surprising finding of a study published recently in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences by Dr Alan Grainger, Senior Lecturer in Geography and one of the world's leading experts on tropical deforestation.
"Every few years we get a new........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 1/7/2008 11:13:59 PM)
Gene therapy can reduce long-term drinking among rodentsJust as the risk of developing alcoholism is strongly influenced by genetic factors, mutations in gene coding such as the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2*2) allele also appear to protect against the risk. Researchers have only just begun to apply gene-therapy techniques to the alcohol-research field. A proof-of-principle study has observed that administering an anti-Aldh2 antisense gene in rodents can curtail their urge to drink.
Results........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 1/3/2008 9:53:21 PM)
Smell-wars between butterflies and antsAmong humans, making yourself smell more alluring than you really are is a fairly harmless, socially accepted habit that maintains a complete perfume industry. However, it is a matter of life and death for caterpillars of large blue butterflies that dupe ant workers into believing them to be one of the ants own larvae. In a publication in the journal Science this week , scientists from the Centre for Social Evolution (CSE) at the University of........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 1/3/2008 9:27:29 PM)
International Year Of The Potato2008 Is the International Year of the Potato. The potato has been consumed in the Andes for about 8,000 years. Taken by the Spanish to Europe in the 16th century, it quickly spread across the globe.Today potatoes are grown on an estimated 75,000 square miles of farmland, from China''s Yunnan plateau and the subtropical lowlands of India, to Java''s equatorial highlands and the steppes of Ukraine. In terms of sheer quantity harvested, the humble........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 12/27/2007 9:58:42 AM)
Study says 2000 tigers possible in ThailandThailands Western Forest Complex a 6,900 square mile (18,000 square kilometers) network of parks and wildlife reserves can potentially support some 2,000 tigers, making it one of the worlds strongholds for these emblematic big cats, as per a new study by Thailands Department of National Park, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. The study, which appears in latest issue of the journal Oryx,........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 12/20/2007 9:53:09 PM)
Parents show bias in sibling rivalryMost parents would hotly deny favouring one child over another but new research suggests they may have little choice in the matter.
Biologists studying a unique species of beetle that raises and cares for its young have observed that parents instinctively favour the oldest offspring.
The University of Manchester research published in Ecology this month supports the findings of studies carried out on human families but is significant in........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 12/20/2007 5:30:26 AM)
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