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When a University of Michigan-led research team reported last year that North American migratory birds have been getting smaller over the past four decades and that their wings have gotten a bit longer, the scientists wondered if they were seeing the…

Researchers from the Miami University in Ohio have optimized a new technique that will allow scientists to evaluate how potential inhibitors work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This technique, called native state mass spectrometry, provides a quick way for…

Adriana Veliz whispered affectionately as she removed a colony of bees from inside a statue in a Mexican backyard—part of her mission to help save them from extinction.

Birds build nests to keep eggs and baby nestlings warm during cool weather, but also make adjustments in nest insulation in such a way the little ones can keep cool in very hot conditions. Mammals, such as rabbits or groundhogs, sleep or hibernate in…

A Connecticut aquarium plans to auction off the chance to name three of its five recently arrived beluga whales to raise money for their care and to offset the cost of transporting them from Canada.

A new study paves the way for the development of next generation therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), the most frequent cause of healthcare-acquired gastrointestinal infections and death in developed…

A new paper in Scientific Reports led by researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science challenges increased salinity and seawater temperatures as the established explanation for a decades-long increase in the prevalence and deadliness of…

Climate warming plays a larger role than plant genes in influencing the number and identity of fungal species on oak leaves, especially in autumn. Recently published in the journal New Phytologist, this research by ecologists sheds light on how warming and…

Food has become one of the major challenges of the 21st century. According to a study carried out by CNRS scientists, an organic, sustainable, biodiversity-friendly agro-food system, could be implemented in Europe and would allow a balanced coexistence between…

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have gained a deeper insight into the intricacies of autophagy, the process in which cells degrade and recycle cellular components. The findings, published in Current Biology, describe how the "trash bags" in a…

Honey bees are the most economically important agricultural pollinators on Earth, but their populations have been in decline for decades. At Indiana University, researchers are investigating how to use the honey bee's natural microbiome to keep them healthy,…

Charles Darwin was a careful scientist. In the middle of the 19th century, while he was collecting evidence for his theory that species evolve by natural selection, he noticed it didn't explain the fancy tails of male peacocks, the antlers paraded by male…

How much do traditional practices contribute to the protection of local biodiversity? Why and how are sacred groves locally valued and protected, and how can this be promoted and harnessed for environmental protection? Working together with the University of…

By cleverly combining complementary sequencing techniques, researchers of Ghent University, together with Baylor College of Medicine and the world's leading sequencing company, Illumina, have deepened the understanding of the function of known RNA molecules…

Farming and agribusiness play a crucial role in sustaining the economies of small towns and rural areas. There is a lot of evidence of this in the economic literature and in the popular media. This dependency has its inherent risks.

Playing recordings of regent honeyeater songs to young honeyeaters before they are released can significantly improve the critically endangered species' chance of survival in the wild, a study involving UNSW has found.

The colonies of social insects are complex systems that are entirely self-organized. Scientists who looked at the demographic, genetic and morphological structure of ant colonies were able to show how this self-organization works in practice. The study was…

Armed with a search warrant, Italy's police wildlife unit entered the house of a suspected cactus trafficker, finding over 1,000 rare cacti poached from Chile's Atacama Desert in a locked room.

The population on Earth is increasingly growing and people are expected to live longer in the future. Thus, better and more reliable therapies to treat human diseases such as Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases are crucial. To cope with the challenge of…

A team led by Prof. Wu Zhengyan from the Institute of Intelligent Machines of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science developed a novel infrared light-responsive controlled-release pesticide system, named HCMs/IMI/PEG/α-CD, to regulate pesticide release and…

Germany is a hotspot for dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) species in Europe, owing to the range of habitats and climates that it provides. While many recent and mostly small-scale studies suggest long-term declines of insect populations in different parts…

Footprints from at least six species of dinosaur—the very last dinosaurs to walk on UK soil 110 million years ago—have been found in Kent, a new report has announced.

Plant cells self-destruct to survive. After detecting a pathogen, they set off a chain reaction that ultimately destroys them, preventing disease from spreading.

Sweet sorghum can be used to produce biogas, biofuels, and novel polymers. In addition, it can help replace phosphate fertilizers. A new sweet sorghum variety developed at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) accumulates particularly high amounts of sugar…

Which trees will survive dry, very hot summers and which will suffer severe damage? Regarding European beech trees, this question may now be answered by genome analyses. A team led by Prof. Dr. Markus Pfenninger, LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity…

Fruit flies have found at least two solutions to the problem of sorting their sex chromosomes: a matter of life and death.

Biologists have identified a family of algae as a living missing link in the microscopic domain.

With high temperatures scorching much of the country, a Kansas State University veterinarian is reminding pet owners that dogs, with that layer of fur, are susceptible to the heat.

New research by University of Liverpool scientists and international collaborators has revealed how the world's smallest diving mammal—the water shrew—evolved to survive for long periods underwater without breathing.

Back in the summers of 2018 and 2019, the shellfish industry in Washington state was rocked by mass mortalities of its crops.