ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATEThis week scientists discovered the first known warm-blooded fish; except that this fish was already well-known to humans. The comically appointed opah, a large silver and red fish that is large, circular, and flat, has been making appearances in fishing nets off the coast of west Africa and Hawaii for years.
Research has proven that rats place more value on saving others than obtaining a food reward. Rats, especially those who have nearly drowned in the past, will resuce each other from drowning. They experience a kind of empathy.
Temperature Sensor Made from Tobacco Cells Scientists and engineers love copying nature, there is even a term for it, biomimicry. Evolution has usually had thousands, millions, if not billions of years to perfect a mechanism, so it's usually pretty good.
Modified Yeast Unlocks Biofuel Potential You may know that a modified diesel engine can actually run on highly filtered oil left over from the deep fryer.
Two New Breakthroughs In the Field of Genome Modification Genetic engineering is not only a hot button issue in the media, but also a crucial tool in biological research.
Scientists say that a newly developed gene therapy may help trigger reliable erections in men. While Viagra helps prolong an erection, this solution would help initiate it.
While the presence of small pink roses may seem like an innocuous blossom, researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz are finding that as little creatures appear they signal warmer waters to come. No, these pink roses aren’t flora species, they’re hot pink sea slugs found traditionally in southern California tide pools. But as they’ve migrated north, researchers now believe that coastal water temperatures are on the rise, and this could have serious implications farther up on the food chain.
Looking just outside into their gardens for a bit of inspiration, one group of Oxford University researchers has sought out to discover how common spider species spin such long, ornate fiber while only being a few nanometers thick. Hoping to reveal nature’s secret, which may someday revolutionize the technological industry as manufacturers find new ways of commercially spinning nano-scale filaments, the researchers captured female Uloborus plumipes commonly known as “feather-legged lace weavers” and watched them spin their webs.
Bowhead whales are our planets longest-lived mammal. And just how is such a large animal able to survive for so long? Well, let's just say that they've got good genes.
When it comes time to the Christmas season, people innately begin counting the birds: four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and whole lot of other species. But if you’re an ornithologist, then the holiday season also marks an important time for bird-watching. Waking up before sunrise and catching a glimpse of the black-necked stilts or the white-tailed kites may be a part of your daily agenda, but when Dec. 14 rolls around you’re ready for day long adventures to camp out and count the local bird species in the skies.
In the study of ecology, it’s long been known that animals have a sort of sixth sense above and beyond what humans can perceive. Perhaps through the aid of their keen senses of smell or their abnormally acute sense of hearing, animals such as dogs are able to sense the presence of cancers, the onset of seizures, and even changes in the climate. But in a new study led by UC Berkeley ecologist Henry Streby, it’s birds that are sensing a change. Golden-winged warblers to be exact.
Before the age of medical doctors and precise pharmaceuticals, people turned to the aid of medicine men, tribal councils and even shaman to heal all sorts of ailments. Herbal remedies were prescribed, and more often than not, the symptoms would disappear, or the person whose ailments would escalate would disappear too with the problem. But do you know who they never asked for help? Television personalities—not even those with medical degrees.
In what perhaps may be the most shocking upset in the news this week, ecologist revealed last Friday, Dec. 5, that giraffes may be headed towards extinction – and it’s in part due to a lack of awareness of dangers facing the African species. While contemporary studies in Africa’s central savannahs have revealed the collected threats that human encroachment , habitat loss and black market poaching has posed to wildlife communities, researchers say that giraffes are amongst some of the hardest hit populations in the long list of black market species. And without significant change in the way giraffes are protected, they may disappear all together within a matter years.
Abandoned four weeks ago, at only a couple of days old, a sea otter pup rescued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium has not only found a second chance, but a new home far from Pacific coast.
For a field-based ecologist, the continental United States is pretty much a textbook of well-known organisms. The thrilling new species often making front-page news are more likely to found in the tropics or open-oceans, than in the plains of the Midwest or the large metropolis cities of the East and West coasts. With such well-defined niche habitats, the species in the United States aren’t too surprising to the experienced biologist, however, sometimes new life can be found where you’d least expect it. No, we’re not talking about the mutant turtles in the sewers of New York City, but it does appear the jam-packed hub may be home to another unique amphibian, colloquially known as the “Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog”.
“At its simplest, biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet.”
An island nation, entirely secluded from the spread of traditional species found worldwide, Australia is home to a unique form of mammals known for their maternal instincts, classified as “marsupials”. The term may encompass many species, however, when the notable pouches of marsupials are often thought of, the species most easily recognized is the jumping species of kangaroos. But new research published this week in the journal PLOS ONE reveals that kangaroo species may not have always had that famous skip in their step.
Scientist Eric Betzig just won't quit. Weeks after being awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing new techniques for enhancing microscopic viewing technology, he has apparently moved on to another breakthrough of equal or greater significance.
Through the use of simple components, sugar, oxygen and transfer molecules, the mitochondria are able to create and store energy through the simple movement of electrons from one bond to another. And in spite of conflicting theories describing their possible origins, a new study at the University of Virginia is proving that the energy creators weren’t always self-sustaining components.
When a whale washes ashore, researchers and government agencies are usually the first on scene to assess the causes of death. However, when a rare beaked whale washed ashore in Australia earlier this week, Tuesday Oct. 14, researchers were eager to get to the scene for an entirely different reason — the opportunity to learn something about a deep diving mammal we know so little about.
In hopes of a long future on the Red Planet, researchers have proposed the addition of a horticultural experiment onboard NASA’s next Mars rover mission, scheduled to land in 2021. The proposed project, known simply as the “Mars Plant Experiment” (MPX) would not only aid in the understanding of plant growth on foreign planets, but also would lay the foundations for future colonies currently planning on settling in on Mars.