FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Staying cool: Saharan silver ants
Jun 22, 2015 (SPX)
Nanfang Yu, assistant professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, and colleagues from the University of Zurich and the University of Washington, have ...
Snake fungal disease parallels white-nose syndrome in bats
Jun 22, 2015 (SPX)
A deadly fungal infection afflicting snakes is eerily similar to the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats, researchers report. Although Ophidiomyces o...
Do insect societies share brain power
Jun 22, 2015 (SPX)
The society you live in can shape the complexity of your brain--and it does so differently for social insects than for humans and other vertebrate animals. A ne...
Cars threaten world's most endangered feline
Jun 19, 2015 (AFP)
The world's most endangered feline species, the Iberian lynx, is making a comeback in Spain after being pushed to the brink of extinction. But the costly effort...
Ivory DNA helps rangers pinpoint elephant poaching hotspots
Jun 19, 2015 (UPI)
By matching the DNA in confiscated ivory to scat samples from all over Africa, researchers have been able to pinpoint poaching hotspots. Scientists say the new ...
Newfound groups of bacteria are mixing up the tree of life
Jun 18, 2015 (SPX)
University of California, Berkeley, scientists have identified more than 35 new groups of bacteria, clarifying a mysterious branch of the tree of life that has ...
Underground ants can't take the heat
Jun 18, 2015 (SPX)
Army ants, the nomadic swarming predators underfoot in the jungle, can take down a colony of prey animals without breaking a sweat. But certain army ant species...
Worms have an electromagnetic sensor in their brain
Jun 18, 2015 (UPI)
Biologists have long believed that a variety of species sense the Earth's magnetic field in order to navigate the globe. They've proven as much using a variety ...
Hundreds arrested in global crackdown on wildlife contraband
Jun 18, 2015 (AFP)
A global crackdown on wildlife trafficking has netted "huge" amounts of whale bones, rhino horn, ivory and other contraband, leading to hundreds of arrests, Eur...
The winner doesn't always take all
Jun 17, 2015 (SPX)
The bacterium Myxococcus xanthus is a microbe with special properties. It lives in soils almost all over the world and is capable of social interactions; that i...
Increased carbon dioxide levels in air restrict plants' ability to absorb nutrients
Jun 17, 2015 (SPX)
The rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect plants' absorption of nitrogen, which is the nutrient that restricts crop growth in most te...
Method reveals what bacteria sense in their surroundings
Jun 17, 2015 (SPX)
A new, rapid method is helping detect how bacteria sense and respond to changes in their environment. Bacteria can pick up external signals, which then relay to...
We are entering a 'golden age' of animal tracking
Jun 17, 2015 (SPX)
Animals wearing new tagging and tracking devices give a real-time look at their behavior and at the environmental health of the planet, say research associates ...
Night vision in tune with nature in hovering hawkmoths
Jun 17, 2015 (SPX)
How do nocturnal insects forage so successfully in the twilight and darkness? A new study by Simon Sponberg and colleagues suggests that the vision of the hawkm...
Small molecules change biological clock rhythm
Jun 16, 2015 (SPX)
A team of chemists and biologists at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), Nagoya University have succeeded in finding new molecules that change...
Microbe-mediated adaptation to a novel diet
Jun 16, 2015 (SPX)
Insects are the most diverse animal group on earth. Many of them feed on plants, and they are constantly challenged by the diverse direct and indirect defenses ...
A small vortex on the wing makes the elegance of birds' flight
Jun 16, 2015 (SPX)
One mystery of birds' flight is solved! The elegance of birds' flight, their seemingly effortless aerial turns and the softness of their landing, have been envi...
Making organic molecules in hydrothermal vents in the absence of life
Jun 15, 2015 (SPX)
In 2009, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution embarked on a NASA-funded mission to the Mid-Cayman Rise in the Caribbean, in search of a type of ...
Discovery in plant growth mechanisms opens new research path
Jun 15, 2015 (SPX)
New findings reported this week by plant molecular biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are deepening scientists' views of a cell surface regul...
A microscopic approach to the magnetic sensitivity of animals
Jun 15, 2015 (SPX)
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have succeeded in developing a new microscope capable of observing the magnetic sensitivity of photochemical reactions be...
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