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| Biology articles |
When evolution is not so slow and gradual
What's the secret to surviving during times of environmental change? Evolve… quickly. A new article in The American Naturalist finds that guppy populations introduced into new habitats developed new and advantageous traits in just a few years. This is one of only a few studies to look at adaptation and survival in a wild population.
Bats recognize the individual voices of other bats
Bats can use the characteristics of other bats' voices to recognize each other, according to a study by researchers from the University of Tuebingen, Germany and the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany. The study, published June 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, explains how bats use echolocation for more than just spatial knowledge.
Mobile DNA elements in woolly mammoth genome give new clues to mammalian evolution
The woolly mammoth died out several thousand years ago, but the genetic material they left behind is yielding new clues about the evolution of mammals. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the mammoth genome looking for mobile DNA elements, revealing new insights into how some of these elements arose in mammals and shaped the genome of an animal headed for extinction.
Is this the beginning of the end of plant breeding?
No human is a clone of their parents but the same cannot be said for other living things. While your DNA is a combination of half your mother and half your father, other species do things differently. The advantage of clonal reproduction is that it produces an individual exactly like an existing one-which would be very useful for farmers who could replicate the best of their animals or crops without the lottery of sexual reproduction. Clonal reproduction of crop species took a step closer to being realised with new research published in PLoS Biology.
Evolution can occur in less than 10 years
How fast can evolution take place? In just a few years, according to a new study on guppies led by UC Riverside's Swanne Gordon, a graduate student in biology.
Newly discovered snow roots are 'evolutionary phenomenon'
It may not be the Yeti, but in a remote region of the Russian mountains a previously unknown and entirely unique form of plant root has been discovered. Lead Scientist Professor Hans Cornelissen and his Russian-Dutch team describe this finding in Ecology Letters.
Urban myth disproved: fingerprints do not improve grip friction
Fingerprints mark us out as individuals and leave telltale signs of our presence on every object that we touch, but what are fingerprints really for? According to Roland Ennos, from the University of Manchester, other primates and tree-climbing koalas have fingerprints and some South American monkeys have ridged pads on their tree-gripping tails, so everyone presumed that fingerprints are there to help us hang onto objects that we grasp.
Manatees can probably hear which directions boats approach from
The world is a perilous place for the endangered manatee. While the mammals are at risk from natural threats, human activity also poses a great danger to manatee numbers. Debborah Colbert, from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, explains that many manatees die and are seriously injured in collisions with boats every year. However, little is known about how manatees perceive their environment.
Different genes cause loss of body parts in similar fish
New research shows that when two species of stickleback fish evolved and lost their pelvises and body armor, the changes were caused by different genes in each species.
What limits the size of birds?
Why aren't birds larger? Fifteen-kilogram swans hold the current upper size record for flying birds, although the extinct Argentavis of the Miocene Epoch in Argentina is estimated to have weighed 70 kilograms, the size of an average human.
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Mate selection: how does she know he'll take care of the kids?
Throughout the animal kingdom brilliant colors or elaborate behavioral displays serve as "advertisements" for attracting mates. But, what do the ads promise, and is there truth in advertizing? Researchers at Yale theorize that when males must provide care for the survival of their offspring, the males' signals will consistently be honest - and they may devote more of their energy to caring for their offspring than to being attractive.
Scientists find that squid's bioluminescence comes from eye-related genes
Scientists have found that a small Hawaiian squid can hide itself by using an organ with the same genes found in its eye.
Maple seeds and animals exploit the same trick to fly
The twirling seeds of maple trees spin like miniature helicopters as they fall to the ground. Because the seeds descend slowly as they swirl, they can be carried aloft by the wind and dispersed over great distances. Just how the seeds manage to fall so slowly, however, has mystified scientists.
Scientists turn deadly mosquitoes against their own offspring
A new field demonstration from Peru suggests that we might be able to co-opt adult mosquitoes into applying insecticides for us, and that they are far more efficient at doing this than humans are.
Cells are like robust computational systems
Gene regulatory networks in cell nuclei are similar to cloud computing networks, such as Google or Yahoo!, researchers report today in the online journal Molecular Systems Biology. The similarity is that each system keeps working despite the failure of individual components, whether they are master genes or computer processors.
Notre Dame study describes evidence of world's oldest known granaries
A new study coauthored by Ian Kuijt, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, describes recent excavations in Jordan that reveal evidence of the world's oldest know granaries. The appearance of the granaries represents a critical evolutionary shift in the relationship between people and plant foods.
Dolphins get a lift from delta wing technology
We can only marvel at the way that dolphins, whales and porpoises scythe through water. Their finlike flippers seem perfectly adapted for maximum aquatic agility. However, no one had ever analysed how the animals' flippers interact with water; the hydrodynamic lift that they generate, the drag that they experience or their hydrodynamic efficiency.
Baboons, humans adapted similarly to malaria
Evolutionarily speaking, baboons may be our more distant cousins among primates. But when it comes to our experiences with malaria over the course of time, it seems the stories of our two species have followed very similar plots.
Backtracking on DNA
Accuracy is essential for life, so in converting the information stored in DNA into a form in which it can be used, a high level of precision is required. Dr Tanniemola Liverpool from the Department of Mathematics, working with colleagues from the University of Leeds, has developed a mathematical model for how the required accuracy is achieved.
Spanish scientists develop echo-location in humans
A team of researchers from the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH) has shown scientifically that human beings can develop echolocation, the system of acoustic signals used by dolphins and bats to explore their surroundings. Producing certain kinds of tongue clicks helps people to identify objects around them without needing to see them, something which would be especially useful for the blind.
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| Quotes | Ive always wanted to be a scientist. That way, I could get a bunch of grants and do research into whether money can really buy happiness.
Kyannke.
Ive always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin |
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