Biology
Park users reveal 5 factors shaping acceptance of wildlife management
Should an area be fenced off, should animals be sterilized or relocated—or, as a last resort, selectively culled? As the long-running controversy over white-tailed deer in the Mon…
A type of Arctic Ocean bacteria may be using acetone to turn carbon into food
A newly identified Arctic Ocean bacterium may have an unusual way of making the building blocks it needs to grow. Using acetone, a common chemical in seawater, the bacteria incorp…
Research ties heat to mealybug feeding and pasture damage
High temperatures change how mealybugs feed, and that could help explain why some pasture mealybug infestations do far more damage than others, according to early findings from Te…
'Evolution in the act': Forest lizards reveal rapid adaptation in a warming world
Yale research scientist Saúl Domínguez-Guerrero didn't set out to catch "evolution in the act" when he traveled to the Caribbean with a team of Yale researchers a few years ago. A…
Beetle poop may have helped shape millions of years of yeast evolution
University at Buffalo scientists have found evidence that different species of yeast have shared genes originally acquired from an ancient virus—and the guts and droppings of beet…
Why are we so squeamish about eating hagfish?
When fishers are out working their boats, they are typically targeting a specific type of fish. However, other species often end up in their nets or trawls as well. This is known …
Unpacking wheat's water use for drought research
Researchers at The University of Queensland have developed a way to quantify how wheat varieties capture and convert soil water. Dr. Raul Gimenez from the Queensland Alliance for …
Crow experiments suggest switching to vocal communication requires extra mental effort
For animals that can produce vocalizations, choosing to emit a sound involves various neural processes. For instance, it entails controlling when to emit a sound and how loud and …
Monarch butterflies get tiny trackers to help scientists follow their mysterious migration
As a child, Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón wondered where monarch butterflies stop for a meal and a night's rest on their long migrations across North America. Now she and other scientists…
How a scientist went from hero to traitor in a US water crisis – podcast
When the water in Flint, Michigan, became contaminated with dangerous levels of lead, Dr Siddhartha Roy, then a third year PhD student, was part of the team of scientists who publ…
Gas inside us could fight wound infections, moth study shows
A gas naturally produced by our own bodies could one day help treat skin and wound infections, potentially offering a new approach alongside conventional antibiotics.
Telltale furrows: What the Baltic Sea seafloor reveals about bottom trawling
To what extent does bottom trawling impact the seafloor of the Baltic Sea—and how quickly does it recover? Two new studies from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warne…
Stem cells in deep sleep may point to a secret reserve for lifelong blood renewal
Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the HI-STEM Stem Cell Institute have discovered a group of particularly long-lived blood stem cells in mice. These cell…
How competing reproductive needs shaped the evolution of liverworts
Liverworts reproduce through a life cycle involving two distinct stages. First, sperm fertilize eggs in the presence of water, producing embryos that develop into spore-producing …
Plants may experience 'optical illusions' that affect their direction of growth
A new study from Tel Aviv University reveals how plants, despite having neither a brain nor a nervous system, integrate light coming from multiple directions to determine where to…
Canada can develop infrastructure and protect biodiversity
Nearly 200 countries recently came together in Armenia for the 2026 United Nations Biodiversity Conference to review progress toward halting and reversing biodiversity loss. Many …
Deep-sea mussels trade tidal rhythms for a 24-hour cycle in the lab
Hydrothermal vents lie in perpetual darkness in the depths of the ocean, yet the cells of the vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus, which lives 1,700 meters (5,600 feet) below the s…
Impact of deep-sea mining on seafloor ecosystem still evident 44 years later
Little is known about the long-term effects of deep-sea mining on the organic matter that supports life on the seafloor. However, as interest in mining the deep sea for rare metal…
European flounder can complete whole life cycle in freshwater
Most flounders sampled in Lake Pulmanki in northern Finland had spent their entire lives in freshwater. The study provides the first evidence of the species living entirely in fre…
Industrialization reshapes gut microbes, from bacterial communities to their DNA, studies find
The totality of bacteria, viruses and fungi that exist in and on a multicellular organism forms its natural microbiome. The interactions between the body and these microorganisms …
Are we overfertilizing our fields? Researchers challenge conventional soil testing
A new study led by Dr. Shikma Zaarur of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Dr. Ran Erel of the Agricultural Research Organization–Volcani Institute, reveals…
From wild to mild: Friendly foxes show changes in brain region
Scientists studying the neurology of tame foxes identified changes in a part of the brain that has previously been associated with aggression, according to a new paper that compar…
RNA-protein interactions could lead to new coronavirus drug targets
A study co-led by a University of California, Riverside, biomedical scientist has identified new targets for coronavirus antiviral drugs, including treatments that may be less vul…
Blood chemistry reveals why some animals bleed blue, green or purple
Whether it's gushing from a bumped nose or pooling atop a pricked finger, our blood is some hue of red. But red-bloodedness isn't universal in the animal kingdom. In some creature…