Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Comment: COVID-19 compounded the English pub industry's problems
Coronavirus has had an unprecedented impact on pubs in Britain. The British Beer and Pub Association estimates that the industry lost over £100m each month of lockdown.
Using DNA in the water tell us how many fish are there
River water, lake water, and seawater contain DNA belonging to organisms such as animals and plants. Ecologists have begun to actively analyze such DNA molecules, called environmental DNA, to assess...
Let me flow: Bosnians wage war on mini hydro plants
Looking out over the clear cascades of the Neretvica river in the heart of Bosnia, Safet Sarajlic says he is ready to spill his blood to defend the waterway from...
Sea turtles find protection from Senegal fishermen
In a classic case of "poacher turning gamekeeper", the fishermen of Senegal have joined forces to protect one of the ocean's most endangered species—the sea turtle.
CBP officers seize 13-tons of human hair products imported from China
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized a 13-ton shipment of products made from human hair under potential prison labor from China's Xinjiang region.
To listen is to survive: Unravelling how plants process information
Researchers mapped the signaling network in plants and discovered novel insights about how plants process information about their environment. This gives new potential to strategies to protect crops and help...
Stadium sponsor FedEx requests Washington Redskins change team name
FedEx, which holds the naming rights to the Washington Redskins' stadium, has asked the NFL franchise to change its team name.
Smart structures: Structural cells of the body control immune function
Researchers analyzed the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation in structural cells. They found widespread activity of immune genes, suggesting that structural cells are deeply involved in the body's response to pathogens....
Grassroots dog vaccinations can help stop rabies, but not alone
While scientists are trying to find a vaccine for COVID-19, the rabies virus continues to kill 59,000 people every year. But unlike COVID, a vaccine has existed for more than...
Newer variant of COVID-19-causing virus dominates global infections
New research shows that a specific change in the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus virus genome, previously associated with increased viral transmission and the spread of COVID-19, is more infectious in cell culture.
How the brain organizes information about odors
Neuroscientists describe for the first time how relationships between different odors are encoded in the brain. The findings suggest a mechanism that may explain why individuals have common but highly...
Rising water temperatures could endanger the mating of many fish species
In a new meta-study, experts have published ground-breaking findings on the effects of climate change for fish stock around the globe.
The coronavirus has changed since it left Wuhan. Is it more infectious?
A newer strain of the coronavirus has a mutation that might make it more infectious, a team of scientists says. Other researchers disagree.
The coronavirus has changed since it left Wuhan. Is it more infectious?
A newer strain of the coronavirus has a mutation that might make it more infectious, a team of scientists says. Other researchers disagree.
Histones' secret enzyme gig may have helped power eukaryote evolution
Proteins with a key role in DNA packaging moonlight as copper-reducing enzymes
Sharing vitamins: Cobamides unveil microbial interactions
Microbial communities are essential to fundamental processes on Earth. Underlying the compositions and functions of these communities are nutritional interdependencies among individual species. One class of nutrients, cobamides (the family...
Cell position fates and collective fountain flow in bacterial biofilms revealed by light-sheet microscopy
Bacterial biofilms represent a basic form of multicellular organization that confers survival advantages to constituent cells. The sequential stages of cell ordering during biofilm development have been studied in the pathogen and model...
A phage-encoded anti-CRISPR enables complete evasion of type VI-A CRISPR-Cas immunity
The CRISPR RNA (crRNA)–guided nuclease Cas13 recognizes complementary viral transcripts to trigger the degradation of both host and viral RNA during the type VI CRISPR-Cas antiviral response. However, how viruses...
Scientists reveal why tummy bugs are so good at swimming through your gut
Researchers have solved the mystery of why a species of bacteria that causes food poisoning can swim faster in stickier liquids, such as within guts.
Anaplasmosis bacterium tinkers with tick's gene expression to spread to new hosts
For the first time, scientists have shown that the bacterium that causes the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis interferes with tick gene expression for its survival inside cells and to spread to...
'DeadEndia' animated series coming to Netflix
"DeadEndia," a new series based on Hamish Steele's graphic novels, will premiere on Netflix in 2021.
Marine algae from the Kiel Fjord discovered as a remedy against infections and skin cancer
Using state-of-the-art approaches coupled with bio- and cheminformatics and machine learning, researchers have succeeded in discovering new, bioactive components of the Baltic Sea Baltic Sea seaweed Fucus vesiculosus and its...
New sequencing technology will help scientists decipher disease mechanisms
New technologies capable of sequencing single molecules in fine detail will help scientists better understand the mechanisms of rare nucleotides thought to play an important role in the progression of...
Invasive mosquito found in Finland could potentially transmit malaria
During collections for a study to map the distribution of mosquito species in Finland, Anopheles daciae, a species previously not known to occur in Finland was found at several locations...
New sequencing technology will help scientists decipher disease mechanisms
New technologies capable of sequencing single molecules in fine detail will help scientists better understand the mechanisms of rare nucleotides thought to play an important role in the progression of...
Moss protein corrects genetic defects of other plants
Almost all land plants employ an army of molecular editors who correct errors in their genetic information. Together with colleagues from Hanover, Ulm and Kyoto (Japan), researchers from the University...
New candidate for raw material synthesis through gene transfer
Cyanobacteria hardly need any nutrients and use the energy of sunlight. Bathers are familiar with these microorganisms—often incorrectly called "blue-green algae"—as they often occur in waters. A group of researchers...
How that preprint about a 'more contagious strain' of coronavirus changed in peer review
On May 5, 2020, news broke about a reportedly more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—based on a preliminary paper posted to the preprint server bioRxiv. The preprint...