Biology
Electronic nose puts police detection dogs to the test
A pilot study tested an electronic nose, called NOS.E, alongside human-remains detection dogs to see whether it could detect buried remains and help confirm dogs' signals.
Chromosome anchors form hollow shells before cell division, imaging reveals
Whenever a cell divides, it has to split its chromosomes perfectly between two daughter cells, and even a single mistake can be disastrous. Now, researchers from Japan have found …
'Silent' vultures turn out to use a wide range of sounds to communicate
Vultures were long thought to make few and fairly simple sounds. Yet no one had investigated in detail how the birds use sound to communicate. For his master's thesis in Jorg Mass…
Poor ocean conditions leave murrelet chicks exposed to nest predators for longer
Less favorable ocean conditions mean marbled murrelet chicks take longer to leave the nest, making them more vulnerable to predation, according to a new study of the Pacific North…
Two-in-one tool tracks viral RNA inside live infected cells in real time
Viruses are sneaky intruders, hijacking the internal machinery of host cells and replicating out of sight. Understanding these dynamics is the first step to developing effective a…
Africa's bats could survive climate change—if they can find somewhere to live
Climate change and changes in the way land is used are the two biggest threats to wildlife because they change the environment in which animals survive and thrive. Knowing how spe…
Reindeer grazing changes plant roots in pine forests
Reindeer grazing changes the vegetation of northern pine forests below ground as well as above it. In a recent study in Finland, trees and understory vegetation in grazed forests …
Migratory birds spread avian influenza to Greenland's polar bears
Migrating birds that breed in the Arctic are spreading avian influenza to polar bears in eastern Greenland, according to a new study that found evidence of infections in bear bloo…
Light-based method could offer first way to detect hypothetical 'mirror life'
Scientists have proposed what they believe is the first method for detecting "mirror life"—a hypothetical form of life made from molecular building blocks that are the mirror imag…
South Korea guides crowd-pulling shark out of canal
A shark that has become a viral sensation in South Korea was coaxed out of a canal in which it was stuck, authorities said on Wednesday, as falling temperatures raised concerns fo…
'The fishing's terrible': Deforestation devastates Central African river
Sitting in his narrow dugout canoe, Jean-Romeo Senguemboli frowned at the meager catch in his nets on the Central African Republic's Mbali River, where experts say deforestation i…
Bending a liquid: Liquid membranes flex 100 times more easily than cell membranes
Many structures in biology are bounded by membranes, but not all of them. Droplets of a liquid called a coacervate, which form when oppositely charged molecules come together in w…
Newly identified metabolic pathway helps explain how cold extends lifespan
Moderately cold temperatures have proven to effectively extend lifespan and delay age-related decline in animals. However, how cold temperatures trigger these beneficial effects a…
Scientists reveal how deadly Andes hantavirus attaches to human cells
Earlier this year, an outbreak of Andes hantavirus on a cruise ship, which killed three passengers and sickened 13, highlighted the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the…
How many insects are there—and why do we need them?
There are an estimated 10 quintillion insects alive on Earth at any given time. That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual insects. But how many species are there, why do we nee…
Bering Sea heat wave linked to a surprising boom in the number of hybrid crabs
Marine heat waves are usually seen as destructive events that can disrupt entire ocean ecosystems and trigger massive environmental damage. In 2018 and 2019, an extreme heat wave …
Kissing bugs can spread potentially fatal Chagas disease when dogs eat them
In the southern United States and across Latin America, kissing bugs can bite people and pets both outdoors and when they enter homes. While not every kissing bug carries disease,…
More than a million mice used in Australian research annually, ‘overdue’ study finds
Advocates say having national data about numbers of rats and mice used in research can help boost public trust in scienceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcas…
Giant Jurassic fossil sheds light on the evolution of a six-legged predator
Insects belong to a broader group of six-legged animals called hexapods. This group also includes other less well-known, small animals, including diplurans or two-pronged bristlet…
Beyond infections, bacteria reveal promise for making medicines and protecting crops
Bacteria get a bad reputation—with all the outbreaks, infections and deaths.
Australia urged to put biodiversity at the heart of planning as global targets slip out of reach
The world is falling short of its biodiversity commitments because nature is still treated as an afterthought in decisions about housing, infrastructure, agriculture, energy, mini…
The ocean's most abundant 'loner' microbe has a sticky second life
The oxygen in about every other breath we take comes from microscopic cells—phytoplankton—drifting in the surface of the ocean. Among them is Prochlorococcus, the smallest and mos…
Genomes of 20 eastern Finnish species provide unique insights into species' adaptations to local conditions
In recent years, researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have been both leading and contributing to collaborative genome projects. These efforts have produced reference-q…
South Korea launches new bid to guide crowd-pulling shark to sea
South Korean authorities began a new attempt Wednesday to coax a shark-turned-viral sensation back to sea, with falling temperatures in the Busan canal where it is stranded raisin…