Biology
Only 9% of major companies use biodiversity indicators, study finds
Biodiversity indicators can help companies make more sustainable decisions. But only 9% of the world's largest companies in sectors with a major impact on biodiversity use such in…
The genetic switch behind the butterfly's enhanced visual world of color
Many insects see the world through hundreds of tiny lenses that are grouped together in a visual organ known as the compound eye. Behind each lens sits a cluster of eight light-de…
Cows deliver healthy calves without embryonic protein long thought essential for pregnancy
For decades, scientists have believed that a protein called interferon tau (IFNT) is indispensable for pregnancy in cattle. Produced by the early embryo, it was thought to signal …
Chance Instagram sighting leads to discovery of rare giant water lily in Colombia
A new paper published in the journal Phytotaxa describes a new species in the genus Victoria, the Colombian giant water lily (Victoria colombiana). With only three other known spe…
Bees struggle to smell flowers when air pollutants combine
Bees, moths and other pollinating insects have a harder time smelling flowers in polluted air, according to research led by the University of Reading. Scientists analyzed 22 exper…
Fossil bite marks suggest first evidence of a small raptor feeding on an apex predator
A prehistoric cold case near Drumheller reveals either a small-time raptor scavenged on an apex predator, or a baby Albertosaurus engaged in a shocking act of cannibalism. These t…
New 'computational microscope' simulates DNA packaging at more than ten times previous scale
The DNA in our cells wraps around proteins called histones to form nucleosomes, which organize into chromatin. This organization helps pack genetic material into the nucleus and i…
Nitrogen fixation 'off switch' discovery could one day help crops make their own fertilizer
Nitrogen is essential for life. It's needed to build proteins, DNA and many other components of cells. Although nitrogen gas makes up almost 80% of Earth's atmosphere, most organi…
How enzyme activity can accelerate molecular movement inside cells
A cell sitting in fluid looks like one of the most passive things in biology. Nutrients drift toward it on the aimless currents of molecular motion, and now and then one bumps int…
Tracking down cellular gene functions with AI and microscopy
A new technology promises to enable more comprehensive investigations into how individual genes determine the appearance and behavior of cells. Researchers led by professor Veit H…
3D-printed inserts bring single-objective light sheet microscopy to commercial sample chambers
Light sheet microscopy allows biologists to selectively light up a thin slice of a sample. This method can improve image contrast by reducing background light while remaining gent…
Hearing tests reveal how sea lions and fur seals hear human-made noise
Curtin University and Taronga Conservation Society Australia researchers have conducted the first hearing tests on Australian sea lions and long-nosed fur seals, revealing what so…
Why 'vertical farming' is not a fix for our food system
The Canadian government launched its first National Food Security Strategy in June 2026. The strategy aims to invest $750 million to increase year-round Canadian production of fru…
Are insects really 'poor people's food'?
Do people eat insects when there is nothing else to eat? Are insects really "food for the poor" or famine food?
Fading control over 'jumping genes' may explain why big dogs age faster
Across mammals, larger species typically have longer lifespans, ranging from only a couple of years for mice to almost 200 years for some whales.
Astronomers detect mysterious burst of energy from a galaxy far, far away
Intense flash of radio waves is more than 10bn years old and has travelled through ‘approximately 80% of cosmic history’A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a mysterious fla…
Mapping how a single cell becomes an entire mouse
Growing inside each of us is a cellular family tree. Every one of the 37 trillion cells in our body is generated from another cell, going all the way back to a single fertilized e…
'Move away' and 'stop that!' Wild elephants use a rich gestural repertoire intentionally to 'mean business'
Wild African savanna elephants use a wide range of gestures when competing with other elephants, according to research from an international group of scientists, including researc…
All-electrical imaging offers innovative alternative for tracking cell movement
Engineers from Brown University have developed a new way of imaging cell migration dynamics that are important in understanding critical processes like cancer metastasis, wound he…
One ancient swimming mammal fossil and two evolutionary surprises, including a third set of teeth
What may have looked like a cross between a platypus and a beaverlike rodent and lived around 120 million years ago? Dongoconodon platycauda, a newly discovered fossil mammal from…
Puerto Rico specimen reveals new giant isopod species that went unrecognized for decades
A giant isopod from Puerto Rico, rediscovered in the depository of the University of Tübingen's Paleontological Collection, has turned out to be a previously unknown species.
Four astronauts return to Earth from ISS after medical relief mission
Crew hurried to International Space Station eight months ago after astronaut fell ill in spaceFour astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday af…
700,000-year-old elephant tooth reveals a lost ecosystem shared by early humans in the Levant
A remarkably preserved elephant tooth previously recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA)—a prehistoric site in northern Israel where early humans made stone tools some 700,0…
World must seize shrinking window to save nature as wildlife decline continues, warns major report
The world must seize a shrinking window to reverse the steep decline of wildlife and nature by triggering positive tipping points in food and finance, following the path of the on…