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| Biology articles |
Stem cell researchers reprogram normal tissue cells into cells with the same properties as embryonic stem cells
Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.
Fruit bats are not blind as a bat
The retinas of most mammals contain two types of photoreceptor cells, the cones for daylight vision and colour vision, and the more sensitive rods for night vision. Nocturnal bats were traditionally believed to possess only rods. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and at The Field Museum for Natural History in Chicago have discovered that nocturnal fruit bats (flying foxes) possess cones in addition to rods. Hence, fruit bats are also equipped for daylight vision.
Force, not light, gives researchers images of cell receptors
MIT researchers have found a way to glimpse interactions between molecules on the surface of a cell.
Human activities increasing carbon sequestration in forests
Human-caused nitrogen deposition has been indirectly "fertilizing" forests, increasing their growth and sequestering major amounts of carbon, a new study in the journal Nature suggests.
Caribbean frog populations started with single, ancient voyage on south american raft
Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that arrived on a sea voyage from South America. They came 30 to 50 million years ago, according to DNA-sequence analyses by scientists at Penn State.
Biologists unravel the genetic secrets of black widow spider silk
Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the "dragline silk" of the black widow spider – an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.
Ants form living pothole plugs to make super-highways
Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America conduct spectacular predatory raids containing up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably, some ants use their bodies to plug potholes in the trail leading back to the nest, making a flatter surface so that prey can be delivered to the developing young at maximum speed.
Ancient etruscans were immigrants from anatolia, or what is now turkey
The long-running controversy about the origins of the Etruscan people appears to be very close to being settled once and for all. Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, says that there is overwhelming evidence that the Etruscans, whose brilliant civilisation flourished 3000 years ago in what is now Tuscany, were settlers from old Anatolia (now in southern Turkey).
Ice age extinction claimed highly carnivorous alaskan wolves
The extinction of many large mammals at the end of the Ice Age may have packed an even bigger punch than scientists have realized. To the list of victims such as woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, a Smithsonian-led team of scientists has added one more: a highly carnivorous form of wolf that lived in Alaska, north of the ice sheets.
Invertebrate immune systems are anything but simple
A hundred years since Russian microbiologist Elie Metschnikow first discovered the invertebrate immune system, scientists are only just beginning to understand its complexity. Presenting their findings at a recent European Science Foundation (ESF) conference, scientists showed that invertebrates have evolved elaborate ways to fight disease.
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Study reveals insect 'supersociety'
How social or altruistic behavior evolved has been a central and hotly debated question, particularly by those researchers engaged in the study of social insect societies of ants, bees and wasps.
Mit biologists link calorie restriction, endocrine function in worm longevity
The link between calorie restriction and a longer, healthier life may lie in the head, not in the gut, MIT biologists report.
Electric fish conduct electric duets in aquatic courtship
Cornell researchers have discovered that in the battle of the sexes, African electric fish couples not only use specific electrical signals to court but also engage in a sort of dueling "electric duet."
Discovery of the oldest adornments in the world
The discovery of small perforated sea shells, in the Cave of Pigeons in Taforalt, eastern Morocco, has shown that the use of bead adornments in North Africa is older than thought. Dating from 82 000 years ago, the beads are thought to be the oldest in the world.
Study shows lizard moms dress their children for success
Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother's influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as adults.
Reconstructing the biology of extinct species: a new approach
An international research team, including UC Riverside's Theodore Garland, has documented the link between the way an animal moves and the dimensions of an important part of its organ of balance, the three semicircular canals of the inner ear on each side of the skull. The research shows that a fundamental adaptive mechanism links a species' locomotion with the sensory systems that process information about the species' environment.
Tasmanian tiger extinction mystery
A University of Adelaide project led by zoologist Dr Jeremy Austin is investigating whether the world-fabled Tasmanian Tiger may have survived beyond its reported extinction in the late 1930s.
Which came first: primates' ability to see colorful food or see colorful sex?
The adaptive significance of the unique ability in many primates to distinguish red hues from green ones (i.e., trichromatic color vision) has always enticed debate among evolutionary biologists.
Earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming found
Anthropologists working on the slopes of the Andes in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming dating back 5,000 to 9,000 years. Their findings provide long-sought-after evidence that some of the early development of agriculture in the New World took place at farming settlements in the Andes.
A small leak will sink a great ship
During flowering four different types of floral organs need to be formed: sepals, which protect the inner organs; the frequently ornamental petals; stamens, which produce pollen and the carpels. This process is orchestrated by a large number of genes. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Köln (Germany) found, in cooperation with colleagues in Nijmegen (Netherlands) that a small molecule, a so-called microRNA, is crucial for the control of floral organs identity.
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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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