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Humpback whales learn songs in segments – like the verses of a human song – and can remix them, a new study involving University of Queensland research has found.

"Having the sequence of a genome is like having the blueprint of a house," says Natalia de Leon, a professor of agronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

A team of scientists from the Kunming Institute of Botany in China and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena has discovered that parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta (dodder) not only deplete nutrients from their host plants, but also function…

A new species of non-photosynthesizing parasitic plant, Sciaphila sugimotoi, has been discovered on the subtropical island of Ishigaki in Okinawa, Japan. The research team responsible for this discovery was led by Project Associate Professor SUETSUGU Kenji…

Genes do not exist in isolation. Like beads on a string, they sit next to each other on long DNA molecules called chromosomes. So far, little has been known about how the position of a gene on a chromosome affects its evolution. A new study by Calin Guet,…

New research from Australia and Sweden has shown how a dragonfly's brain anticipates the movement of its prey, enabling it to hunt successfully. This knowledge could lead to innovations in fields such as robot vision.

While beneficial microbes are becoming a more common tool in agriculture, their effectiveness in the field is severely blunted thanks to real-world environmental stressors like heat and drought, competition with other microbes, and interactions with the host…

Within the next few decades, human-caused habitat loss looms as the greatest threat to some North American breeding birds. The problem will be most severe on their wintering grounds, according to a new study published today in the journal Global Change…

Researchers have discovered that the fear of predators causes flies to spend less time eating, more time being vigilant, have less sex, and produce fewer offspring. 

Washington State University researchers have developed a way to grow algae more efficiently—in days instead of weeks—and make the algae more viable for several industries, including biofuels.

A fishing crew has reeled in a 926-pound Mako shark, and New Jersey officials say it's the biggest shark catch in the state's history.

Tiny eel-like creatures called nematodes are surrounding us. While they can be free-living (a cup of soil or seawater contains thousands), the most well-known nematodes are the parasitic kind that wreak havoc in people, animals and plants.

Research from the University of Illinois is helping swine producers know what they're getting when they buy soybean meal from different countries. Genetic differences among varieties of soybeans, as well as differences in growing conditions and processing, may…

For the first time, Cornell University researchers are using imaging capabilities at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) to explore how copper affects plant fertility. The work could provide key insights into how plants can be bred for better…

Twenty years ago, microbiologist Barry Goodell, now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues discovered a unique system that some microorganisms use to digest and recycle wood. Three orders of "brown rot fungi" have now been…

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a specific gene in corn that appears to be associated with resistance to two and possibly three different plant leaf diseases.

Glutamate receptors play a central role in the human nervous system. Scientists estimate 90 percent of the human brain's synapses, or connections between neurons, send signals using glutamate. The role of similar receptors in plants, which do not have a…

Using the largest and most informative molecular phylogenetic dataset ever analysed, evolutionary biologists were able to construct a new phylogenetic tree of jawed vertebrates. This new tree resolves several key relationships that have remained controversial,…

South Africa said Monday it is moving ahead with draft regulations for a domestic trade in rhino horn, despite critics' concerns that a legal market will spur rhino poaching.

A team of researchers—including Dr. Lauren Esposito, Curator of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences and colleagues the American Museum of Natural History and Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)—have painstakingly revised a large group of…

Rosie, like a real-life Babe, ran away from an organic piggery when she was only a few days old. She was found wandering in a car park, highly agitated, by a family who took her home and made her their live-in pet. However, after three months they could no…

A team from The University of Western Australia has completed a four month research expedition looking for signs of healthy coral reefs in the remote Kimberley. They observed an unexpectedly high number of sharks in the region, suggesting sharks play a key…

Plants can reprogram their genetic material to mount a defensive response against pathogens, which may have applications for agriculture.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified a novel structure that helps an enzyme solve a challenging biological problem by bobbing like a ship at the surface of the cell membrane. The finding offers a glimpse of how life works at the…

The number of rhinos killed for their horns by poachers in South Africa dipped slightly in the first half of this year, but more than 500 were still slaughtered, the government announced Monday.

Two young elephants washed out to sea were saved from drowning Sunday by the Sri Lankan navy in the second such incident off the island in as many weeks.

Nevada's new toad species is already on the brink of extinction.

Optimization for self-production may explain key features of ribosomes, the protein production factories of the cell, reported researchers from Harvard Medical School in Nature on July 20.

For mice and men, a strength in one area of Darwinian fitness may mean a deficiency in another. A look at Olympic athletes shows that a wrestler is built much differently than a marathoner. It's long been supposed that strength in fighting, or protecting…

Three new species of toads have been discovered living in Nevada's Great Basin in an expansive survey of the 190,000 square mile ancient lake bottom. Discoveries of new amphibians are extremely rare in the United States with only three new frog species…