PHYSorg

Giant snails inch across a plate of pumpkin and cucumber in central Thailand, an "organic" diet to tease the prized collagen-rich mucus from the molluscs, which to some cosmetic firms are now more valuable than gold.

When it comes to finding one's way, Garmin, Tom-Tom and Google Maps have got nothing on Mother Nature.

Microbes are master chefs of the biomolecular world; collectively, they harbor the ability to produce a vast array of unknown substances, some of which may have therapeutic or other useful properties. In searching for useful products, a team of chemists at…

Many nocturnal animals including insects use a species-specific smell, that is, a sex pheromone, to locate and attract potential mates. For example, female American cockroaches emit sex pheromones called "periplanones" with unique chemical structures. Males…

A University of Aberdeen scientist will present the findings of a report that shows although climate change is already having an impact on fish and fisheries globally, there is still time for the Scottish fishing industry to get better prepared to adapt to…

Just as steelhead trout migrate from saltwater to freshwater and back, MBARI's Environmental Sample Processors (ESPs)—first developed for research in the ocean—have been getting a lot of use in freshwater over the last five years.

Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection leptospirosis in dogs in Sydney have raised the issue of animal diseases that also affect humans.

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has discovered genome-wide variations in gene expression between male and female mammals. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their RNA sequencing studies…

Researchers have developed a new genome editing technology for rice, combining adenine-to-guanine single-base editing technology and Cas9 with an extended targeting scope. They report that it is possible to efficiently introduce base substitution mutations in…

Non-Mendelian, oligogenic inheritance could be an unrecognized and important element for occurrence of hereditary retinal degenerations (HRDs, comprising retinitis pigmentosa) which are caused by ultra-rare mutations and cause progressive blindness.

Do plant scientists hold the key to saving vulnerable populations in a changing climate? How should plant researchers prepare to deploy their knowledge to maintain food security in the future—as well as to promote renewable energy, sequester carbon pollution…

A dolphin is obviously not a golf ball. However, many scientists believed that the way one slips through the water and the other through the air owed to the same cause: similarities in surface texture and their effect on drag and locomotion.

Peanut growers could someday identify emerging threats such as drought, pests or disease by testing a plant's "chemical breath."

A new study by Alessio Mortelliti, an assistant professor of wildlife habitat ecology at the University of Maine, finds small mammals could affect whether trees spread to new areas in a warming climate.

A team from The University of Manchester have engineered a common gut bacterium to produce a new class of antibiotics by using robotics. These antibiotics, known as class II polyketides, are also naturally produced by soil bacteria and have antimicrobial…

Alexey Moskalev, Ph.D., Head of the Laboratory of Geroprotective and Radioprotective technologies and co-authors from the Institute of biology of Komi Science Center of RAS, the Engelgard's Institute of molecular biology of RAS and Moscow Institute of Physics…

Pork prices have been sent soaring and herds devastated as African swine fever tears through China's massive pig-farming industry, forcing the country to ramp up imports to satisfy demand—but analysts warn worse is yet to come.

Mankind's destruction of nature is driving species to the brink of extinction at an "unprecedented" rate, the leading wildlife conservation body warned Thursday as it added more than 7,000 animals, fish and plants to its endangered "Red List".

Why does it take 200 million sperm to fertilize a single egg?

A computational simulation suggests that insects may be capable of using the properties of light from the sky to determine their compass direction with an error of less than two degrees. Evripidis Gkanias of the University of Edinburgh, U.K., and colleagues…

UCF student Veronica Urgiles has helped describe two new frog species discovered in Ecuador, and she named one of them after one of her professors.

When making decisions that are important to the species' survival, zebrafish choose mating over fleeing from a threat. This decision, different compared to that of some other species, appears to be controlled by specific brain regions that respond to pheromone…

Researchers in the group of Jan Michiels (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology) identified a mechanism of how sleepy bacteria wake up. This finding is important, as sleepy cells are often responsible for the stubbornness of chronic infections. Findings…

Just as lions are apex predators on land, lionfish in Florida are an underwater force to be reckoned with. The biggest threat they pose, however, is not their venomous spines. It is the alarming speed and ferocity with which they invade new waters, eating prey…

The world is filled with millions upon millions of distinct smells, but how mammals' brains evolved to tell them apart is something of a mystery.

A pair of researchers affiliated with Duke University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that great apes tend to bond with one another when they watch a video together. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal…

When tornadoes touch down, we brace for news of property damage, injuries, and loss of life, but the high-speed wind storms wreak environmental havoc, too. They can cut through massive swaths of forest, destroying trees and wildlife habitat, and opening up…

Described in 1981, the genus Biswamoyopterus is regarded as the most mysterious and rarest amongst all flying squirrels. It comprises two large (1.4-1.8 kg) species endemic to southern Asia: the Namdapha flying squirrel (India) and the Laotian giant flying…

An article featured in the journal Weed Science sheds important new light on the genetics and potential control of Palmer amaranth and waterhemp—two troublesome Amaranthus species weeds that are resistant to multiple herbicides.

More than 28,000 species around the world are threatened, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The list, updated on Thursday night, has assessed the extinction risk of almost…