ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after rainfall events - a phenomenon that many scientists have attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry. But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new article.

As antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more prevalent, silver has seen steep growth in its use in things like antibacterial coatings. Still, a better understanding can provide clues on how to best apply it. Researchers have now monitored the interaction of silver nanoparticles with a nearby E. coli culture and found the silver undergoes several dramatic changes. Most notably, the E. coli cells caused substantial transformations in the size and shape of the silver particles.

In work that could one day help athletes as well as aging adults regenerate tissue more effectively, scientists increased the regeneration of muscle cells in mice by activating the precursors of muscle cells.

When it comes to distinguishing a healthy cell from an infected one that needs to be destroyed, the immune system's killer T cells sometimes make mistakes.

Scientists explore racemases and propose strategies for finding drugs that target these important enzymes.

An international research team discovers additional component in staphylococcal cell wall that turns the bacterium potentially deadly.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, was a short interval of highly elevated global temperatures 56 million years ago that is frequently described as the best ancient analog for present-day climate warming.

The first species-wide survey of parasite infections across the entire range of the mountain gorilla indicates new challenges ahead for the endangered species as its population grows.

Road verges cover 1.2% of land in Great Britain - an area the size of Dorset - and could be managed to help wildlife, new research shows.

The thunder of a mountain river or the crash of pounding surf have likely been changing how animals communicate and where they live for eons. A new experimental study finds that birds and bats often avoid habitat swamped with loud whitewater river noise.