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Almost four years after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, farmland remains contaminated with higher-than-natural levels of radiocesium in some regions of Japan, with cesium-134 and cesium-137 being the most troublesome because…

Ignoring the wintering ranges of migratory birds when studying their populations is like doing a puzzle with half of the pieces missing. In a new Review published this week in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, Jeffrey Hostetler and his colleagues show how…

When it comes to gene expression - the process by which our DNA provides the recipe used to direct the synthesis of proteins and other molecules that we need for development and survival - scientists have so far studied one single gene at a time. A new…

Researchers with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership that includes the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, have found a way to increase the production of fuels and other…

A deadly fungus responsible for the extinction of more than 200 amphibian species worldwide has coexisted harmlessly with animals in Illinois and Korea for more than a century, a pair of studies have found.

The EU will consider a ban on animal experimentation after receiving a petition with 1.1 million names from an anti-vivisection group, officials said Wednesday.

Breeding dogs on the basis of a single genetic test carries risks and may not improve the health of pedigree lines, experts warn.

A new study led by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), University of Montana, Qinghai Forestry Bureau, Keke Xili National Nature Reserve, and other groups finds that climate change and past hunting in the remote Tibetan Plateau is forcing female wild yaks…

One of the first studies to map the impact of deforestation on biodiversity across entire regions of the Amazon has found a clear 'threshold' for forest cover below which species loss becomes more rapid and widespread.

A species of fish that normally eats smaller fish changes in predictable ways when isolated from its prey, research led by a Case Western Reserve University biologist found.

Just when you thought hurricanes couldn't get any scarier, think again.

Scientists discovered a new retrovirus "fossil" found in the common vampire bat which is homologous to retroviruses in rodents and primates. The results suggest the recent circulation of an active infectious retrovirus and cross-species transmission. The study…

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers at Texas A&M University has found a way to control the path a cockroach takes as it walks using wireless technology. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the team, made up of mechanical…

Forest scientists at the University of British Columbia believe they've discovered the root cause of a deadly tree fungus: extra genes.

Scientists have discovered a new species of titi monkey in Brazil, according to a recent paper published in scientific journal Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.

(Phys.org)—Is there a way to peer inside the nucleus of a living cell and see how the genes interact? After the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2001, researchers have focused on epigenetic factors, spatial orientation, and non-coding repeated…

Scientists from the universities of Granada and Warwick have published an article in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), in which they suggest one possible answer for the enigma of stability in complex ecosystems like the Amazon…

Leftover plant matter from the production of palm oil could provide a generous source for making biofuels and environmentally friendly plastics. Researchers from A*STAR have developed a fungal culture for use in a cheap and efficient method to transform the…

The fact that fish choose their food based on what colours they can see, as opposed to how it tastes, is an inherited trait that could have implications for the evolution in the animal kingdom, new Deakin University research has found.

A University of South Florida College of Public Health professor and his team of researchers have become the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which malaria-related parasites spread at explosive and deadly rates inside humans and other…

A novel strategy to enhance genome editing promises to increase the efficiency of making genetic improvements in a wide range of organisms, a new study suggests.

Mexico's recent decision to buy-out gillnet fisheries in the upper Gulf of California may give one of the world's rarest species the breathing space it needs to survive. Time is still ticking, but the move provides hope for the world's smallest porpoise and…

Aenigmatinea glatzella – which has iridescent gold and purple wings – is a 'living dinosaur' that represents an entirely new family of primitive moths. This is the first time since the 1970s that a new family of primitive moths has been identified anywhere…

Like a master painter who uses the same brush techniques to continually create original works of art, evolution has produced unique species to fill new or vacated ecological functions by tinkering with just a few basic body plans that have changed little in…

Close to 700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia because overpopulation led to the animals starving, an official said Wednesday, sparking claims of mismanagement.

A man who jumped off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to try to take his own life and was kept afloat by a sea lion said Wednesday suicide prevention was now his life's work.

A pair of endangered blue macaws of the kind made famous by the hit animated "Rio" movies arrived in Brazil from Germany on Tuesday as part of a drive to ensure the bird's survival.

Researchers have discovered a network of viruses, which were previously associated with managed honeybees, may now pose a widespread risk to bumblebees in the wild, according to a new study published today (Wednesday 4 March) in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

High up in the high Andes mountains of Argentina, researchers have identified the first-ever evidence of a population uniquely adapted to tolerate the toxic chemical arsenic.

Temple University researchers have assembled the largest and most accurate tree of life calibrated to time, and surprisingly, it reveals that life has been expanding at a constant rate.