ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Sea otters are the smallest marine mammal. As cold-water dwellers, staying warm is a top priority, but their dense fur only goes so far. We have long known that high metabolism generates the heat they need to survive, but we didn't know how they were producing the heat -- until now.

To understand the connection between human activity and a type of tumorlike disease called growth anomalies (GAs) researchers have started using an emerging molecular profiling method to identify 18 small molecules that promise to help them better understand the series of molecular reactions that lead to the disease.

Researchers used artificial intelligence to obtain a more objective understanding of cell growth and division without preconceived assumptions. Using a deep-learning neural network, they were able to more accurately model the complex processes that affect cell size over time. This work may lead to advances in microbiology and industrial production of microorganisms.

Although the giant panda is in practice a herbivore, its masticatory system functions differently from the other herbivores. Through the processes of natural selection, the giant panda's dietary preference has strongly impacted the evolution of its teeth and jaws. Researchers have solved the mystery of how the giant panda's special stomatognathic system functions.

A new study provides a potential tool for unraveling the mystery of how experiences can cause inheritable changes to an animal's biology. By mating nematode worms, they produced permanent epigenetic changes that lasted for more than 300 generations.

Scientists investigated the efficiency of splicing across different human cell types. The results were surprising in that the splicing process appears to be quite inefficient, leaving most intronic sequences untouched as the transcripts are being synthesized. The study also reports variable patterns between the different introns within a gene and across cell lines, and it further highlights the complexity of how newly transcripts are processed into mature mRNAs.

Researchers have found a vital mechanism, previously thought to have disappeared as mammals evolved, that helps protect mammalian stem cells from RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and Zika virus. The scientists suggest this could one day be exploited in the development of new antiviral treatments.

Increased acidity in the atmosphere is disrupting the ecological balance of the oceans, according to new research. The study looks at acidity's impact on nutrient transport to the ocean and demonstrates that the way nutrients are delivered affects the productivity of the ocean and its ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

In mosquitofish, of the genus Gambusia, male fish are smaller than females -- sometimes only half the size. Biologists had previously assumed that smaller male mosquitofish had at least some reproductive advantages. Researchers have shown in a systematic review and meta-analysis that larger mosquitofish are actually more successful at reproduction.

Using artificial intelligence, scientists have identified thousands of genetic mutations likely to affect the immune system in mice.