Latest science news in Biology & Nature
World's Rarest Big Cat Gets A Check-up
The world's rarest big cat is alive and well. At least one of them, that is, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society who captured and released a female...
Complete mitochondrial genome of 5,000-year-old mummy yields surprise
Researchers have revealed the complete mitochondrial genome of one of the world's most celebrated mummies, known as the Tyrolean Iceman or Ötzi. The sequence represents the oldest complete DNA sequence...
Genes linked to transsexuality
Researchers have discovered a link between transsexuality and a testosterone gene, findings that suggest genetics could control our gender identity.
Fungus killing off frogs
The world's frogs are croaking, but it's not climate change that's wiping them out - research has found new invasions of a fungal disease is causing the extinctions.
Gene scan of Alzheimer’s families identifies four new suspect genes
The first family-based genome-wide association study in Alzheimer’s disease has identified the sites of four novel genes that may significantly influence risk for the most common late-onset form of the...
Tiny fungi may have sex while infecting humans
A fungus called microsporidia that causes chronic diarrhoea in AIDS patients, organ transplant recipients and travellers has been identified as a member of the family of fungi that have been...
Office workers given the blue light to help alertness
Research carried out at the Surrey Sleep Centre at the University of Surrey in partnership with Philips Lighting has revealed that changing traditional white-light lighting to blue-enriched white light helped...
Human diet gives deadly bacteria a target
University of Adelaide scientists are part of an international research team that has uncovered the first example of a bacterium causing disease in humans by targeting a molecule that is...
Maintaining a Healthy Balance in the Brain
A gene mutation that causes learning disabilities disrupts a neural stop signal
End of daylight saving time is good for the heart
Fall back? Researchers say there's a 5% drop in heart attack deaths after clocks are reset to standard time. But spring forward? That's bad for the pumper. ...
Top award for WWF-SA fisheries boss
Dr Samantha Petersen, a biologist with WWF-South Africa, has won a prestigious international award for her research into the impact of commercial fishing on migratory seabirds, sea turtles and sharks...
Learning to shape your brain activity
A study in the lates issue of the journal Sleep shows that the successful manipulation of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) amplitude by instrumental SMR conditioning (ISC) improved sleep quality as well...
Predatory bacterial swarm uses rippling motion to reach prey
Like something from a horror movie, the swarm of bacteria ripples purposefully toward their prey, devours it and moves on. Researchers at the University of Iowa are studying this behaviour...
Genetic clock makers at UC San Diego publish their 'timepiece' in Nature
UC San Diego bioengineers have created the first stable, fast and programmable genetic clock that reliably keeps time by the blinking of fluorescent proteins inside E. coli cells. The clock's...
Candidate markers for gastric cancer
The sequencing of the human genome has opened the door for proteomics by providing a sequence-based framework for mining proteomes. As a result, there is intense interest in applying proteomics...
Devil's Night: The History of Pre-Halloween Pranks
The night of Oct. 30 is called Devil's Night in Detroit and Miggy Night in parts of England. Elsewhere it's Mischief Night.
What's Killing The Killer Whales?
Seven Puget Sound orcas (killer whales) are missing, presumed dead - a severe drop in the population (almost 10%). What's causing the sharp decline in whales? read more
Sabretooth tigers hunted in packs
Sabretooth "tigers" were social animals who lived and hunted in prides, a study suggests.
Warning as seabird breeding fails
Kittiwakes, Arctic terns and Arctic skuas suffer a breeding season which could see them wiped out, it is claimed.
Agricultural Chemicals Linked to Infections in a Declining Amphibian Species
(PhysOrg.com) -- Amphibians around the world are on the decline from disease. In an article in this week's issue of the journal Nature, Jason Rohr of the University of South...
Ichabod The Baby Aye-Aye
Child of this extremely endangered primate species born in captivity.
Researchers change focus on threatened species
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Queensland-led research is suggesting new ways to protect threatened species. Professor Hugh Possingham, director of UQ's Ecology Centre, and colleagues from the French National Institute of...
Elkhorn, staghorn coral get new protection
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Fisheries Service says it will increase its protection of elkhorn and staghorn corals in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin...
Farm chemicals can indirectly hammer frogs
Ecologists firm up link between agricultural chemicals and potentially devastating flatworm infections
South African officials say new virus is contained
LONDON (Reuters) - A new virus that has killed four people and infected another in South Africa appears to have been contained, according to the most recent information posted by...
Drug sandwich baits E. coli toxins
Polymer scaffolds hook up toxins to proteins that destroy them
Discovery of natural compounds that could slow blood vessel growth
Using computer models and live cell experiments, biomedical engineers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered more than 100 human protein fragments that can slow or stop...
New rule places limits on those who fish for turtles in Florida, but some say softshell turtles in state not in danger
William Shockley and his teenage son are fishing for freshwater turtles the same way their family has done it for four generations in south-central Florida: deploying about a mile of...