Category Archives: Science News

Student Results Show Benefits Of Math And Science Partnerships:

Students’ performance on annual math and science assessments improved in almost every age group when their schools were involved in a program that partners K-12 teachers with their colleagues in higher education.

The End Of Barroom Brawls: Study Shows Alcohol Can Reduce Aggression:

The link between alcohol and aggression is well known. What’s not so clear is just why drunks get belligerent. What is it about the brain-on-alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea? And do all intoxicated people get more aggressive? Or does it depend on the circumstances?

Great Expectations: Why The Placebo Effect Varies From Person To Person:

Why do some people experience a “placebo effect” that makes them feel better when they receive a sham treatment they believe to be real — while other people don’t respond at all to the same thing, or even feel worse?

Erectile Dysfunction: Group Psychotherapy Can Help:

Taking part in group psychotherapy can help men who have erectile dysfunction to over come their problem, and adding sildenafil to group therapy was more effective that sildenafil alone. In addition, group psychotherapy was more effective than taking sildenafil on its own, a Cochrane Systematic Review has found.

Does Harry Potter Parody Government Response To Terror?:

Could Harry Potter be guarding the secrets of the British government’s post 9/11 response to the terrorist threat” Judith Rauhofer of the University of Central Lancashire seems to think so. Rauhofer has made a study of JK Rowling’s fictional child wizard and suggests, in a research paper published today in Inderscience’s International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, that the author draws several subtle parallels with contemporary society. She believes this is part of the adult appeal of the books.

Evidence Found For Novel Brain Cell Communication:

An article published July 16, 2007, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides strong evidence for a novel type of communication between nerve cells in the brain. The findings may have relevance for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy, and possibly in the exploration of other aspects of brain functions, from creative thought processes to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Rat Study Describes Brain Region Connected To Declarative Memory:

Research with experimental rats carried out by the Institute of Neuroscience of the UAB describes the brain region connected to how our declarative memory functions. According to this experiment, part of the prefrontal cortex plays a key role in the social transmission of food preference. Results from the research could be useful to find new treatment for diseases that affect the memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Synthetic Adhesive Mimics Sticking Powers Of Gecko And Mussel:

Geckos are remarkable in their ability to scurry up vertical surfaces and even move along upside down. Their feet stick but only temporarily, coming off of surfaces again and again like a sticky note. But put those feet underwater, and their ability to stick is dramatically reduced.

Monkeys Don’t Go For Easy Pickings: Study Shows Primates Consider More Than Distance When Searching For Food:

Animals’ natural foraging decisions give an insight into their cognitive abilities, and primates do not automatically choose the easy option. Instead, they appear to decide where to feed based on the quality of the resources available and the effect on their social group, rather than simply selecting the nearest food available.

Foxes Get Frisky In The Far North: First Genetic Evidence Of Polyandry With Multiple Paternity Found:

Bees do it, chimps do it… Now it seems Arctic foxes do it, too. New research looking at the DNA fingerprints of canids in the Far North has revealed that foxes once thought to be monogamous are in fact quite frisky.

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There are 19 new papers on ONE that were published this week (thus breaking the 600 papers number). Here are a couple that caught my eye (apart from those I already blogged about or will soon):
Imitation as Faithful Copying of a Novel Technique in Marmoset Monkeys:

This evidence of imitation in non-human primates questions the dominant opinion that imitation is a human-specific ability. Furthermore, the high matching degree suggests that marmosets possess the neuronal mechanism to code the actions of others and to map them onto their own motor repertoire, rather than priming existing motor-templates.

Natural Selection on Female Life-History Traits in Relation to Socio-Economic Class in Pre-Industrial Human Populations:

We found the highest opportunity for total selection and the strongest selection on earlier age at first reproduction in women of the poorest wealth class, whereas selection favoured older age at reproductive cessation in mothers of the wealthier classes. We also found clear differences in female life-history traits across wealth classes: the poorest women had the lowest age-specific survival throughout their lives, they started reproduction later, delivered fewer offspring during their lifetime, ceased reproduction younger, had poorer offspring survival to adulthood and, hence, had lower fitness compared to the wealthier women. Our results show that the amount of wealth affected the selection pressure on female life-history in a pre-industrial human population.

Genetic Variation for Cardiac Dysfunction in Drosophila:

A screen of fifty inbred wild-type lines revealed a continuous spectrum of pacing-induced heart failure that generally increases in frequency with age. High-speed video analysis of the inbred lines with high rates of inducible heart failure indicates specific defects in cardiac function, including arrhythmias and contractile disorders (‘cardiomyopathies’). A combination of bulked segregant analysis and single feature polymorphism (SFP) detection localizes one of the cardiac susceptibility loci to the 97C interval on the fly genome.

Locating Pleistocene Refugia: Comparing Phylogeographic and Ecological Niche Model Predictions:

Ecological niche models (ENMs) provide a means of characterizing the spatial distribution of suitable conditions for species, and have recently been applied to the challenge of locating potential distributional areas at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when unfavorable climate conditions led to range contractions and fragmentation. Here, we compare and contrast ENM-based reconstructions of LGM refugial locations with those resulting from the more traditional molecular genetic and phylogeographic predictions. We examined 20 North American terrestrial vertebrate species from different regions and with different range sizes for which refugia have been identified based on phylogeographic analyses, using ENM tools to make parallel predictions. We then assessed the correspondence between the two approaches based on spatial overlap and areal extent of the predicted refugia. In 14 of the 20 species, the predictions from ENM and predictions based on phylogeographic studies were significantly spatially correlated, suggesting that the two approaches to development of refugial maps are converging on a similar result. Our results confirm that ENM scenario exploration can provide a useful complement to molecular studies, offering a less subjective, spatially explicit hypothesis of past geographic patterns of distribution.

The Importance of Poisoning vs. Road Traffic Injuries as a Cause of Death in Rural Sri Lanka:

Road traffic crashes are considered by the WHO to be the most important global cause of death from injury. However, this may not be true for large areas of rural Asia where road vehicles are uncommon. The issue is important, since emphasising the importance of road traffic crashes risks switching resources to urban areas, away from already underfunded rural regions. In this study, we compared the importance of road traffic crashes with other forms of injury in a poor rural region of South Asia.
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In poor rural regions of South Asia, fatal self-harm and pesticide self-poisoning in particular are significantly more important than road traffic injuries as a cause of death. It is possible that the data used by the WHO to calculate global injury estimates are biased towards urban areas with better data collection but little pesticide poisoning. More studies are required to inform a debate about the importance of different forms of injury and how avoidable deaths from any cause can be prevented. In the meantime, marked improvements in the effectiveness of therapy for pesticide poisoning, safer storage, reduced pesticide use, or reductions in pesticide toxicity are required urgently to reduce the number of deaths from self-poisoning in rural Asia.

Now, you know what to do: make annotations, post comments and rate the papers.

Songbirds Prefer The Latest Music: Golden Oldies Just Don’t Cut It With The Chicks:

When it’s time to mate, female white-crowned sparrows are looking for a male who sings the latest version of the love song, not some 1979 relic. And territorial males simply find the golden oldie much less threatening. Duke University graduate student Elizabeth Derryberry played two versions of the white-crowned sparrow song to the birds as part of her thesis research and found that a 1979 recording didn’t inspire them nearly as well as a 2003 recording of the very same song.

Birds Take Cues From Their Competitors:

The idea that animals other than humans can learn from one another and pass on local traditions has long been a matter of debate. Now, a new study reveals that some birds learn not only from each other, but also from their competitors. Through a novel field experiment, the researchers showed that female members of two migrant flycatcher species can acquire a novel preference for nesting sites on the basis of the apparent attraction of competing resident tits for nest boxes bearing an otherwise meaningless symbol.

Mimicry: Research Ends Debate Over Benefits Of Butterfly Defenses:

Scientists have furthered understanding of the relationship between predator and prey in an experiment designed to understand butterfly defence mechanisms. Researchers observed the behaviour of Great-tits foraging for artificial prey to understand more clearly how a species evolves to protect themselves from predators.

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Many Insomniacs Turn To Valerian And Melatonin To Help Them Sleep:

A study published in the July 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that large segments of the U.S. population use valerian or melatonin to treat their insomnia.
The study, authored by Donald L. Bliwise, PhD, of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, focused on the data collected from 31,044 individuals from the 2002 Alternative Health/Complementary and Alternative Medicine Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
Dr. Bliwise discovered that, of the survey sample, 5.9 percent used valerian and 5.2 percent used melatonin. Relatively greater use occurred in individuals under the age of 60. The decision to use such substances was made in consultation with a health care provider less than half of the time.

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Life Elsewhere In Solar System Could Be Different From Life As We Know It:

The search for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond should include efforts to detect what scientists sometimes refer to as “weird” life — that is, life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth — says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report found that the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it — a liquid water biosolvent, carbon-based metabolism, molecular system capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the environment — are not the only ways to support phenomena recognized as life. “Our investigation made clear that life is possible in forms different than those on Earth,” said committee chair John Baross, professor of oceanography at the University of Washington, Seattle.

When Is A Worm Not A Worm? When It’s A Jellyfish…:

One of the world’s strangest creatures has found its long-lost kin. Oxford University scientists have discovered that an extremely rare gutless worm is related to sea anemones and jellyfish, rather than similar-looking animals, reports the journal Science. The finding could cause an evolutionary rethink.

Scientists Find Endangered Monkeys In Vietnam:

A team of scientists from WWF and Conservation International (CI) has discovered the world’s largest known population of grey-shanked doucs (Pygathrix cinerea), increasing chances that the Endangered monkey can be saved from extinction.

Color Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: New Study Examines Unusual Color Properties Of Pumpkin Seed Oil:

The unique makeup of the cells in our retina, as well as the specific physical properties of substances themselves, explain why we occasionally see things change color before our very eyes! Samo and Marko Kreft from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia investigated this phenomenon using pumpkin seed oil as an example. They have just published their research online in Springer’s journal Naturwissenschaften.

Understanding Smooth Eye Pursuit: The Incredible Targeting System Of Human Vision:

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shed new light on how the brain and eye team up to spot an object in motion and follow it, a classic question of human motor control. The study shows that two distinctly different ways of seeing motion are used – one to catch up to a moving object with our eyes, a second to lock on and examine it.

Wolves Of Alaska Became Extinct 12,000 Years Ago, Scientists Report:

The ancient gray wolves of Alaska became extinct some 12,000 years ago, and the wolves in Alaska today are not their descendents but a different subspecies, an international team of scientists reports in the July 3 print edition of the journal Current Biology.

Reap What Your Ancestors Sowed: Cheating Has Long-term Consequences In Evolution Of Cooperation:

Freeloaders can live on the fruits of the cooperation of others, but their selfishness can have long-term consequences, reports an evolutionary biologist from The University of Texas at Austin in a new study.

Altruistic Rats: First Evidence For Generalized Reciprocal Cooperation In Non-humans:

Cooperation in animals has long been a major focus in evolutionary biology. In particular, reciprocal altruism, where helpful acts are contingent upon the likelihood of getting help in return, is especially intriguing because it is open to cheaters. In a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, Claudia Rutte and Michael Taborsky demonstrate the first evidence for generalized reciprocal cooperation in non-humans. The authors show that rats who received help in the past were more likely to help another unknown partner.

Mother-of-pearl: Classic Beauty And Remarkable Strength:

While the shiny material of pearls and abalone shells has long been prized for its iridescence and aesthetic value in jewelry and decorations, scientists admire mother-of-pearl for other physical properties as well.

Stressed-out African Naked Mole-rats May Provide Clues About Human Infertility:

A tiny, blind, hairless subterranean rodent that lives in social colonies in the harsh, semi-arid conditions of Africa could shed light on stress-related infertility in humans, the 23rd annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology will hear.

Glimmer Of Hope For Tahitian Tree Snails’ Survival:

Despite the mass extermination of Tahiti’s unique species of tree snails in recent decades, much of their original genetic diversity can still be found in remnant populations that survive on the island, researchers report in the July 3rd issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings offer renewed hope that targeted conservation measures may yet preserve a representative, although impoverished, fraction of Tahiti’s endemic tree snail genetic diversity in the wild–a feat earlier believed to be impossible.

Jellyfish Population Explosion Leads To New Use For Waste Creatures:

Amid growing concern about how to dispose of a booming population of jellyfish — including 6-foot-long monsters weighing more than 400 pounds — scientists in Japan are reporting development of a process for extracting a commercially-valuable biomaterial from the marine animals. Their report is scheduled for the July 27 issue of ACS’ Journal of Natural Products, a monthly publication.

Advancing Research On Interplay Between Biology And Society:

Scientists will find new ways of understanding the interactions of the biological sciences with society, as a result of awards from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) directorates for biological sciences and for social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

A bunch of papers just went live on PLoS-ONE and, after a quick scan, these three papers caught my eye:
The Durability of Public Goods Changes the Dynamics and Nature of Social Dilemmas:

An implicit assumption underpins basic models of the evolution of cooperation, mutualism and altruism: The benefits (or pay-offs) of cooperation and defection are defined by the current frequency or distribution of cooperators. In social dilemmas involving durable public goods (group resources that can persist in the environment-ubiquitous from microbes to humans) this assumption is violated. Here, we examine the consequences of relaxing this assumption, allowing pay-offs to depend on both current and past numbers of cooperators. We explicitly trace the dynamic of a public good created by cooperators, and define pay-offs in terms of the current public good. By raising the importance of cooperative history in determining the current fate of cooperators, durable public goods cause novel dynamics (e.g., transient increases in cooperation in Prisoner’s Dilemmas, oscillations in Snowdrift Games, or shifts in invasion thresholds in Stag-hunt Games), while changes in durability can transform one game into another, by moving invasion thresholds for cooperation or conditions for coexistence with defectors. This enlarged view challenges our understanding of social cheats. For instance, groups of cooperators can do worse than groups of defectors, if they inherit fewer public goods, while a rise in defectors no longer entails a loss of social benefits, at least not in the present moment (as highlighted by concerns over environmental lags). Wherever durable public goods have yet to reach a steady state (for instance due to external perturbations), the history of cooperation will define the ongoing dynamics of cooperators.

Leveraging Hierarchical Population Structure in Discrete Association Studies:

Population structure can confound the identification of correlations in biological data. Such confounding has been recognized in multiple biological disciplines, resulting in a disparate collection of proposed solutions. We examine several methods that correct for confounding on discrete data with hierarchical population structure and identify two distinct confounding processes, which we call coevolution and conditional influence. We describe these processes in terms of generative models and show that these generative models can be used to correct for the confounding effects. Finally, we apply the models to three applications: identification of escape mutations in HIV-1 in response to specific HLA-mediated immune pressure, prediction of coevolving residues in an HIV-1 peptide, and a search for genotypes that are associated with bacterial resistance traits in Arabidopsis thaliana. We show that coevolution is a better description of confounding in some applications and conditional influence is better in others. That is, we show that no single method is best for addressing all forms of confounding. Analysis tools based on these models are available on the internet as both web based applications and downloadable source code at http://atom.research.microsoft.com/bio/phylod.aspx.

Super-Genotype: Global Monoclonality Defies the Odds of Nature:

The ability to respond to natural selection under novel conditions is critical for the establishment and persistence of introduced alien species and their ability to become invasive. Here we correlated neutral and quantitative genetic diversity of the weed Pennisetum setaceum Forsk. Chiov. (Poaceae) with differing global (North American and African) patterns of invasiveness and compared this diversity to native range populations. Numerous molecular markers indicate complete monoclonality within and among all of these areas (FST = 0.0) and is supported by extreme low quantitative trait variance (QST = 0.00065-0.00952). The results support the general-purpose-genotype hypothesis that can tolerate all environmental variation. However, a single global genotype and widespread invasiveness under numerous environmental conditions suggests a super-genotype. The super-genotype described here likely evolved high levels of plasticity in response to fluctuating environmental conditions during the Early to Mid Holocene. During the Late Holocene, when environmental conditions were predominantly constant but extremely inclement, strong selection resulted in only a few surviving genotypes.

Wood Ant Queen Has No Egg-laying Monopoly:

The reproductive monopoly of the ant queen is not as strong as is often thought. Dr. Heikki Helanterä and Prof. Lotta Sundström, biologists working at the University of Helsinki, Finland, investigated worker ovary development and egg laying in nine Northern European wood ant species of the genus Formica, and revealed wide spread reproductive endeavours by workers.

City Site Was Dinosaur Dining Room:

A dinosaur bone bed in southwest Edmonton that served as a feeding area for the direct ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex has revealed that two dinosaurs, thought to have lived in different eras, actually lived at the same time. Scientists digging for bones at the site this year discovered fossils of Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus this year.

Translating Form Into Function:

In the last 40 years, scientists have perfected ways to determine the knot-like structure of enzymes, but they’ve been stumped trying to translate the structure into an understanding of function — what the enzyme actually does in the body. This puzzle has hindered drug discovery, since many of the most successful drugs work by blocking enzyme action. Now, in an expedited article in Nature, researchers show that a solution to the puzzle is finally in sight.

Scientists Find Endangered Grey-shanked Doucs In Vietnam:

A team of scientists from WWF and Conservation International (CI) has discovered the world’s largest known population of grey-shanked doucs (Pygathrix cinerea), increasing chances that the Endangered monkey can be saved from extinction.

First Bacterial Genome Transplantation Changes One Species To Another:

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) have announced the results of work on genome transplantation methods allowing them to transform one type of bacteria into another type dictated by the transplanted chromosome. The work, published online in the journal Science, by JCVI’s Carole Lartigue, Ph.D. and colleagues, outlines the methods and techniques used to change one bacterial species, Mycoplasma capricolum into another, Mycoplasma mycoides Large Colony (LC), by replacing one organism’s genome with the other one’s genome.

But, if you think about it as “transplanting the cell membrane and wall of one species onto another” than it does not sound so epochal, does it?
Cloned Pigs Help Scientists Towards A Breakthrough In Alzheimer’s:

The first pigs containing genes responsible for Alzheimer’s disease will be born in Denmark in August. This event is a landmark achivement in the effort towards finding a cure for the disease.

RNA May Play Larger Role In Cell’s Gene Activity, Researchers Find:

Large, seemingly useless pieces of RNA – a molecule originally considered only a lowly messenger for DNA – play an important role in letting cells know where they are in the body and what they are supposed to become, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered.

The Newest Artificial Intelligence Computing Tool: People:

A USC Information Sciences Institute researcher thinks she has found a new source of artificial intelligence computing power to solve difficult IT problems of information classification, reliability, and meaning. That tool, according to ISI computer scientist Kristina Lerman, is people, human intelligence at work on the social web, the network of blogs, bookmark, photo and video- sharing sites, and other meeting places now involving hundreds of thousands of individuals daily, recording observations and sharing opinions and information.

Book Makes Case For Using Evolution In Everyday Life:

Evolution is not just about human origins, dinosaurs and fossils, says Binghamton University evolutionist David Sloan Wilson. It can also be applied to almost every aspect of human life, as he demonstrates in his first book for a general audience, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam Press 2007). Using witty, straightforward language and compelling anecdotes, Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution in a way that can be easily understood by non-experts. He then uses the principles to explain phenomena as diverse as why beetles commit infanticide, why dogs have curly tails, and why people laugh and make art.

Bald Eagle Soars Off Endangered Species List:

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced the removal of the bald eagle for the list of threatened and endangered species at a ceremony June 28 at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. After nearly disappearing from most of the United States decades ago, the bald eagle is now flourishing across the nation and no longer needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

Seabird Diet History Revealed Through Analyisis Of Museum Samples:

Using feathers from museum collections all over the world, a University of Guelph integrative biology professor has tested a new hypothesis about what led to population decline of a species of seabirds in Canada.

New Study Shows How Often Juries Get It Wrong:

Juries across the country make decisions every day on the fate of defendants, ideally leading to prison sentences that fit the crime for the guilty and release for the innocent. Yet a new Northwestern University study shows that juries in criminal cases many times are getting it wrong.

A whole bunch of papers got published on PLoS-ONE yesterday. I did not have time to check them out very closely yet, but a few titles immediatelly caught my attention:
High Costs of Female Choice in a Lekking Lizard
by Maren N. Vitousek, Mark A. Mitchell, Anthony J. Woakes, Michael D. Niemack and Martin Wikelski

The cost to males of producing elaborate mating displays is well established, but the energy females spend on mate choice is less clear. This study monitored the heart rates of female Galápagos marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) and found they expended almost a days’ worth of energy a month choosing a mate. More choosy females lost weight, produced smaller follicles, and were less likely to survive El Niño years.

Female Sexual Polymorphism and Fecundity Consequences of Male Mating Harassment in the Wild
by Thomas P. Gosden and Erik I. Svensson

Genetic and phenotypic variation in female response towards male mating attempts has been found in several laboratory studies, demonstrating sexually antagonistic co-evolution driven by mating costs on female fitness. Theoretical models suggest that the type and degree of genetic variation in female resistance could affect the evolutionary outcome of sexually antagonistic mating interactions, resulting in either rapid development of reproductive isolation and speciation or genetic clustering and female sexual polymorphisms. However, evidence for genetic variation of this kind in natural populations of non-model organisms is very limited. Likewise, we lack knowledge on female fecundity-consequences of matings and the degree of male mating harassment in natural settings. Here we present such data from natural populations of a colour polymorphic damselfly. Using a novel experimental technique of colour dusting males in the field, we show that heritable female colour morphs differ in their propensity to accept male mating attempts. These morphs also differ in their degree of resistance towards male mating attempts, the number of realized matings and in their fecundity-tolerance to matings and mating attempts. These results show that there may be genetic variation in both resistance and tolerance to male mating attempts (fitness consequences of matings) in natural populations, similar to the situation in plant-pathogen resistance systems. Male mating harassment could promote the maintenance of a sexual mating polymorphism in females, one of few empirical examples of sympatric genetic clusters maintained by sexual conflict.

Interethnic Differences in Muscle, Liver and Abdominal Fat Partitioning in Obese Adolescents
by David Liska, Sylvie Dufour, Tosca L. Zern, Sara Taksali, Anna M.G. Calí, James Dziura, Gerald I. Shulman, Bridget M. Pierpont and Sonia Caprio

Our study indicates that obese Hispanic adolescents have a greater IMCL lipid content than both Caucasians and African Americans, of comparable weight, age and gender. Excessive accumulation of fat in the liver was found in both Caucasian and Hispanic groups as opposed to virtually undetectable levels in the African Americans. Thus, irrespective of obesity, there seem to be some clear ethnic differences in the amount of lipid accumulated in skeletal muscle, liver and abdominal cavity.

As always, if you read the papers and have questions or comments, post them at the paper, not on this post.

Mathematicians Discover A Simple Way To Formulate Complex Scientific Results:

A new analysis of behaviour in a structured population illuminates Darwin’s theories of co-operation and competition between kin, and provides an abstract model that could simplify scientists’ quest to map behaviour among disease-causing organisms within a cell. The study by Queen’s Mathematics and Statistics professor Peter Taylor, and co-authors Troy Day (Queen’s) and Geoff Wild (University of Western Ontario) presents a simple formula for balancing the benefit and cost in altruistic acts, allowing researchers to predict behaviour and summarize disparate results in a simple framework.

Global Climate Change And Toxic Chemicals: A Potentially Lethal Combination:

As temperature influences the toxic effects of chemicals, so does chemical exposure influence the temperature tolerance of an organism. The consequences of this harmful reciprocal relationship on four freshwater fish are explored in a new study published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Letting Plants ‘Talk’ To You:

The greenhouse manager of the future walks around the greenhouse, pointing an infrared “flashlight” at potted plants. A tiny screen tells whether each plant has too much, too little, or just the right amount of nutrients. During the past three years, at a new facility in Toledo, Ohio, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant pathologist Jim Locke and horticulturist Jonathan Frantz have made a great deal of progress toward realizing this automated future. Frantz is testing commercial nutrient sensors with a view toward developing improved portable ones. Devices like these can give greenhouse growers a few–often critical–extra days to correct nutrient problems before their plants are seriously damaged.

Tasmanian Tiger Extinction Mystery:

A University of Adelaide project led by zoologist Dr Jeremy Austin is investigating whether the world-fabled Tasmanian Tiger may have survived beyond its reported extinction in the late 1930s. Dr Austin from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA is extracting ancient DNA from animal droppings found in Tasmania in the late 1950s and ’60s, which have been preserved in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Female Iguanas Pay High Costs To Choose A Mate:

Picking a mate isn’t easy–if you are a female iguana. In a study published in the June 27th issue of PLoS ONE, Maren Vitousek of Princeton University and colleagues found that female Galápagos marine iguanas spend a lot of energy picking a mate from a wide range of suitors — energy they could otherwise spend foraging, producing eggs, or avoiding predators. Scientists have generally assumed that being choosy about potential mates carries low costs for females. These costs were thought to be particularly small when male territories are clustered together in groups, known as ‘leks’, which make it possible for females to assess many candidates without traveling far.

Study Confirms Importance Of Sexual Fantasies In Experience Of Sexual Desire:

Scientists of the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment of the University of Granada have studied how some psychological variables such as erotophilia (positive attitude towards sexuality), sexual fantasies and anxiety are related to sexual desire in human beings. The researcher Juan Carlos Sierra Freire states that there are very few reliable and valid instruments in Spain to evaluate sexual desire. Due to this vacuum, the researchers have adapted the Sexual Desire Inventory by Spector, Carey and Steinberg. This inventory is a tool that enables the researcher to measure, on the one hand, the solitary sexual motivation and, on the other hand, the interest in having sexual intercourse with another person (didactic sexual desire). This fact is of a great importance because “it gives relevant information about possible disagreements in sexual desire that may appear in a couple”. Regarding figures of the Spanish Association for Sexual Health, a loss of sexual desire is one of the main factors that cause sexual dysfunction in the Spanish female population.

Foreign Herbivores May Be Key To Curbing Invasive Weeds:

Joint research with scientists in Argentina, Australia and China could lead to discovery of new biological control agents for several exotic weeds plaguing Florida and other U.S. states. Some of the worst offenders are hydrilla, Brazilian pepper, Chinese tallow and Australian pine. These and other aggressive invasive weeds occupy diverse habitats and cause many environmental problems, especially a decrease in biodiversity within infested areas.

How Fish Punish ‘Queue Jumpers’:

Fish use the threat of punishment to keep would-be jumpers in the mating queue firmly in line and the social order stable, a new study led by Australian marine scientists has found.

The Beetle’s Dilemma:

Large jaws are efficient in crushing hard prey, whereas small jaws are functional in capturing elusive prey. Researchers have suggested that such trade-offs between “force” and “velocity” could cause evolutionary diversification of morphology in animals such as birds, fish, and salamanders.

Which Came First: Primates’ Ability To See Colorful Food Or See Colorful Sex?:

The adaptive significance of the unique ability in many primates to distinguish red hues from green ones (i.e., trichromatic color vision) has always enticed debate among evolutionary biologists. The conventional theory is that primates evolved trichromatic color vision to assist them in foraging, specifically by allowing them to detect red/orange food items from green leaf backgrounds.

New Line Of Communication Between Nervous System Cells Discovered:

In a host of neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and several neuropathies, the protective covering surrounding the nerves — an insulating material called myelin — is damaged. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now discovered an important new line of communication between nervous system cells that is crucial to the development of myelinated nerves — a discovery that may aid in restoring the normal function of the affected nerve fibers.

Why Starling Females Cheat:

While women may cheat on men for personal reasons, superb starling females appear to stray from their mates for the sake of their chicks, according to recent research. The study found that superb starling females (Lamprotornis superbus) cheat on their mates for a variety of reasons. Some females mate with subordinate males from within their social group when they need help to raise their chicks. (Superb starlings are cooperative breeders, meaning breeding pairs get help in raising chicks from other family group members.) This additional male then also acquires food and tends to the nestlings, which increases the chicks’ survival rates.

New Medicines For Dogs And Cats May End Up Helping Humans:

The pharmaceutical industry is going to the dogs — and the cats — as people in the United States and other countries devote more income to keeping beloved pets healthy and comfortable, according to a recent article. U. S. pet owners alone spent $18.5 billion last year on veterinary care, medications, and other non-food supplies, a figure expected to grow by more than 6 percent annually.

Gut Check: Microbes Colonize Newborns’ Digestive Tracts:

For more than 100 years, scientists have known that humans carry a rich ecosystem within their intestines. An astonishing number and variety of microbes, including as many as 400 species of bacteria, help humans digest food, mitigate disease, regulate fat storage, and even promote the formation of blood vessels. By applying sophisticated genetic analysis to samples of a year’s worth baby poop, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have now developed a detailed picture of how these bacteria come and go in the intestinal tract during a child’s first year of life.

Studying Gene Expression Of Desert Fruit Flies:

Researchers at the University of Arkansas and University of Nevada-Las Vegas will study the genetics of fruit flies in desert habitats to determine how they developed the ability to survive under stressful conditions.

Human-like Altruism Shown In Chimpanzees:

Experimental evidence reveals that chimpanzees will help other unrelated humans and conspecifics without a reward, showing that they share crucial aspects of altruism with humans.

Early-morning Friday Classes May Prevent Students From Getting Sloppy On ‘Thirsty Thursdays’:

The high prevalence of problematic alcohol use on college campuses across the United States is well known. A new study has found that alcohol consumption on “thirsty Thursdays” is influenced by the presence and timing of Friday class schedules.

Bees Seem To Benefit From Having Favorite Colors:

A bee’s favourite colour can help it to find more food from the flowers in their environment, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London. Dr Nigel Raine and Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences studied nine bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) colonies from southern Germany, and found that the colonies which favoured purple blooms were more successful foragers.

How Dads Influence Their Daughters’ Interest In Math:

It figures: Dads have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math. That’s one of the findings of a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.

Surprisingly, Harvesting Prey Boosts Predator Fish:

Cod, salmon, and salmon trout have in many cases disappeared from our seas and lakes because of overfishing. New research findings show that these predator fish would be able to recover if both recreational and professional fishers focused their fishing on the fish these predators prey on.

Taking Animals Out Of Laboratory Research:

Pioneering work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research — and ultimately remove them from laboratories altogether — has received a major boost at The University of Nottingham. A laboratory devoted to finding effective alternatives to animal testing has been expanded and completely remodelled in a £240,000 overhaul designed to hasten the development of effective non-animal techniques.

Individual Differences In Sleep Structure Are Biologically Determined:

Sleeping pattern variability has long been attributed to differences in several non-biological factors. Now a study from the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University Spokane, Wash., has shown that these individual differences are in large part biologically determined and may even prove to be genetic in origin.

North Carolina Coastal Economy Vulnerable To Sea Level Rise:

A new report finds that North Carolina’s coastline will continue to experience significant loss in land area, property and recreational value in the next 30 to 75 years due to projected changes in climate, leading North Carolina researchers announced.

Breakdown Products Of Widely Used Pesticides Are Acutely Lethal To Amphibians, Study Finds:

The breakdown products (oxons) of the three most commonly used organophosphorus pesticides in California’s agricultural Central Valley — chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon — are 10 – 100 times more toxic to amphibians than their parent compounds, which are already highly toxic to amphibians, according to experiments conducted by scientists of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Western Ecological Research Center.

Genes Play An Unexpected Role In Their Own Activation, Study Shows:

Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered how a single molecular “on switch” triggers gene activity that might cause effects ranging from learning and memory capabilities to glucose production in the liver.
The “on switch,” a protein called CREB, is a transcription factor–a molecule that binds to a section of DNA near a gene and triggers that gene to make the specific protein for which it codes. CREB activates genes in response to a molecule called cAMP, which acts as a messenger for a variety of stimuli including hormones and nerve-signaling molecules called neurotransmitters.
The St. Jude team showed that each gene that responds to CREB chooses which co-factors, or helper molecules, CREB uses to activate that gene. This finding adds an important piece to the puzzle of how cells use CREB to activate specific genes in response to cAMP signals.

Virgin Birth: Shark Expert Comments On Parthenogenesis:

Shark evolution expert Eileen Grogan, Ph.D., discusses recent parthenogenesis findings in female sharks in captivity. The Saint Joseph’s University biologist said this mode of reproduction could have significant impact on small, isolated populations.
Birds do it, bees do it, and now there is evidence that female sharks are able to do it on their own — without the contribution of male DNA. A recent report from a team of American and Irish researchers has concluded that the mysterious appearance in 2001 of an infant female bonnethead shark at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo in a tank that held only two adult female sharks was the result of parthenogenesis (Gr. virgin birth.) Parthenogenic reproduction takes place without fertilization by a male through the process of cell division, when the mother’s egg fuses with a degenerative cell called a polar body, producing a new individual.

Prey Not Hard-wired To Fear Predators:

Are Asian elk hard-wired to fear the Siberian tigers who stalk them” When wolves disappear from the forest, are moose still afraid of them? No, according to a study by Wildlife Conservation Society scientist Dr. Joel Berger, who says that several large prey species, including moose, caribou and elk, only fear predators they regularly encounter. If you take away wolves, you take away fear. That is a critical piece of knowledge as biologists and public agencies increase efforts to re-introduce large carnivores to places where they have been exterminated.

Electric Fish Conduct Electric Duets In Aquatic Courtship:

Cornell researchers have discovered that in the battle of the sexes, African electric fish couples not only use specific electrical signals to court but also engage in a sort of dueling “electric duet.” The study is the first to compare electrical and behavioral displays in breeding and nonbreeding Brienomyrus brachyistius, a type of mormyrid electric fish, which emit weak electric fields from a batterylike organ in their tails to sense their surroundings and communicate their species, sex and social status with other fish. It is also the first study to successfully sort signals in electric fish based on sex.

Invertebrate Immune Systems Are Anything But Simple:

A hundred years since Russian microbiologist Elie Metschnikow first discovered the invertebrate immune system, scientists are only just beginning to understand its complexity. Presenting their findings at a recent European Science Foundation (ESF) conference, scientists showed that invertebrates have evolved elaborate ways to fight disease.

Wild Sheep Descended From Single Pair Show Surprising Genetic Diversity:

Scientists at Université du Québec à Montréal have reconstructed the genetic history of a population of mouflons (wild sheep) descended from a single pair. The researchers demonstrated that the animals’ genetic diversity increased over time, contrary to what the usual models predict. These results contradict the belief that a population descended from a small number of individuals will exhibit numerous deficiencies and reduced genetic diversity.

Placental Mammals Originated On Earth 65 Million Years Ago, Researchers Assert:

An early mammal fossil discovered in Mongolia led to researchers asserting that the origins of placental mammals, which include humans, can be dated to approximately 65 million years ago in the Northern Hemisphere. These findings will be published in the June 21 issue of Nature.

Brain’s Voluntary Chain-of-command Ruled By Not One But Two Captains:

A probe of the upper echelons of the human brain’s chain-of-command has found strong evidence that there are not one but two complementary commanders in charge of the brain, according to neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
It’s as if Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard were both on the bridge and in command of the same starship Enterprise.
In reality, these two captains are networks of brain regions that do not consult each other but still work toward a common purpose — control of voluntary, goal-oriented behavior. This includes a vast range of activities from reading a word to searching for a star to singing a song, but likely does not include involuntary behaviors such as control of the pulse rate or digestion.

Why Female Deer Like A Stag To Be A Big Noise In The Forest:

Impressive antlers may be the most eye-catching attribute of the male red deer, but it’s the quality of a stag’s mating call that attracts the female of the species, a new study from the University of Sussex has discovered.

Surprising Origin Of Cell’s Internal Highways:

Scientists have long thought that microtubules, part of the microscopic scaffolding that the cell uses to move things around in order to hold its shape and divide, originated from a tiny structure near the nucleus, called the centrosome. Now, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reveal a surprising new origin for these cellular “highways.” In the June issue of Developmental Cell, Irina Kaverina, Ph.D., and colleagues report that the Golgi apparatus — a stack of pancake-shaped compartments that sorts and ships proteins out to their cellular destinations — is the source of a particular subset of these microscopic fibers. The findings point to a novel cellular mechanism that may guide cell movement and possibly cancer cell invasion.

Another Sexual Attraction Is Possible:

The coming summer vibrates with expressions of insect love and desire. The cicada’s songs or the butterflies’ bright colours are examples of how an emitting sex attracts conspecific members of the responding sex. Moth odours (pheromones), though less conspicuous for us humans, are also signals by which females guide males towards them, even on the darkest nights. Such mating recognition systems tend to be very specific, hence they are thought to play a major role in the evolution of mating barriers and in the formation of new species.

Plant Life On Extrasolar Earthlike Planets Could Be Black:

When we think of extrasolar Earth-like planets, the first tendency is to imagine weird creatures like Jar Jar Binks, Chewbacca, and, if those are not bizarre enough, maybe even the pointy-eared Vulcan, Spock, of Star Trek fame. But scientists seeking clues to life on extrasolar planets are studying various biosignatures found in the light spectrum leaking out to Earth to speculate on something more basic and essential than the musical expertise of Droopy McCool. They are speculating on what kind of photosynthesis might occur on such planets and what the extrasolar plants might look like.

What Gives Freezing Its Sting?:

Freeing knotted shoelaces with fingers that are frozen stiff is extremely difficult and can even be painful. The reason that sensitivity and dexterity are poor is that both nerves and muscles perform their tasks reluctantly when they are cold. Nevertheless ice-cold fingers ache and do so all the more in response to the lightest of knocks or squeezing.

A gazzillion new papers got published on PLoS-ONE today. Some of the titles that caught my attention and I intend to read tonight are:
The Role of the Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta in Regulating Sleep Patterns in Rats
Climate and Dispersal: Black-Winged Stilts Disperse Further in Dry Springs
The Adaptive Significance of Sensory Bias in a Foraging Context: Floral Colour Preferences in the Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
Assortative Mating between European Corn Borer Pheromone Races: Beyond Assortative Meeting
As always, do the Science 2.0 thing and post your (intelligent) questions and comments on the paper itself, either in the Discussions or the Annotations.

Are Rattlesnakes Entering Suburbia?:

A researcher for Washington University in St. Louis, along with colleagues at the Saint Louis Zoo and Saint Louis University are tracking timber rattlesnakes in west St. Louis County and neighboring Jefferson County. They are investigating how developing subdivisions invade the snakes’ turf and affect the reptiles.

Reconstructing The Biology Of Extinct Species: A New Approach:

An international research team has documented the link between the way an animal moves and the dimensions of an important part of its organ of balance, the three semicircular canals of the inner ear on each side of the skull. “We have shown that there is a fundamental adaptive mechanism linking a species’ locomotion with the sensory systems that process information about its environment,” says Alan Walker, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Biology at Penn State University, one of the team’s leaders.

Gannet Birds Under Threat From Global Warming:

Researchers at the University of Leeds have warned that global warming is a major threat to the gannet, a species known for its stable populations and constant breeding success.

Fat Fish Put Obesity On The Hook:

Everyone knows that eating lean fish helps slim waistlines, but researchers from the Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and Associated Disorders at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, have found a new way fish can help eliminate obesity. In a study to be published in the July 2007 print issue of The FASEB Journal, researchers describe the first genetic model of obesity in a fish. Having this model should greatly accelerate the development of new drugs to help people lose weight and keep it off.

Continue reading →

Science Student Gender Gap: A Continuing Challenge:

Interactive classes don’t necessarily solve the performance imbalance between the genders in physics classes, according to a new study that stands in stark contrast to previous physics education research. In fact, while students as a rule benefit from interactive classrooms, the teaching technique may even increase the imbalance in some cases.

Chad has more on this study.
Paying Taxes, According To The Brain, Can Bring Satisfaction:

Want to light up the pleasure center in your brain? Just pay your taxes, and then give a little extra voluntarily to your local food bank. University of Oregon scientists have found that doing those deeds can give you the same sort of satisfaction you derive from feeding your own hunger pangs.

Sleep Disturbances Among The Elderly Linked To Suicide:

Self-reported sleep complaints among the elderly serve as a risk factor for completed suicide, according to new research. The study, conducted by Rebecca Bernert of Florida State University, focused on data that were collected among 14,456 community elders over a 10-year period. During this time frame, 21 individuals died by suicide. When each suicide was matched to 20 randomly-selected controls, it was discovered that disturbances in sleep, independent of depression, predicted an increased risk for eventual death by suicide.

Pride May Not Come Before A Fall, After All:

The Bible got it wrong. Pride only goes before a fall when it’s hubris — excessive pride that veers into self-aggrandizement and conceit. But otherwise, this emotion is fundamental to humans and healthy self-esteem, says Psychology Asst. Prof. Jessica Tracy.

Music: Mirror Of The Mind:

The long supposed connection between mind and music has been further demonstrated by an international collaboration of physicists led by Simone Bianco and Paolo Grigolini at the Center for Nonlinear Science at the University of North Texas. A statistical analysis reveals a remarkable similarity between the distributions produced by music compositions and brain activity.

Fruit Bats Are Not ‘Blind As A Bat’:

The retinas of most mammals contain two types of photoreceptor cells, the cones for daylight vision and colour vision, and the more sensitive rods for night vision. Nocturnal bats were traditionally believed to possess only rods. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and at The Field Museum for Natural History in Chicago have discovered that nocturnal fruit bats (flying foxes) possess cones in addition to rods. Hence, fruit bats are also equipped for daylight vision. The researchers conclude that cone photoreceptors might be useful for spotting predators and for social interactions at periods of roosting during the day. Flying foxes often use exposed treetops as daytime roosts, where they assemble in large colonies (Brain, Behavior and Evolution, online May 2007).

Disappearing Common Birds Send Environmental Wake-up Call:

Birdsongs that filled the childhoods of countless baby-boomers are rarely heard wafting on today’s spring breezes….Once-familiar avian spectacles now elude young birdwatchers…It’s not your imagination… A new analysis by the National Audubon Society reveals that populations of some of America’s most familiar and beloved birds have taken a nosedive over the past forty years, with some down as much as 80 percent. The dramatic declines are attributed to the loss of grasslands, healthy forests and wetlands, and other critical habitats from multiple environmental threats such as sprawl, energy development, and the spread of industrialized agriculture.

Whale Has Super-sized Big Gulp:

How does the largest animal on earth survive on a diet of the smallest of prey? By having a jaw that spans a quarter of its body length, an enormous mouth that goes from the head to the belly button, and by doing lots of “lunges,” according to UBC zoology PhD candidate Jeremy Goldbogen.

Bacteria Can Hide Out In Cells For Weeks:

A major cause of human and animal infections, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria may evade the immune system’s defences and dodge antibiotics by climbing into our cells and then lying low to avoid detection. New research shows how S. aureus makes itself at home in human lung cells for up to two weeks.

Single-celled Transformers: Marine Phytoplankton Changes Form To Protect Itself:

A tiny single-celled organism that plays a key role in the carbon cycle of cold-water oceans may be a lot smarter than scientists had suspected. Researchers report the first evidence that a common species of saltwater algae — also known as phytoplankton — can change form to protect itself against attack by predators that have very different feeding habits.

Why Was The Racehorse Eclipse So Good?:

Scientists from the Royal Veterinary College and the University of Cambridge are researching what made the undefeated 18th Century horse, Eclipse, such a great champion. The genetics research is giving insights into the origins of the world’s thoroughbred racing stock, including the sensational 1867 Derby winner, Hermit.

‘Divorce’ Among Galapagos Seabirds Investigated:

Being a devoted husband and father is not enough to keep an avian marriage together for the Nazca booby, a long-lived seabird found in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.

Biologists Unravel The Genetic Secrets Of Black Widow Spider Silk:

Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the “dragline silk” of the black widow spider — an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.

…and much more good stuff under the fold…

Continue reading →

Lizard Moms Dress Their Children For Success:

Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, “dressing” their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother’s influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as adults.

Bird Song Study Gives Clues To Human Stuttering:

Researchers at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) in Houston and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City used functional MRI to determine that songbirds have a pronounced right-brain response to the sound of songs, establishing a foundational study for future research on songbird models of speech disorders such as stuttering.

Trade Protection Denied For Two Shark Species Prized For Fins, Says World Wildlife Fund:

Two shark species highly prized for their meat and fins have not gained trade protection under CITES, the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, say World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC.

Physicist Cracks Women’s Random But Always Lucky Choice Of X Chromosome:

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky.

Color Pattern Spurs Speciation In Tropical Fish:

A team of researchers from McGill University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) has provided the first example of how colour patterns on a coral reef fish species can drive its evolution into many distinct species.

Massive Herds Of Animals Found To Still Exist In Southern Sudan:

Aerial surveys by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society confirm the existence of more than 1.2 million white-eared kob, tiang antelope and Mongalla gazelle in Southern Sudan, where wildlife was thought to have vanished as a result of decades-long conflict. Despite the war, some species of wildlife in Southern Sudan, last surveyed more than 25 years ago, have not only survived but have thrived east of the Nile River in numbers that rival those of the Serengeti.

Rove Beetles Act As Warning Signs For Clear-cutting Consequences:

New research from the University of Alberta and the Canadian Forest Service has revealed the humble rove beetle may actually have a lot to tell us about the effects of harvesting on forests species. Rove beetles can be used as indicators of clear-cut harvesting and regeneration practices and can be used as an example as to how species react to harvesting. It has been found that after an area of forest was harvested, the many forest species, including rove beetles, decreased dramatically. As the forest regenerated, it never fully replicated the full characteristics of the older forest it replaced.

Ancient DNA Traces Woolly Mammoth’s Disappearance:

Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a “genetic signature” of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths’ migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out.

For more, see this and this.
Scientists Propose The Kind Of Chemistry That Led To Life:

Before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage – so experts believe. But what preceded these pre-life steps? A pair of UCSF scientists has developed a model explaining how simple chemical and physical processes may have laid the foundation for life. Like all useful models, theirs can be tested, and they describe how this can be done. Their model is based on simple, well-known chemical and physical laws.

The Fisherman Is A Predator Like Any Other:

For Peru fishing is a prime source of foreign exchange, second only to mining. The country’s anchovy fishing fleet, which seeks the Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens, is the world’s largest single-species fishery, with an average of 8% of global landings. For safety and monitoring purposes, vessels have the statutory obligation to be equipped with satellite geopositioning indicators, seeing that industrial-scale fishing is prohibited within a band of 5 nautical miles (about 9 kilometres) from the coast. This satellite device, the vessel monitoring system (VMS), gives the real-time position of the vessels to an accuracy of 100 m, communicated to bodies responsible for vessel movement recording and scientific monitoring of fishing.

The Insect Vector Always Bites Twice:

The reality of the threat from vector-borne diseases has been recognized and the problem is prompting research scientists to take a strong interest. Most of these infections, classified as emerging or re-emerging diseases, are linked to ecosystem changes, climatic variations or pressure from human activities. Malaria, sleeping sickness and so on lead to the death of millions of people in the world. African countries are particularly strongly hit. The expansion of Dengue fever and the recent epidemics of Chikungunya and West Nile disease illustrate the trend.

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge:

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals.

[PZ Myers explains it better]
Hives Ferment A Yeasty Brew, Attract Beetle Pest:

The honeybee’s alarm signal may not only bring help, but also attract the small hive beetle. Now, an international team of researchers has found that small hive beetles can detect some alarm pheromones at levels below that detected by honeybees.

‘Cultured’ Chimpanzees Pass On Novel Traditions:

The local customs that define human cultures in important ways also exist in the ape world, suggests a study reported online June 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Indeed, captive chimpanzees, like people, can readily acquire new traditions, and those newly instituted “cultural practices” can spread to other troops.

Super Fruit Fly May Lead To Healthier Humans; Aging Slowed With Single Protein:

In a triumph for pests, scientists have figured out how to make the fruit fly live longer. But humans still may get something out of the deal. As reported online in Nature Chemical Biology, the discovery that a single protein can inhibit aging holds implications for human longevity and for treatment of some of the world’s most feared diseases.

Bigger Horns Equal Better Genes:

Size matters. At least, it does to an alpine ibex. According to a team of international researchers, mature, male alpine ibex demonstrate a correlation between horn growth and genetic diversity. Past research studies have shown that greater genetic diversity correlates with a greater chance of survival.

Caribbean Frogs Started With A Single, Ancient Voyage On A Raft From South America:

Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that rafted on a sea voyage from South America about 30-to-50-million years ago, according to DNA-sequence analyses led by a research group at Penn State, which will be published in the 12 June 2007 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and posted in the journal’s online early edition this week. Similarly, the scientists found that the Central American relatives of these Caribbean frogs also arose from a single species that arrived by raft from South America.

The Bee That Would Be Queen:

A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Purdue University and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has discovered evidence that honeybees have adopted a phylogenetically old molecular cascade — TOR (target of rapamycin), linked to nutrient and energy sensing — and put it to use in caste development. The findings, published in the June 6 edition of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science, show that TOR is directly linked in the nutrient-induced development of female honeybees into either queens, the caste of large dominant egg-layers, or into workers, the caste of small helpers.

Organic Food Miles Take Toll On Environment:

Organic fruit and vegetables may be healthier for the dinner table, but not necessarily for the environment, a University of Alberta study shows. The study, conducted by a team of student researchers in the Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, showed that the greenhouse gas emitted when the produce is transported from great distances mitigates the environmental benefits of growing the food organically.

What Did Dinosaurs Hear?:

What did dinosaurs hear? Probably a lot of low frequency sounds, like the heavy footsteps of another dinosaur, if University of Maryland professor Robert Dooling and his colleagues are right. What they likely couldn’t hear were the high pitched sounds that birds make.

Scientists Join Fight To Save Tasmanian Devil From Deadly Cancer:

CSIRO scientists have joined the battle to save Australia’s iconic Tasmanian devils from the deadly cancer currently devastating devil populations.

Stray Penguins Probably Reached Northern Waters By Fishing Boat:

Guy Demmert got quite a surprise when he hauled a fishing net into his boat off the coast of southeast Alaska in July 2002. There among the salmon, in living black and white, was a Humboldt penguin, thousands of miles from where any of its kind should have been.

Hormone Helps Mice ‘Hibernate,’ Survive Starvation:

A key hormone enables starving mice to alter their metabolism and “hibernate” to conserve energy, revealing a novel molecular target for drugs to treat human obesity and metabolic disorders, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The starvation-fighting effects of the hormone, called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), are described for the first time in a study appearing online today in Cell Metabolism.

Climate Change And Deforestation Will Lead To Declines In Global Bird Diversity, Study Warns:

Global warming and the destruction of natural habitats will lead to significant declines and extinctions in the world’s 8,750 terrestrial bird species over the next century, according to a study conducted by biologists at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University.

24 Species Believed New To Science Discovered In Suriname Rainforest:

Conservationists are in the northern Amazon nation of Suriname today calling for better environmental protections from illegal mining and other threats. To make the case for improved conservation practices, scientists from Conservation International (CI) and partner institutions are presenting a report to government officials that details eastern Suriname’s invaluable biodiversity. The report documents the results of a 2005 expedition and 2006 follow-up survey, led by CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), during which researchers found 24 species previously unknown to science.

Duetting Birds With Rhythm Present A Greater Threat:

Birds that sing duets with incredible rhythmic precision present a greater threat to other members of their species than those that whistle a sloppier tune, according to a study of Australian magpie-larks reported in the June 5th issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Going Fishing? Only Some Catch And Release Methods Let The Fish Live:

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) fisheries scientists are investigating ways to boost the survival rates of several more species of fish caught and then released by anglers. Some guidelines designed to improve fish survival were recently developed for released line-caught snapper, silver trevally, mulloway, sand whiting, yellowfin bream and dusky flathead.

New Animal Model Boosts Biodefense Research On Lassa Fever:

Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research have developed a new tool in the battle against a potential biological weapon, Lassa fever, which kills several thousand people each year and leaves thousands more with disabilities such as deafness and liver damage. In an article in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology (Vol. 81, Issue 12), SFBR scientists Jean Patterson and Ricardo Carrion Jr. and colleagues detail the development of a new animal model, the marmoset monkey, for use in Lassa fever research.

Male Mice Get A Longevity Boost From Compound Found In Creosote Bush:

Aspirin didn’t pan out. Neither did two other potential anti-aging agents. But a synthetic derivative of a pungent desert shrub is now a front-runner in ongoing animal experiments to find out if certain chemicals, known to inhibit inflammation, cancer and other destructive processes, can boost the odds of living longer.

Climate Change Linked To Origins Of Agriculture In Mexico:

New charcoal and plant microfossil evidence from Mexico’s Central Balsas valley links a pivotal cultural shift, crop domestication in the New World, to local and regional environmental history. Agriculture in the Balsas valley originated and diversified during the warm, wet, postglacial period following the much cooler and drier climate in the final phases of the last ice age. A significant dry period appears to have occurred at the same time as the major dry episode associated with the collapse of Mayan civilization, Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.

Furry-clawed Asian Crabs Found In Delaware And Chesapeake Bays:

Chinese mitten crabs, first reported in the Chesapeake Bay, are more widespread than initially thought. Four crabs have now been caught in Delaware Bay during the last week of May 2007, and may occur in other waters of the U.S. east coast.

The Scientist And The Contortionist:

Watching a ballet dancer or circus acrobat perform, who hasn’t winced at the thought of trying to replicate the impossible flexibility on display? Emilie Mackie ’07, a neuroscience major, wondered what exactly is happening to the brain during this type of visceral response to someone else’s physical state, so she cast about for a contortionist.

Threats To Wild Tigers Growing:

The wild tiger now occupies a mere 7 percent of its historic range, and the area known to be inhabited by tigers has declined by 41 percent over the past decade, according to a recent article. Growing trade in folk medicines made from tiger parts and tiger skins, along with habitat loss and fragmentation, is believed to be the chief reason for the losses. The assessment, by Eric Dinerstein of the World Wildlife Fund and 15 coauthors, describes the wild tiger’s population trajectory as “catastrophic” and urges international cooperation to ensure the animal’s continued existence in the wild.

An Apple Peel A Day Might Keep Cancer At Bay:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Or, what appears to be more accurate: An apple peel a day might help keep cancer at bay, according to a new Cornell study. Cornell researchers have identified a dozen compounds — triterpenoids — in apple peel that either inhibit or kill cancer cells in laboratory cultures. Three of the compounds have not previously been described in the literature.

Cells Re-energize To Come Back From The Brink Of Death:

The discovery of how some abnormal cells can avoid a biochemical program of self-destruction by increasing their energy level and repairing the damage, is giving investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital insights into a key strategy cancer cells use to survive and thrive.

Cellular Message Movement Captured On Video:

Scientists have captured on video the intracellular version of a postal delivery service. Reporting in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC), bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego published videos of a key message-carrying protein called paxillin moving abruptly from hubs of communication and transportation activity on the cell surface toward the nucleus. Paxillin was labeled with a red fluorescence marker to make it stand out in live cells.

Fibromyalgia: The Misunderstood Disease:

Fourteen years ago, Josephine* began to experience severe pain throughout her body. As her symptoms became worse, she sought help from a variety of specialists, but no one could diagnose her condition. “I was told they didn’t know what was wrong with me; the blood tests came back good, x-rays came back clear,” she says. “They had no idea and they’d shuffle me to another doctor, another specialist.” She saw rheumatologists, neurologists, internists, and blood specialists, but there was still no answer.

Want To Save Polar Bears? Follow The Ice:

In the wake of the U.S. government’s watershed decision to propose listing the polar bear as “Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is launching a bold initiative to save the Earth’s largest terrestrial predator, not by following the bears themselves, but the receding sea ice habitat that may drastically shrink as a result of global warming. In a project named “Warm Waters for Cool Bears,” WCS will use both current and historical satellite imagery to predict where sea ice is likely to persist and where subsequent conservation efforts to save the species will be most effective.

Protein That Signals Flowering In Squash Plants Identified:

The length of the day relative to night, or photoperiod, is a strong determining factor for the induction of flowering in many plant species. Short day (SD) plants require a short day length (or more precisely, a long night) in order to flower. These are plants that flower as the days grow shorter, such as in the fall in temperate regions. Long day (LD) plants will flower when nights are short (and days are long), and typically flower in late spring or early summer.

Virtual Nature Via Video Raises Concerns For Conservation:

Biologists have found that in addition to promoting an unhealthy lifestyle, the rising use of video games correlates with a reduction in outdoor nature experiences, and experiencing only “virtual nature” has negative implications for conservation efforts.

Lessons From The Orangutans: Upright Walking May Have Begun In The Trees:

By observing wild orangutans, a research team has found that walking on two legs may have arisen in relatively ancient, tree-dwelling apes, rather than in more recent human ancestors that had already descended to the savannah, as current theory suggests.

Philandering Female Felines Forgo Fidelity:

While promiscuity in the animal kingdom is generally a male thing, researchers for the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have found that, in cheetah society, it’s the female with the wandering eye, as reported in a paper in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Blind Dogs Can See After New Treatment For A Sudden Onset Blinding Disease:

If two dogs are any indication, Iowa State University veterinary researchers may have found a cure for a previously incurable disease that causes dogs to go blind suddenly.

Five New Species Of Sea Slugs Discovered In The Tropical Eastern Pacific:

The Tropical Eastern Pacific, a discrete biogeographic region that has an extremely high rate of endemism among its marine organisms, continues to yield a wealth of never-before-described marine animals to visiting scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Veterinarians At Increased Risk Of Avian Influenza Virus Infection:

Veterinarians who work with birds are at increased risk for infection with avian influenza virus and should be among those with priority access to pandemic influenza vaccines and antivirals, according to a study conducted by researchers in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

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Evolution Of Animal Personalities:

Animals differ strikingly in character and temperament. Yet only recently has it become evident that personalities are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Animals as diverse as spiders, mice and squids appear to have personalities. Personality differences have been described in more than 60 species, including primates, rodents, birds, fish, insects and mollusks.

Eavesdropping Comes Naturally To Young Song Sparrows:

Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to and learning the tunes sung by their neighbors. University of Washington researchers exploring how male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) acquire their song repertoires have found the first evidence that young birds choose many of their songs by eavesdropping on the tuneful interactions between other sparrows.

For Many Insects, Winter Survival Is In The Genes:

Many insects living in northern climates don’t die at the first signs of cold weather. Rather, new research suggests that they use a number of specialized proteins to survive the chilly months. These so-called “heat-shock proteins” ensure that the insects will be back to bug us come spring.

More under the fold….

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Moths Mimic Sounds To Survive:

In response to the sonar that bats use to locate prey, the tiger moths make ultrasonic clicks of their own. They broadcast the clicks from a paired set of structures called “tymbals.” Many species of tiger moth use the tymbals to make specific sounds that warn the bat of their bad taste. Other species make sounds that closely mimic those high-frequency sounds.

Fire Ants Are Emerging Nuisance For Virginia Residents:

Red imported fire ants (RIFAs), which have caused trouble in Florida and Texas for decades, are now advancing in Virginia. Colonies of the tiny, highly aggressive insects have been observed in the commonwealth since 1989 and, in recent years, have caught the attention of Virginia Tech scientists who are trying to learn more about the increasing number of fire ant infestations.

Some Forest Birds Can Survive In Agricultural Countryside With Limited Habitat Conservation:

Some tropical forest birds can survive alongside humans if given a helping hand, according to a recent study by Cagan H. Sekercioglu, senior scientist at the Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology.

Young Meerkats Learn The Emotion Before The Message In Threat Calls:

It is well known that human speech can provide listeners with simultaneous information about a person’s emotions and objects in the environment. Past research has shown that animal vocalizations can do the same, but little is known about the development of the features that encode such information.

Tropical Birds Have Slow Pace Of Life Compared To Northern Species, Study Finds:

In the steamy tropics, even the birds find the pace of life a bit more relaxed, research shows. Tropical birds expend less energy at rest than do birds living in more northern climates, according to a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Skimmed Milk — Straight From The Cow:

Herds of cows producing skimmed milk could soon be roaming our pastures, reports Cath O’Driscoll in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Scientists in New Zealand have discovered that some cows have genes that give them a natural ability to produce skimmed milk and plan to use this information to breed herds of milkers producing only skimmed milk.

Inner Workings Of The Magnanimous Mind: Why It Feels Good To Be Altruistic:

It’s an enduring mystery that taunts neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists. If the human brain evolved to maximize its owner’s survival, why are we motivated to help others, even when it incurs some personal cost? One pat answer is that when we help someone in need, we expect him to return the favor. But some kinds of altruism aren’t easy to explain away as mere reciprocity. For example, tax incentives aside, donating money to a charitable cause is unlikely to bring the donor any foreseeable return – except perhaps the “joy of giving.” Two new studies shed light on why it feels good to give by examining how and where altruism originates in the brain.

Treating Longtime Partner Like A First Date Can Boost Morale And Well-being:

The quickest way for longtime couples to rekindle romance may be to pretend they’re strangers, according to a University of British Columbia psychology study. By acting as if they’re on a first date, they’ll likely put their best face forward and end up having a better time, says investigator Elizabeth Dunn, an assistant professor at the UBC Dept. of Psychology.

Sex In The Morning Or In The Evening?:

Hens solicit sex in the morning to avoid sexual harassment in male-dominated groups of chickens, shown in a new study by Hanne Løvlie of Stockholm University, Sweden, and Dr Tommaso Pizzari of the University of Oxford, UK.

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These are always more controversial than articles about “hard sciences” so have a go at them:

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Rare Footprints Of Infant Dinosaur Discovered:

Researchers at the Morrison Natural History Museum have discovered two rare hatchling dinosaur footprints in the foothills west of Denver, near the town of Morrison.

Bacteria Show Promise In Fending Off Global Amphibian Killer:

First in a petri dish and now on live salamanders, probiotic bacteria seem to repel a deadly fungus being blamed for worldwide amphibian deaths and even extinctions. Though the research is in its early stages, scientists are encouraged by results that could lead the way to helping threatened species like mountain yellow-legged frogs of the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern California.

Essential Tones Of Music Rooted In Human Speech:

The use of 12 tone intervals in the music of many human cultures is rooted in the physics of how our vocal anatomy produces speech, according to researchers at the Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.

Definitive Evidence Found Of A Swimming Dinosaur:

An extraordinary underwater trackway with 12 consecutive prints provides the most compelling evidence to-date that some dinosaurs were swimmers. The 15-meter-long trackway, located in La Virgen del Campo track site in Spain’s Cameros Basin, contains the first long and continuous record of swimming by a non-avian therapod dinosaur.

Teen Sex And Depression Study Finds Most Teens’ Mental Health Unaffected By Nonmarital Sex:

For a decade, the legislative push for “abstinence only” sex education has suggested that nonmarital sex negatively affects a teen’s mental health. But a new study shows that the negative mental side effects of a teen’s loss of virginity are confined to a small proportion of those who have sex — specifically, young girls and both boys and girls who have sex earlier than their peers and whose relationships are uncommitted and ultimately fall apart.

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New Genetic Data Overturn Long-held Theory Of Limb Development:

Long before animals with limbs (tetrapods) came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with helping to grow hands and feet (autopods) report University of Chicago researchers in the May 24, 2007, issue of Nature. This finding overturns a long-held, but much-debated, theory that limb acquisition was a novel evolutionary event, requiring the descendents of lobed-fin fish to dramatically alter their genes to adapt their bodies to their new environments of streams and swamps.

New Species Of Biting Aquatic Insects Found In Thailand:

While in Thailand, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found a treasure-trove of previously unknown information about aquatic insects in the country. In the process, he learned firsthand that a few of these little critters pack quite a punch when they bite.

Archaea In Hot Springs Use Ammonia For Energy: May Shed Light On Early Evolution:

Discovered in the late 1970s, archaea are one of the three main branches on the tree of life, with bacteria and eukaryotes such as plants and animals on the other two branches. But scientists are just now gaining a fuller understanding of what archaea do — in an ecological sense — to make a living. A new study led by University of Georgia researchers and announced on Wednesday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Toronto finds that crenarchaeota, one of the most common groups of archaea and a group that includes members that live in hot springs, use ammonia as their energy source. Chuanlun Zhang, lead author of the study and associate research scientist at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, said such a metabolic mode has not been found in any of the other known high-temperature archaea.

‘Radiation-eating’ Fungi Finding Could Trigger Recalculation Of Earth’s Energy Balance And Help Feed Astronauts:

Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use. But researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found evidence that fungi possess a previously undiscovered talent with profound implications: the ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.

One In Six European Mammals Threatened With Extinction:

The first assessment of all European mammals, commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), shows that nearly one in every six mammal species is now threatened with extinction. The population trends are equally alarming: a quarter (27%) of all mammals has declining populations and a further 33% had an unknown population trend. Only 8% were identified as increasing, including the European bison, thanks to successful conservation measures.

Scientists Concerned About Effects Of Global Warming On Infectious Diseases:

As the Earth’s temperatures continue to rise, we can expect a significant change in infectious disease patterns around the globe. Just exactly what those changes will be remains unclear, but scientists agree they will not be for the good.

Whales In Hot Water: Global Warming’s Effect On World’s Largest Creatures:

Whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) are facing increasing threats from climate change, according to a new report published by WWF and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Scientists Evolve New Proteins From Scratch:

Nature, through the trial and error of evolution, has discovered a vast diversity of life from what can only presumed to have been a primordial pool of building blocks. Inspired by this success, a new Biodesign Institute research team, led by John Chaput, is now trying to mimic the process of Darwinian evolution in the laboratory by evolving new proteins from scratch. Using new tricks of molecular biology, Chaput and co-workers have evolved several new proteins in a fraction of the 3 billion years it took nature.

Reason For Mammals’ Aging Lies In The Brain:

To date, there are two basic concepts of reasons for aging. The first one is death as a result of damage accumulation, and the second is death as a suicide program. There are multiple arguments in favour of both concepts. A new – astrocytic – hypothesis has been put forward by Aleksei Boyko, Ukrainian researcher, specialist of the National Agrarian University of Ukraine. In the framework of this hypothesis, aging is treated as a result of changes in cerebrum cells. The key role is played by transmutation of cells of the radial neuroglia into stellate cells – astrocytes. Since such cell transmutation is a programmed process, the researcher is inclined to the opinion that aging and following death have been programmed.

Sleep Apnea Patients Have Greatly Increased Risk Of Severe Car Crashes:

People with obstructive sleep apnea have a markedly increased risk of severe motor vehicle crashes involving personal injury, according to a new study. The study of 800 people with sleep apnea and 800 without the nighttime breathing disorder found that patients with sleep apnea were twice as likely as people without sleep apnea to have a car crash, and three to five times as likely to have a serious crash involving personal injury. Overall, the sleep apnea group had a total of 250 crashes over three years, compared with 123 crashes in the group without sleep apnea.

How Rabies Spreads In A Raccoon Outbreak:

Analyzing 30 years of data detailing a large rabies virus outbreak among North American raccoons, researchers at Emory University have revealed how initial demographic, ecological and genetic processes simultaneously shaped the virus’s geographic spread over time.

Prehistoric Behavior And Ecology Of Northern Fur Seals Reconstructed:

A team of researchers has documented major changes in the behavior, ecology, and geographic range of the northern fur seal over the past 1,500 years using a combination of techniques from archaeology, biochemistry, and ecology. Among their findings is evidence of reproductive behavior in the past that is not seen in modern populations of northern fur seals.

Biologist Hopes Mosquito Can Break Viral Chain:

Most people do their best to avoid mosquitoes. But this summer Rollie Clem will play the wary host to his own homegrown swarm of Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. He’s made a room ready for them, and even a menu.

Fused Nasal Bones Helped Tyrannosaurids Dismember Prey:

New evidence may help explain the brute strength of the tyrannosaurid, says a University of Alberta researcher whose finding demonstrates how a fused nasal bone helped turn the animal into a “zoological superweapon.”

Jet Lag, Circadian Clocks Explained:

Circadian clocks regulate the timing of biological functions in almost all higher organisms. Anyone who has flown through several time zones knows the jet lag that can result when this timing is disrupted. Now, new research by Cornell and Dartmouth scientists explains the biological mechanism behind how circadian clocks sense light through a process that transfers energy from light to chemical reactions in cells. Circadian clocks in cells respond to differences in light between night and day and thereby allow organisms to anticipate changes in the environment by pacing their metabolism to this daily cycle.

OK, one more little piece of the puzzle is in – it does not mean that everything is “explained” as the title suggests….
Bigger Is Smarter: Overall, Not Relative, Brain Size Predicts Intelligence:

When it comes to estimating the intelligence of various animal species, it may be as simple measuring overall brain size. In fact, making corrections for a species’ body size may be a mistake. The findings were reported by researchers at Grand Valley State University and the Anthropological Institute and Museum at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. “It’s long been known that species with larger body sizes generally have larger brains,” said Robert Deaner, assistant professor of psychology at Grand Valley and the first author on the study. “Scientists have generally assumed that this pattern occurs because larger animals require larger nervous systems to coordinate their larger bodies. But our results suggest a simpler reason: larger species are typically smarter.”

Afarensis has more….

Clock Gene Plays Role In Weight Gain, Study Finds:

Scientists at the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Wisconsin have discovered that a gene that participates in the regulation of the body’s biological rhythms may also be a major control in regulating metabolism. Their finding shows that mice lacking the gene Nocturnin, which is regulated by the circadian clock in the organs and tissues of mammals, are resistant to weight gain when put on a high fat diet and also are resistant to the accumulation of fat in the liver. This new understanding of weight gain could potentially lead to therapies for inhibiting obesity and for treating its effects on health.

Rare Soft-Shell Turtle, Nesting Ground Found In Cambodia:

One of the world’s largest and least studied freshwater turtles has been found in Cambodia’s Mekong River, raising hopes that the threatened species can be saved from extinction. Scientists from World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, and the Cambodian Turtle Conservation Team captured and released a 24.2 pound female Cantor’s giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) during a survey in March.

New Species Of Sea Anemone Found In Deepest Pacific:

Researchers cruising for creatures that live in the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean found a new species of sea anemone living in the unlikeliest of habitats – the carcass of a dead whale.

Revealing The Origins Of Morality — Good And Evil, Liberal And Conservative:

How much money would it take to get you to stick a pin into your palm? How much to stick a pin into the palm of a child you don’t know? How much to slap a friend in the face (with his or her permission) as part of a comedy skit? Well, what about slapping you father (with his permission) as part of a skit? How you answer questions such as these may reveal something about your morality, and even your politics–conservatives, for example, tend to care more about issues of hierarchy and respect, while liberals concentrate on caring and fairness.