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— Hogchoker - the new Internet star — A small flatfish living along the coast of North America is the…
— Cancer deaths are projected to double by 2030 — Cancer deaths are projected to double in the next two decades.…
More Boiling point…
— Entangled diamonds vibrate together — Objects big enough for the eye to see have been placed in a weirdly…
— How animals predict earthquakes — Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur…
— New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact — Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there…
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News | Archive (April 2007)
Plants do not emit methane
— 27 Apr 2007 | EnvironmentA recent study in Nature suggested that terrestrial plants may be a global source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, making plants substantial contributors to the annual global methane budget. This controversial finding and the resulting commotion triggered a consortium of Dutch scientists to re-examine this in an independent study. Reporting in New Phytologist, Tom Dueck and colleagues present their results and conclude that methane emissions from plants are negligible and do not contribute to global climate change…
Tracking genes for self-pollination in Arabidopsis
— 27 Apr 2007 | BiologySome plants need a partner to reproduce. Pollen from one plant pollinates the stigma of another, and a seed is formed. But other plants can self-pollinate, a handy survival mechanism for a lonely plant…
Hibernating bears conserve more muscle strength than humans on bed rest do
— 24 Apr 2007 | BiologyA fascinating new study from the recent issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology quantifiably measures the loss of strength and endurance in black bears during long periods of hibernation. T. D. Lohuis (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) and his coauthors find that black bears in hibernation lose about one-half as much skeletal muscle strength as humans confined to bed rest for similar periods of time do…
Prehistoric mystery organism confirmed as giant fungus
— 23 Apr 2007 | Geology and palaeontologyScientists at the University of Chicago and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, have produced new evidence to finally resolve the mysterious identity of what they regard as one of the weirdest organisms that ever lived. Their chemical analysis indicates that the organism was a fungus, the scientists report in the May issue of the journal of Geology, published by the Geological Society of America. Called Prototaxites, the organism went extinct approximately 350 million years ago…
The first rainforest of our planet unearthed
— 23 Apr 2007 | Geology and palaeontologyA spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earths first rainforests. It is 300 million years old. The forest is composed of a bizarre mixture of extinct plants: abundant club mosses, more than 40 metres high, towering over a sub-canopy of tree ferns, intermixed with shrubs and tree-sized horsetails. Nowhere elsewhere on the planet is it possible to (literally) walk through such an extensive swathe of Carboniferous rainforest…
The mountain gorillas of Uganda increase in number
— 20 Apr 2007 | BiologyThe most recent census of mountain gorillas in Ugandas Bwindi Impenetrable National Park - one of only two places in the world where the rare gorillas exist - has found that the population has increased by 6 percent since the last census in 2002, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Max Planck Institute of Anthropology and other groups that participated in the effort…
Study shows three genetically distinct groups of chimpanzees
— 20 Apr 2007 | BiologyThe largest study to date of genetic variation among chimpanzees has found that the traditional, geography-based sorting of chimps into three populations - western, central and eastern - is underpinned by significant genetic differences, two to three times greater than the variation between the most different human populations…
New bird genus discovered in the Solomon Islands
— 20 Apr 2007 | BiologyNew genera of living birds are rare discoveries - fewer than one per year is announced globally. David Steadman and Andrew Kratter, ornithologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History, turned up the surprising new discovery on a collecting expedition in the Solomon Islands…
Why some aphids can not stand the heat?
— 20 Apr 2007 | BiologyFor pea aphids, the ability to go forth and multiply can depend on a single gene, according to new research. An overheated aphid with a mutation in that gene can not reproduce. The gene is not even in the insect, it is in tiny symbiotic bacteria housed inside special cells inside the aphid…
The secret of what makes plants flower unlocked
— 19 Apr 2007 | BiologyThe study reveals the likely mechanism by which the Arabidopsis plant flowers in response to changes in day length. Earlier research had shown that plants leaves perceived seasonal changes in day length, which triggers a long-distance signal to travel through the plants vascular system from the leaf to the shoot apex, where flowering is induced. However, the identity of the long-distance signal remained unclear…
Astronomers dissect a supermassive black hole with natural magnifying glasses
Drama in the heart of the Tarantula