Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Insect Warning Colors Aid Cancer And Tropical Disease Drug Discovery
Brightly colored beetles or butterfly larvae nibbling on a plant may signal the presence of chemical compounds active against cancer cell lines and tropical parasitic diseases, according to researchers. Such...
Superfast Vocal Muscles In Songbirds: Hundred Times Faster Than Blink Of An Eye
Certain songbirds can contract their vocal muscles 100 times faster than humans can blink an eye -- placing the birds with a handful of animals that have evolved superfast muscles,...
Ground Cover Can Reduce Impact Of Biomass Harvest
Iowa State University researchers are looking at ways to use ground cover, a living grass planted between the rows of corn, in production farming.
New Insight Into Development Of Congenital Circulatory Defects
Researchers could provide new insight into how two common congenital circulatory problems -- aortic arch deformity and arteriovenous malformations -- develop in humans, as reported in the journal Developmental Biology.
How The Malaria Parasite Hijacks Human Red Blood Cells
A new study -- done on a scale an order of magnitude greater than anything previously attempted in the field of malaria -- has uncovered an arsenal of proteins produced...
Edit your DNA: `Gene wiki' to debut on Wikipedia
Researchers plan to create a library of human genetics, with entries on the workings of individual genes, and make it available for anyone in Wikipedia rather than in an obscure...
Scientists Discover Which Waters Egg-Laying Mosquitoes Like Best
Scientists at Tulane and North Carolina State universities have identified the chemical cues in water that entice yellow fever mosquitoes to lay their eggs. The study is the first to...
Spray Improves Plants’ Cold Tolerance By 2 To Over 9 Degrees Fahrenheit
A newly created spray-on formula increases plants' tolerance of cold temperatures by several degrees. The spray, which is not yet commercially available, can improve plants' cold tolerance between 2.2 and...
Tuberculosis May Have Migrated From Humans To Cattle, Not The Reverse
Among those trying to decipher the origins and trajectory of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for TB, are three Arizona State University researchers who are trying to establish a credible...
UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
NASA sets remaining space shuttle launches … Mouse embryonic stem cells build a heart … New use possible for ethanol plant wastes … Microchip to aid lung cancer treatments ......
Study points to dietary cocktail for Alzheimer's
A dietary cocktail that includes a type of omega-3 fatty acid can improve memory and learning in gerbils, according to the latest study from MIT researchers that points to a...
Duckweed genome sequencing has global implications
Three plant biologists at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology are obsessed with duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant with an unassuming name. Now they have convinced the federal government to focus...
Deep sequencing study reveals new insights into human transcriptome
In a collaborative project scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (MPI MolGen), Germany and Genomatix with a business in Munich, Germany and Ann Arbor, MI, USA, applied...
Researchers say popular fish contains potentially dangerous fatty acid combination
Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids,...
New test can help spot best embryos: researchers
BARCELONA (Reuters) - The same infrared technology that measures fat content in milk can more accurately predict which embryos have the best chance of resulting in a pregnancy, fertility experts...
New bioinformatics software created
SAN DIEGO, July 8 (UPI) -- A team of U.S. university undergraduates says it's created a new area of bioinformatics that might lead to improved genomic and proteomic...
Study: Worms do calculus to get rewards
EUGENE, Ore., July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've identified a computer-like mechanism that drives neuron expression for taste and smell and they did it by giving...
Creating A New Approach To Archiving Human Genetic Information
How a genomic code is deciphered is traditionally left to professional annotators who use information from a number of sources (for instance, knowledge about similar genes in other organisms) to...
Can You Hear Me Now? Primitive Single-Celled Microbe Expert In Cellular Communication Networks
When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells....
Frozen embryos 'better for IVF'
Frozen is better than fresh when it comes to transplanting embryos in IVF treatment, a study shows.
Postpone insect spray, Innu say
The Innu Nation wants the government of Newfoundland and Labrador to postpone an insecticide spray program until more research can be done.
Uncommonly Big Hearts May Not Harm Athletes
Dr. Paul Thompson, a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital, said it is now known that if the heart is healthy, there is never a point at which it is too big.
Whales and dolphins influence new wind turbine design
Sea creatures have evolved over millions of years to maximise efficiency of movement through water; humans have been trying to perfect streamlined designs for barely a century. So shouldn't...
New insight to demineralization
From toothpaste to technology, noncrystalline or amorphous silica is an active ingredient in a myriad of products that we use in our daily lives. As a minor, but essential component...
Eyeless Worm Senses Light
Discovery of light-responsive neurons in a nematode may hold clues about eye evolution
Dividing Cells Find Their Middle By Following A Protein 'Contour Map'
Self-organization keeps schools of fish, flocks of birds and colonies of termites in sync. It's also, according to new research, the way cells regulate the final stage of cell division....
Biodiversity Maps to Help Conservation in East Africa
Conservation biologists from UC San Diego are collaborating with scientists from the African Conservation Centre and other institutions to map patterns of biodiversity and land use in East Africa in...
Thin line between desire and dread: Dopamine controls both
The chemical dopamine induces both desire and dread in adjacent regions of the brain, according to new research at the University of Michigan.