PHYSorg Headline News Reader

Sieve elements are a key component of phloem, the conductive tissue through which plants transport carbohydrates and a wide range of signalling molecules. Elongated cylindrical cells are capped at one end by a sieve plate and arranged end-to-end to form sieve…

In order to stabilize their flight, fruit flies sense the orientation of their bodies every time they beat their wings – one beat about every 4 milliseconds.

Tighter bag limits for fishermen have been identified as an important key to ocean ecosystem conservation.

Heading for a summer picnic or hike, or just out to mow your lawn? In the U.S. Southeast and beyond, you might want to watch where you walk.

Decades of data kept by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are providing valuable information about how seasonal weather patterns affect cattle production.

After probing more than 200 genetic data sets, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a molecular flag that labels genes critical to a cell's function.

The game ranger with a rifle slung across his shoulders follows a bush trail through South Africa's famed Kruger national park, alert to the slightest sound or movement.

Scientists have learned that recent fears of invasive lionfish causing fish poisoning may be unfounded. If so, current efforts to control lionfish by fishing derbies and targeted fisheries may remain the best way to control the invasion. And there's a simple…

A first-of-its-kind study of bigeye tuna movements in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean led by Molly Lutcavage, director of the Large Pelagics Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found among other things that these fish cover a wide…

A little over a decade ago, prestin was found to be a key gene responsible for hearing in mammals. Prestin makes a protein found in the hair cells of the inner ear that contracts and expands rapidly to transmit signals that help the cochlea, like an antique…

In a study published today in Genes & Development, Dr Christian Speck from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre's DNA Replication group, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), New York, reveal the intricate mechanisms involved in the enzyme…

By tracing nearly 3,000 genes to the earliest common ancestor of butterflies and moths, University of Florida scientists have created an extensive "Tree of Lepidoptera" in the first study to use large-scale, next-generation DNA sequencing.

A man has been fined and expelled from Croatia after he punched a Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world's most endangered species, reports said on Thursday.

Alan Turing, the British mathematician (1912-1954), is famous for a number of breakthroughs, which altered the course of the 20th century. In 1936 he published a paper, which laid the foundation of computer science, providing the first formal concept of a…

During the winter of 1944, the Nazis blocked food supplies to the western Netherlands, creating a period of widespread famine and devastation. The impact of starvation on expectant mothers produced one of the first known epigenetic "experiments"—changes…

An international team of scientists from Spain, France, and the U.S. has discovered and described a rove beetle that is the oldest definitive member of the tribe Omaliini that has ever been found in amber. The discovery and description were made possible…

Most people are familiar with Hibiscus flowers- they are an iconic symbol of tropical resorts worldwide where they are commonly planted in the landscape. Some, like Hawaii's State Flower- Hibiscus brackenridgei- are endangered species.

Many people think a snake's forked tongue is creepy. Every so often, the snake waves it around rapidly, then retracts it. Theories explaining the forked tongues of snakes have been around for thousands of years. Aristotle reasoned that it provided snakes with…

While previous studies have shown that marine noise can affect animal movement and communication, with unknown ecological consequences, scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter and the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) CRIOBE in France…

New research has found that dietary specialization among herbivores, specifically caterpillars, indicates whether or not they are better able to hide themselves from predators such as birds. The research suggests those herbivores who dine on a wide variety of…

A small, slow moving resident who enjoys a vegetative diet and keeps things tidy may be the overlooked player in public debates over Florida's ailing freshwater springs, University of Florida researchers say.

Bumblebees are able to connect differences in pollen quality with floral features, like petal colour, and so land only on the flowers that offer the best rewards, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Exeter.

Thai Airways has banned shark fin from its cargo flights as part of a growing global campaign against the popular delicacy in Asia.

Inspired by the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, collaborators from the University of Illinois and National University of Singapore improved a 35-year-old ecology model to better understand how species evolve over decades to millions of…

Everybody knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and now Harvard researchers have evidence that sperm have been taking the familiar axiom to heart.

Adult African penguins communicate using four different vocalizations and juveniles and chicks use two begging calls to request food, according to a study published July 30, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Livio Favaro and colleagues from…

(AP)—A fisherman has caught a rare lobster that's bright orange with dark blue spots.

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have observed a deep-sea octopus brooding its eggs for four and one half years—longer than any other known animal. Throughout this time, the female kept the eggs clean and guarded them from…

A team of biology researchers with members from Australia, the U.S., Czech Republic and the U.K. has found a correlation between eggshell color and thickness and the amount of light that shines on the eggs during incubation. In their paper published in…

A study of dominance in female baboons suggests that the route to a higher rank is to maintain close ties with mom, and to have lots of supportive sisters.