PHYSorg

Who would have suspected that a handheld genetic test used to unmask sushi bars pawning off tilapia for tuna could deliver deep insights into evolution, including how new species emerge?

New Zealand plans to slaughter about 150,000 cows as it tries to eradicate a strain of disease-causing bacteria from the national herd.

More than two thousand volunteers hit the beach on an outlying island of Hong Kong for a mass rubbish clean up Sunday as environment campaigners warned plastic is killing sea turtles and other wildlife.

A baby panda born in a Malaysian zoo five months ago made her public debut Saturday.

A central Montana rancher shot a wolf-like animal after it was spotted in a pasture with livestock, but a closer look prompted state wildlife officials to take DNA samples to determine what type of animal it was.

Chronic diseases like cancer, autoimmune disorders and obesity may ultimately vanquish the efforts of medical intervention unless people change their diet, an Oregon State University biologist argues in a paper published this week.

Alex Betts, Craig MacLean and Kayla King from the Department of Zoology, shed light on their recent research published in Science, which addressed the impact that parasite communities have on evolutionary change and diversity.

Twelve years ago, the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi, originating from the North American East Coast, appeared in northern European waters. Based on the first comprehensive data collection on the occurrence of this invasive jellyfish in Europe, scientists from…

This year's long, hard winter looks like it paid off for Edmonton's coyote population, so people have to step up more than ever to make sure they get along with their four-footed neighbours.

A new method of DNA analysis to help monitor the diversity of UK waters, which could help conserve endangered species, has been pioneered by scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Asking people who want to buy orchids about their preferences when choosing which plants to buy has revealed that many unknowingly buy wild, possibly endangered orchids, when they would be just as happy to buy commercially grown plants that meet their…

There's plenty of fish in the sea for human fisherman and bottlenose dolphins to feast on and now, according to a study by researchers at Stony Brook University published in Marine Mammal Science , both species are using a New York artificial reef at the same…

A team of researchers, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has succeeded in developing new air purification technology to eradicate airborne viruses.

Scientists have unraveled how the cell replication process destabilizes when it has more, or less, than a pair of chromosome sets, each of which is called a genome—a major step toward understanding chromosome instability in cancer cells.

Humans aren't the only earth-bound organisms that need to take their vitamins. Thiamine – commonly known as vitamin B1 – is vital to the survival of most every living thing on earth. But the average bacterium or plant can't just run to the local drugstore…

Magpies that live at airports are less likely to flee from aircraft noise than those that live elsewhere, according to our research. But it is unclear whether this makes them more likely to be involved in a collision.

Xanthomonas citri, the bacterium that causes citrus canker, a disease responsible for major damage to lemon and orange groves in worldwide scale, has a veritable arsenal of weapons to overcome constant competition with other bacterial species and ward off…

The world of reptiles may well include creatures that are more spectacular than the Gehyra variegata, but nevertheless, this small nocturnal gecko has managed to make a couple of fascinating new contributions to the discussion about the ecological consequences…

Toxic substances, nutrient shortage, viral infection, heat and many other events trigger stress responses in cells. In such cases, the affected cells launch a programme which tries to protect them against stress-related damages. They usually ramp down the…

All plants require an adequate supply of inorganic nutrients, such as fixed nitrogen (usually in the form of ammonia or nitrate), for growth. A special group of flowering plants thus depends on close symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria as a…

A conservation agency has constructed what is believed to be the world's longest cat-proof fence in central Australia to save native wildlife and vegetation ravaged by the feline predators.

Iridescence is a form of structural colour which uses regular repeating nanostructures to reflect light at slightly different angles, causing a colour-change effect.

Public lands managers are losing a battle against a devastating combination of invasive plant species and wildfires in the vast sagebrush habitats in the U.S. West that support cattle ranching and recreation and are home to an imperiled bird, officials said.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found a correlation between a strong immune response in diseased corals and a lower expression of genes associated with growth and reproduction.

Louis the young stork came into the world on a birch tree in Radolfzell on Lake Constance six or seven weeks ago. Until this day in June 2014, he has only known his parents and three siblings. But suddenly, strange beings have appeared at the nest and take the…

Fluffy white weasels that once frolicked in snowy fields unnoticed now have a target on their back thanks to global warming, scientists said Thursday.

Boldness correlates with the mating success, but not body size or sex, of yellow-spotted monitor lizards roaming the remote Oombulgurri floodplains of tropical Western Australia, ecologists report in the Ecological Society of America's open access journal…

Understanding the evolution of a 400 million-year-old anti-viral protein that first emerged in marine life, is helping researchers get the upper-hand on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Earlier this year, the last remaining male Northern White Rhinoceros (NWR) died in captivity, nearly cementing the fate of this subspecies for extinction. In the wild, continuing threats of poaching, habitat destruction, and small population size have…

Young mongooses learn lifelong habits from role models rather than inheriting them from genetic parents, new research shows.Banded mongooses live in social groups where pups are consistently cared for one-to-one by a single adult known as an "escort—not…