Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Energy-efficient tuning of spintronic neurons
The human brain efficiently executes highly sophisticated tasks, such as image and speech recognition, with an exceptionally lower energy budget than today's computers can. The development of energy-efficient and tunable...
Does city life make bumblebees larger?
Does urbanization drive bumblebee evolution? A new study provides an initial indication of this. According to the study, bumblebees are larger in cities and, therefore, more productive than their rural...
Watch: Firefighters rescue baby deer trapped in drainage pipe
Firefighters in Massachusetts came to the rescue of a baby deer found trapped in a drainage pipe.
Where lions operate, grazers congregate ... provided food is great
Meals are typically family affairs for zebras, gazelles, cape buffalo and other grazing species in the African Serengeti, but in one of the first studies of its kind, ecologists have...
Survival of the fit-ish
It can be hard to dispute the common adage 'survival of the fittest'. After all, 'most of the genes in the genome are there because they're doing something good,' says...
'Cyborg' technology could enable new diagnostics, merger of humans and AI
Although true 'cyborgs' are science fiction, researchers are moving toward integrating electronics with the body. Such devices could monitor tumors or replace damaged tissues. But connecting electronics directly to human...
Bio-based communication networks could control cells in the body to treat conditions
Electronic devices and biological cells communicate through very different mechanisms. Now, scientists report progress on tiny communication networks that overcome this language barrier, allowing electronics to eavesdrop on cells and...
Micro- and nanoplastics detectable in human tissues
Plastic pollution is a global problem. Even when plastic bags or water bottles break down, tiny fragments can still contaminate the environment. Animals and humans can ingest the particles, with...
Global warming is changing our plant communities
Although Live Oak trees are common in South Florida today, Ken Feeley, a University of Miami biology professor, said their time here may be fleeting. With climate change pushing up...
Flies and mosquitoes beware, here comes the slingshot spider
Running into an unseen spiderweb in the woods can be scary enough, but what if you had to worry about a spiderweb—and the spider—being catapulted at you? That's what happens...
Designer bacteria produce coral antibiotic
Thomas Brück saw the sea whip Antillogorgia elisabethae for the first time 17 years ago while diving on a research trip to the Bahamas. He still remembers this encounter vividly,...
Look: Even of Day shares tracklist for 'The Book of Us: Gluon'
Even of Day, a subunit of the Korean group Day6, released a tracklist for its EP, "The Book of Us: Gluon - Nothing Can Tear Us Apart."
Survival of the fit-ish
It can be hard to dispute the common adage 'survival of the fittest.' After all, "most of the genes in the genome are there because they're doing something good," says...
Realtime observation of structural dynamic of influenza A hemagglutinin during viral entry
Unlike living organisms, to avoid extinction, viruses need to hijack living host machineries to generate new viruses. The devastating respiratory virus, influenza A virus, utilize its hemagglutinin (HA) proteins to...
DNA damage triggers reprogramming into stem cells
A joint research team from the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB) in Japan, Huazhong Agricultural University in China, and the Czech Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic has...
Cormorant predation may reduce perch catches, especially close to breeding areas
The joint study of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and University of Jyväskylä estimated the impact of cormorants breeding and living in Quark on perch populations and catches in...
Bacteria's secret weapon revealed
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) scientists have discovered a previously unknown method used by bacteria to evade immune responses.
Listen: Norah Jones performs Tiny Desk concert from home
Norah Jones performed "I'm Alive," a single from her new album, "Pick Me Up Off the Floor," during an at-home stream for NPR.
How two new fungus species got named after the COVID-19 pandemic
Never mind that they’re not viruses. Catching the trend of cocktails called quarantinis and registered racehorse names like Wearamask, two fungal species now have pandemic-inspired monikers. In a nod to the new normal...
Study examines how adaptable common urban tree species are under drought conditions
Researchers in the Which Plant Where project based at Western Sydney University have assessed the physiological tolerance of five key urban tree species across four geographic locations as part of...
Does city life make bumblebees larger?
Does urbanization drive bumblebee evolution? A new study by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig provides an initial indication of this....
Shock to bacteria activates nature's electrical grid
The ocean floor and the ground beneath our feet are riddled with tiny nanowires—1/100,000th the width of a human hair—created by billions of bacteria that can generate electric currents from...
Researchers discover how enzyme protects cells from DNA damage
A research team from Mount Sinai has unraveled for the first time the three-dimensional structure and mechanism of a complex enzyme that protects cells from constant DNA damage, opening the...
Ultra-low voltage proven effective at killing bacteria, study finds
Ultra-low voltage electricity is effective at killing bacteria because it causes membranes that surround bacteria to leak, according to a new study by University of Arkansas researchers. The research advances...
Stomach SIDT1 mediates dietary microRNA absorption
In a new study published in Cell Research, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University School of Life Sciences, China, reports that SIDT1 in the mammalian stomach mediates host uptake of...
Juvenile survival of world's rarest parrot more than halves
New research shows one of the world's rarest birds, the orange-bellied parrot, remains at severe risk of extinction despite decades of intensive conservation work in their Tasmanian breeding range.
Some surprises about the degradation of microplastics in our oceans
Not all the news about plastic in the ocean is what we expect. In fact it may be not quite as bad as initially thought. This comes as welcome information...
Balance between growth and adaptability shapes microbial success, evolution
One of the foremost challenges in biology is the quest to uncover the underlying rules that determine how biological organisms behave in different situations. Even seemingly simple questions, such as...