Yearly Archives: 2007

Huge New Dinosaur Had A Serious Bite:

The newest dinosaur species to emerge from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument had some serious bite, according to researchers from the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah.

New Species Of Frog Discovered: Smallest Indian Land Vertebrate:

The India’s smallest land vertebrate, a 10-millimeter frog, has been discovered from the Western Ghats of Kerala by Delhi University Systematics Biologist, S D Biju and his colleagues.

No Faking It, Crocodile Tears Are Real:

When someone feigns sadness they “cry crocodile tears,” a phrase that comes from an old myth that the animals cry while eating. Now, a University of Florida researcher has concluded that crocodiles really do bawl while banqueting – but for physiological reasons rather than rascally reptilian remorse.

Sea Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction But Other Species At Risk In Canada:

There’s good news and bad news in the report the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) just dropped on the Minister of the Environment’s desk.

New Suspect Identified In West Nile Deaths Of Pelicans:

Stable flies are the latest suspect that may be involved in the West Nile virus deaths of hundreds of pelican chicks at the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Montana. West Nile virus killed 800 to 1,000 pelican chicks in 2003, averaged 400 in each of the next three summers and more than 600 this year.

Individual Differences Caused By Shuffled Chunks Of DNA In The Human Genome:

A study by Yale researchers offers a new view of what causes the greatest genetic variability among individuals — suggesting that it is due less to single point mutations than to the presence of structural changes that cause extended segments of the human genome to be missing, rearranged, or present in extra copies.

How ‘Mother Of Thousands’ Makes Baby Plants:

New research shows how the houseplant “mother of thousands” (Kalanchoe diagremontiana) makes the tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves. Having lost the ability to make viable seeds, the plant has shifted some of the processes that make seeds to the leaves, said Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis.

Red Wine Ingredient — Resveratrol — Fights Diabetes In Mice:

Even relatively low doses of resveratrol–a chemical found in the skins of red grapes and in red wine–can improve the sensitivity of mice to the hormone insulin, according to a new report. As insulin resistance is often characterized as the most critical factor contributing to the development of type 2 diabetes, the findings “provide a potential new therapeutic approach for preventing or treating” both conditions, the researchers said.

In Dogs, A Shortcut To Mapping Disease Genes:

Nearly two years ago, Broad Institute researchers and their colleagues announced they had successfully decoded the genome of the domestic dog, a species coaxed into hundreds of distinct types through selective breeding by humans over the past two centuries.

Dogs That Bite Children Have Often Not Bitten Kids Before:

Dogs that bite children have often not bitten kids before, but they tend to have underlying behavioural or medical problems, indicates research in the journal Injury Prevention.

Biologists Close In On Mystery Of Sea Turtles’ ‘Lost Years’:

Biologists have found a major clue in a 50-year-old mystery about what happens to green sea turtles after they crawl out of their sandy nests and vanish into the surf, only to reappear several years later relatively close to shore.

Of Mice And Men: New Male Contraceptives Successful In Rodents And Humans:

Pills, sponges, IUDs, diaphragms — women have many options for planning their fertility, none of them quite perfect. But what if men want to help out? They have only two options — vasectomy, which is usually permanent, and condoms, which are crucial for dating but get old in long-term relationships. Will men ever have a way to reliably make sure that nobody is every calling them “Daddy” before they are ready?

There are 37 new articles on PLoS ONE today, breaking the 1000 barrier! Yes, there are now more than a thousand papers on ONE. And this week is again an embarassment of riches – so many bloggable papers! And here are some of my quick picks for this week – read them, rate them, annotate them, blog about them:
Composition and Hierarchical Organisation of a Spider Silk:

Albeit silks are fairly well understood on a molecular level, their hierarchical organisation and the full complexity of constituents in the spun fibre remain poorly defined. Here we link morphological defined structural elements in dragline silk of Nephila clavipes to their biochemical composition and physicochemical properties. Five layers of different make-ups could be distinguished. Of these only the two core layers contained the known silk proteins, but all can vitally contribute to the mechanical performance or properties of the silk fibre. Understanding the composite nature of silk and its supra-molecular organisation will open avenues in the production of high performance fibres based on artificially spun silk material.

Sexual Risk Factors for HIV Infection in Early and Advanced HIV Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Overview of 68 Epidemiological Studies:

It is commonly assumed that sexual risk factors for heterosexual HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, such as multi-partner sex, paid sex and co-infections, become less important as HIV epidemics mature and prevalence increases.
We conducted a systematic review of 68 African epidemiological studies from 1986 to 2006 involving 17,000 HIV positive adults and 73,000 controls. We used random-effects methods and stratified results by gender, time, background HIV prevalence rates and other variables. The number of sex partners, history of paid sex, and infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) or other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) each showed significant associations with HIV infection. Among the general population, the odds ratio (OR) of HIV infection for women reporting 3+ sex partners versus 0-2 was 3.64 (95%CI [2.87-4.62]), with similar risks for men. About 9% of infected women reported ever having been paid for sex, versus 4% of control women (OR = 2.29, [1.45-3.62]). About 31% of infected men reported ever paying for sex versus 18% of uninfected men (OR = 1.75, [1.30-2.36]). HSV-2 infection carried the largest risk of HIV infection: OR = 4.62, [2.85-7.47] in women, and OR = 6.97, [4.68-10.38] in men. These risks changed little over time and stratification by lower and higher HIV background prevalence showed that risk ratios for most variables were larger in high prevalence settings. Among uninfected controls, the male-female differences in the number of sex partners and in paid sex were more extreme in the higher HIV prevalence settings than in the lower prevalence settings.
Multi-partner sex, paid sex, STIs and HSV-2 infection are as important to HIV transmission in advanced as in early HIV epidemics. Even in high prevalence settings, prevention among people with high rates of partner change, such as female sex workers and their male clients, is likely to reduce transmission overall.

Inflated Impact Factors? The True Impact of Evolutionary Papers in Non-Evolutionary Journals:

Amongst the numerous problems associated with the use of impact factors as a measure of quality are the systematic differences in impact factors that exist among scientific fields. While in theory this can be circumvented by limiting comparisons to journals within the same field, for a diverse and multidisciplinary field like evolutionary biology, in which the majority of papers are published in journals that publish both evolutionary and non-evolutionary papers, this is impossible. However, a journal’s overall impact factor may well be a poor predictor for the impact of its evolutionary papers. The extremely high impact factors of some multidisciplinary journals, for example, are by many believed to be driven mostly by publications from other fields. Despite plenty of speculation, however, we know as yet very little about the true impact of evolutionary papers in journals not specifically classified as evolutionary. Here I present, for a wide range of journals, an analysis of the number of evolutionary papers they publish and their average impact. I show that there are large differences in impact among evolutionary and non-evolutionary papers within journals; while the impact of evolutionary papers published in multidisciplinary journals is substantially overestimated by their overall impact factor, the impact of evolutionary papers in many of the more specialized, non-evolutionary journals is significantly underestimated. This suggests that, for evolutionary biologists, publishing in high-impact multidisciplinary journals should not receive as much weight as it does now, while evolutionary papers in more narrowly defined journals are currently undervalued. Importantly, however, their ranking remains largely unaffected. While journal impact factors may thus indeed provide a meaningful qualitative measure of impact, a fair quantitative comparison requires a more sophisticated journal classification system, together with multiple field-specific impact statistics per journal.

Ant Species Differences Determined by Epistasis between Brood and Worker Genomes:

Epistasis arising from physiological interactions between gene products often contributes to species differences, particularly those involved in reproductive isolation. In social organisms, phenotypes are influenced by the genotypes of multiple interacting individuals. In theory, social interactions can give rise to an additional type of epistasis between the genomes of social partners that can contribute to species differences. Using a full-factorial cross-fostering design with three species of closely related Temnothorax ants, I found that adult worker size was determined by an interaction between the genotypes of developing brood and care-giving workers, i.e. intergenomic epistasis. Such intergenomic social epistasis provides a strong signature of coevolution between social partners. These results demonstrate that just as physiologically interacting genes coevolve, diverge, and contribute to species differences, so do socially interacting genes. Coevolution and conflict between social partners, especially relatives such as parents and offspring, has long been recognized as having widespread evolutionary effects. This coevolutionary process may often result in coevolved socially-interacting gene complexes that contribute to species differences.

Phylogeny, Diet, and Cranial Integration in Australodelphian Marsupials:

Studies of morphological integration provide valuable information on the correlated evolution of traits and its relationship to long-term patterns of morphological evolution. Thus far, studies of morphological integration in mammals have focused on placentals and have demonstrated that similarity in integration is broadly correlated with phylogenetic distance and dietary similarity. Detailed studies have also demonstrated a significant correlation between developmental relationships among structures and adult morphological integration. However, these studies have not yet been applied to marsupial taxa, which differ greatly from placentals in reproductive strategy and cranial development and could provide the diversity necessary to assess the relationships among phylogeny, ecology, development, and cranial integration. This study presents analyses of morphological integration in 20 species of australodelphian marsupials, and shows that phylogeny is significantly correlated with similarity of morphological integration in most clades. Size-related correlations have a significant affect on results, particularly in Peramelia, which shows a striking decrease in similarity of integration among species when size is removed. Diet is not significantly correlated with similarity of integration in any marsupial clade. These results show that marsupials differ markedly from placental mammals in the relationships of cranial integration, phylogeny, and diet, which may be related to the accelerated development of the masticatory apparatus in marsupials.

Effects of Insemination Quantity on Honey Bee Queen Physiology:

Mating has profound effects on the physiology and behavior of female insects, and in honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens, these changes are permanent. Queens mate with multiple males during a brief period in their early adult lives, and shortly thereafter they initiate egg-laying. Furthermore, the pheromone profiles of mated queens differ from those of virgins, and these pheromones regulate many different aspects of worker behavior and colony organization. While it is clear that mating causes dramatic changes in queens, it is unclear if mating number has more subtle effects on queen physiology or queen-worker interactions; indeed, the effect of multiple matings on female insect physiology has not been broadly addressed. Because it is not possible to control the natural mating behavior of queens, we used instrumental insemination and compared queens inseminated with semen from either a single drone (single-drone inseminated, or SDI) or 10 drones (multi-drone inseminated, or MDI). We used observation hives to monitor attraction of workers to SDI or MDI queens in colonies, and cage studies to monitor the attraction of workers to virgin, SDI, and MDI queen mandibular gland extracts (the main source of queen pheromone). The chemical profiles of the mandibular glands of virgin, SDI, and MDI queens were characterized using GC-MS. Finally, we measured brain expression levels in SDI and MDI queens of a gene associated with phototaxis in worker honey bees (Amfor). Here, we demonstrate for the first time that insemination quantity significantly affects mandibular gland chemical profiles, queen-worker interactions, and brain gene expression. Further research will be necessary to elucidate the mechanistic bases for these effects: insemination volume, sperm and seminal protein quantity, and genetic diversity of the sperm may all be important factors contributing to this profound change in honey bee queen physiology, queen behavior, and social interactions in the colony.

The Genetic Signature of Sex-Biased Migration in Patrilocal Chimpanzees and Humans:

A large body of theoretical work suggests that analyses of variation at the maternally inherited mitochondrial (mt)DNA and the paternally inherited non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) are a potentially powerful way to reveal the differing migratory histories of men and women across human societies. However, the few empirical studies comparing mtDNA and NRY variation and known patterns of sex-biased migration have produced conflicting results. Here we review some methodological reasons for these inconsistencies, and take them into account to provide an unbiased characterization of mtDNA and NRY variation in chimpanzees, one of the few mammalian taxa where males routinely remain in and females typically disperse from their natal groups. We show that patterns of mtDNA and NRY variation are more strongly contrasting in patrilocal chimpanzees compared with patrilocal human societies. The chimpanzee data we present here thus provide a valuable comparative benchmark of the patterns of mtDNA and NRY variation to be expected in a society with extremely female-biased dispersal.

Non-Invasive In Vivo Imaging of Calcium Signaling in Mice:

Rapid and transient elevations of Ca2+ within cellular microdomains play a critical role in the regulation of many signal transduction pathways. Described here is a genetic approach for non-invasive detection of localized Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]) rises in live animals using bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Transgenic mice conditionally expressing the Ca2+-sensitive bioluminescent reporter GFP-aequorin targeted to the mitochondrial matrix were studied in several experimental paradigms. Rapid [Ca2+] rises inside the mitochondrial matrix could be readily detected during single-twitch muscle contractions. Whole body patterns of [Ca2+] were monitored in freely moving mice and during epileptic seizures. Furthermore, variations in mitochondrial [Ca2+] correlated to behavioral components of the sleep/wake cycle were observed during prolonged whole body recordings of newborn mice. This non-invasive imaging technique opens new avenues for the analysis of Ca2+ signaling whenever whole body information in freely moving animals is desired, in particular during behavioral and developmental studies.

Design and Pre-Clinical Evaluation of a Universal HIV-1 Vaccine:

One of the big roadblocks in development of HIV-1/AIDS vaccines is the enormous diversity of HIV-1, which could limit the value of any HIV-1 vaccine candidate currently under test.
To address the HIV-1 variation, we designed a novel T cell immunogen, designated HIVCONSV, by assembling the 14 most conserved regions of the HIV-1 proteome into one chimaeric protein. Each segment is a consensus sequence from one of the four major HIV-1 clades A, B, C and D, which alternate to ensure equal clade coverage. The gene coding for the HIVCONSV protein was inserted into the three most studied vaccine vectors, plasmid DNA, human adenovirus serotype 5 and modified vaccine virus Ankara (MVA), and induced HIV-1-specific T cell responses in mice. We also demonstrated that these conserved regions prime CD8+ and CD4+ T cell to highly conserved epitopes in humans and that these epitopes, although usually subdominant, generate memory T cells in patients during natural HIV-1 infection.
Therefore, this vaccine approach provides an attractive and testable alternative for overcoming the HIV-1 variability, while focusing T cell responses on regions of the virus that are less likely to mutate and escape. Furthermore, this approach has merit in the simplicity of design and delivery, requiring only a single immunogen to provide extensive coverage of global HIV-1 population diversity.

My picks for today:
Segregation of Odor Identity and Intensity during Odor Discrimination in Drosophila Mushroom Body:

Considerable progress has been made in understanding how olfaction works as the receptor proteins, sensory neurons, and brain circuitry responsible have become increasingly well-characterized. However, olfactory processing in higher brain centers, where neuronal activity is assembled into the perception of odor quality, is poorly understood. Here, we have addressed how the mushroom body (MB)–a secondary olfactory center–is involved in olfactory discrimination. We manipulated the MB by ablation, disruption of synaptic transmission, and interruption of key cellular signaling molecules in naïve flies and in flies trained to discriminate odors. We first show that although both odor identity and intensity are encoded in the MB, only the former requires Gαq-dependent signaling and is necessary for naïve flies to spontaneously discriminate different odors. We then show that training flies to alter their olfactory response requires Gαs-mediated signaling in MB for both odor intensity and odor identity. We have thus identified (i) segregation of odor identity and odor intensity at the MB level in naïve flies and (ii) different G-protein-dependent signaling pathways for spontaneous versus experience-dependent olfactory discrimination.

Viral Evolution in the Genomic Age:

Genome sequence data will undoubtedly deliver much to the study of viral pathogens and their diseases. A prominent example of this new genomic perspective is influenza A virus, for which a large-scale genome sequencing project begun in the year 2005 has, to date, generated around 2,500 complete viral genomes [1]. While this alone is newsworthy, the rise of rapid, high-throughput genome “pyrosequencing” promises to take the production of viral genomes to a level once unimaginable [2].

Saber-toothed Cat Was More Like A Pussycat Than A Tiger:

In public imagination, the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon ranks alongside Tyrannosaurus rex as the ultimate killing machine. Powerfully built, with upper canines like knives, Smilodon was a fearsome predator of Ice-Age America’s lost giants. For more than 150 years, scientists have debated how this iconic predator used its ferocious fangs to kill its prey. Now a new Australian study, published recently in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, hopes to lay the arguments to rest. And the results will put in dent in Smilodon’s reputation.

Thriving Hybrid Salamanders Contradict Common Wisdom:

A new UC Davis study not only has important findings for the future of California tiger salamanders, but also contradicts prevailing scientific thought about what happens when animal species interbreed.

Three-way Mating Game Of North American Lizard Found In Distant European Relative:

An intricate three-way mating struggle first observed in a species of North American lizard has been discovered in a distant relative, the European common lizard. The two species are separated by 5,000 miles and 175 million years of evolution, yet they share behavioral and reproductive details right down to the gaudy colors of the males, according to new research published in the November issue of American Naturalist.

Saving Microscopic Threatened Species:

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo recently acquired 12,000 new animals–microscopic Elkhorn coral larvae harvested by National Zoo scientists in Puerto Rico–as part of an international collaborative program to raise the threatened species. National Zoo scientists hope to one day return the animals, once they are grown, to their wild ocean habitat.

Saltwater Crocodiles Can Find Their Way Home:

Three crocodiles relocated from their homes in Far North Queensland have been tracked swimming between 10 and 30 kilometres per day according to a collaborative research project by The University of Queensland, Australia Zoo and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
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The results highlighted the success of satellite tracking for crocodiles allowing continuous tracking without human interference.
Professor Franklin said “Satellite technology is a great way of tracking these really cryptic animals which are difficult to follow.
“The success of the study was also recognition of the skills and knowledge that Steve Irwin brought to the project.”
He said Steve Irwin was a major driving force behind the study, and his intellectual and logistical support complimented the knowledge, experience and contributions made by the other team members.
“He also gave us the assistance of the croc team from Australia Zoo, who are highly skilled in the capture and care of crocodiles.”
All three monitored crocodiles were moved by helicopter between 52 and 130 kilometres away but still found their way back to their capture sites. One crocodile was flown across Cape York Peninsula from the west to east coast, and then circumnavigated the peninsula to return home.
He said crocodiles probably used many factors such as its position to the sun, magnetic fields, sight, and smell to navigate.

Sea Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction But Other Species At Risk In Canada:

There’s good news and bad news in the report the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) just dropped on the Minister of the Environment’s desk.

Chesapeake Bay’s Habitats Threatened By Global Warming:

A new report on the impact of global warming on the Chesapeake Bay calls for a major shift in how land is managed in the bay to protect the nation’s most prized hunting and fishing grounds.

Surprise In The Organic Orchard — A Healthier Worm In The Apple:

Insects can catch more than a cold from certain viruses. Some viruses can be lethal to pest species – turning their insides to soup – without harming beneficial insects or other organisms. Hence they are used as an environmentally friendly means of biological crop protection worldwide. The proverbial worm in the apple, the codling moth caterpillar, has been controlled in European orchards for years with a baculovirus called codling moth granulovirus (CpGV). But in southwest Germany, some organic apple growers noticed that the virus was losing its effectiveness. Pest resistance to chemical insecticides is common in agriculture, but resistance to viruses had never been a problem in the past.

Going Fishing? Catch-and-release In Less Than Four Minutes, Please:

Recreational fishing that involves catch-and-release may seem like just good fun, and that released fish go on to live happily ever after, but a recent study at the University of Illinois shows that improper handling techniques by anglers can increase the likelihood of released fish being caught by predators.

Does The Victim Affect Snake Venom Composition?:

A snake’s intended prey might affect the type and evolution of toxins in their venom, research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology shows. In snakes, venom composition varies both between species and within a particular species. Land snakes feed on a range of animals and birds, so scientists think that these snakes need a diverse array of toxins in their venom. Sea snakes, on the other hand, tend to have a more restricted diet, feeding only on fish. The toxins in these snakes have now been shown to be less diverse than those in terrestrial snakes.

Tiny Animals Exposed To Outer Space:

“For the first time ever, animals are now being exposed to an unmitigated space environment, with both vacuum conditions and cosmic radiation,” says the ecologist Ingemar Jönsson, a researcher at Kristianstad University in Sweden. One of the aims of sending the tiny tardigrades into space is to find out whether they can cope with the rugged conditions in space, which has previously been predicted but never tested.

Antarctic Plants And Animal Life Survived Ice Ages:

Springtails, mites, worms and plant life could help solve the mystery of Antarctica’s glacial history according to new research published in the journal Science.

Fish Diet Linked To Evolution, Ten Million Year Old Chipped Teeth Show:

Chips from 10 million years ago have revealed new insights into fish diets and their influence on fish evolution, according to new research featured in this week’s issue of the journal Science. The chips were found, along with scratches, on the teeth of fossil stickleback fish and reveal for the first time how changes in the way an animal feeds control its evolution over thousands of years.

Does Your Mood Take A Nosedive Each November?:

If you notice that your mood, energy level and motivation take a nosedive each November only to return to normal in April, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), according to Loyola University Health System doctors.

Hormone-driven Effects On Eating, Stress Mediated By Same Brain Region:

A hormone system linked to reducing food consumption appears to do so by increasing stress-related behaviors, according to a new study. Mediated by a hormone receptor protein known as the corticotropin-releasing factor type 2 (CRF2) receptor, the system has attracted recent interest for its role in regulating food intake, say Vaishali Bakshi and Ned Kalin, professors in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Program Provides Blueprint For Recruiting Minorities To Science And Engineering:

The Model Institutions for Excellence Program (MIE) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a body of work over the past 11 years demonstrating successful strategies for recruiting underrepresented minority students to science and engineering fields and supporting their successful completion of science degrees.

Babies Raised In Bilingual Homes Learn New Words Differently Than Infants Learning One Language:

Research on the learning process for acquiring two languages from birth found differences in how bilingual babies learned words compared to monolingual babies. The research suggests that bilingual babies follow a slightly different pattern when using detailed sound information to learn differences between words.

Altruism Evolved From Maternal Behavior, Wasp Genetics Study Suggests:

Researchers at the University of Illinois have used an innovative approach to reveal the molecular basis of altruistic behavior in wasps. The research team focused on the expression of behavior-related genes in Polistes metricus paper wasps, a species for which little genetic data was available when the study was begun. Like honey bee workers, wasp workers give up their reproductive capabilities and focus entirely on nurturing their larval siblings, a practice that seems to defy the Darwinian prediction that a successful organism strives, above all else, to reproduce itself. Such behaviors are indicative of a eusocial society, in which some individuals lose, or sacrifice, their reproductive functions and instead work to benefit the larger group.

City Birds Better Than Rural Species In Coping With Human Disruption:

Birds that hang out in large urban areas seem to have a marked advantage over their rural cousins — they are adaptable enough to survive in a much larger range of conditions.

Crabs Prefer A Take-out Meal:

Shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) catch their food at food-rich spots and subsequently eat it elsewhere. With this take-out strategy the crabs maximise their food uptake and keep competing crabs at a distance, says Dutch researcher Isabel Smallegange.

Is There Any Validity To The So-called 5-second Rule?:

If a piece of toast fell on the floor, would you pick it up and eat it? You probably would if you believe in the 5-second rule, which suggests that your spilled breakfast stays germ-free as long as you snatch it up in five seconds.

Cockroaches Are Morons In The Morning, Geniuses In The Evening:

In its ability to learn, the cockroach is a moron in the morning and a genius in the evening. Dramatic daily variations in the cockroach’s learning ability were discovered by a new study performed by Vanderbilt University biologists and published online recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DNA Extracted From Woolly Mammoth Hair:

Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium, discovered that hair shafts provide an ideal source of ancient DNA — a better source than bones and muscle for studying the genome sequences of extinct animals. Their research achievement, described in a paper to be published in the journal Science on Sept. 28, includes the sequencing of entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 individual woolly mammoths.

What Protects Us From Sunburn Also Protects Crayfish Against Bacteria:

The production of melanin in our skin helps protect us from the sun’s rays, but it also helps protect invertebrate animals — in their case, by encapsulating attacking fungi and parasites.

Second Extremely Resistant Bacteria Sequenced Is Surprisingly Different From First:

Researchers have completed the whole-genome sequence of Deinococcus geothermalis, which is only the second extremely radiation- and desiccation-resistant bacterium to be sequenced.

How The Zebrafish Gets His Stripe:

Scientists have discovered how the zebrafish (Danio rerio) develops one of its four stripes of pigment cells. Their findings add to the growing list of tasks carried out by an important molecule that is involved in the arrangement of everything from nerve cells to reproductive cells in the developing embryo.

Solving A Dragonfly Flight Mystery:

Dragonflies adjust their wing motion while hovering to conserve energy, according to a Cornell University study of the insect’s flight mechanics. The revelation contradicts previous speculation that the change in wing motion served to enhance vertical lift.

Mice Teeth Explain The Troubles With Human Wisdom Teeth:

During evolution, many of a species’ properties are shaped by ecological interactions. This is readily evident in mammalian teeth, whose many features closely reflect what each species eats. However, for a long time scientists have suspected that genetic and developmental interactions may also influence species-specific properties. Now, researchers at the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Biotechnology show how development affects the evolution of teeth, and have devised a simple developmental model to predict aspects of teeth across many species. The results were published in Nature.

Vitamin C Is Essential For Plant Growth:

Scientists from the University of Exeter and Shimane University in Japan have proved for the first time that vitamin C is essential for plant growth. This discovery could have implications for agriculture and for the production of vitamin C dietary supplements.

New Animal And Plant Species Found In Vietnam:

World Wildlife Fund scientists have just announced the discovery of 11 new animal and plant species in a remote area in central Vietnam. They say this underscores the importance of conservation efforts in the ancient tropical forests of the region.

Primate Sperm Competition: Speed Matters:

Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Irvine have found evidence that supports the theory that reproductive competition during the evolution of primate species has occurred at the level of sperm cell motility.

Clever Plants ‘Chat’ Over Their Own Network:

Recent research from Vidi researcher Josef Stuefer at the Radboud University Nijmegen reveals that plants have their own chat systems that they can use to warn each other.

You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks — With The Right Diet:

These supplements, acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid, are continuing to be studied in work with humans, and scientists believe they may provide a new approach to the neurodegeneration and cognitive decline common with aging.

Amazon Forest Shows Unexpected Resiliency During Drought:

Drought-stricken regions of the Amazon forest grew particularly vigorously during the 2005 drought, according to new research.

New Species Of Bacteria Feeds On Natural Gas:

A German-American research team of biologists and geochemists has discovered hitherto unknown anaerobic bacteria in marine sediments which need only propane or butane for growth, as recently reported by the scientific journal “Nature.”

Rare Albino Ratfish Has Eerie, Silvery Sheen:

A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Whidbey Island in Washington state is the only completely albino fish ever seen by both the curator of the University of Washington’s 7.2 million-specimen fish collection and a fish and wildlife biologist with more than 20 years of sampling fish in Puget Sound.

Could Iron Fertilization Of Oceans Combat Global Warming?:

Several times over the past century, scientists and environmental engineers have proposed spreading slurries of dissolved iron into the oceans in order to “fertilize” the waters and promote vast blooms of marine plants (phytoplankton). Phytoplankton consume carbon dioxide as they grow, and this growth can be stimulated in certain ocean basins by the addition of iron, a necessary micronutrient.