ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News |
| Viruses in the gut may warn of a deadly disease in preterm infants Posted: 25 Apr 2022 02:21 PM PDT Medical researchers explore the galaxy of viruses present in the gut, known as the gut virome. They find that some preterm infants undergo marked alterations in their pattern of gut viruses shortly before developing a serious and often fatal disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). |
| Meat consumption must fall by at least 75 percent Posted: 25 Apr 2022 10:59 AM PDT If our planet Earth is to continue feeding us in the future, rich countries must significantly reduce their meat consumption -- ideally by at least 75 percent. The study reviews the current state of research on various aspects of meat consumption. In addition to the effects on the environment and climate, these include health and economic effects. |
| Beetle in the coconut: Fossil find sheds new light on Neotropical rainforests Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:11 AM PDT Tiny beetles that feed on fruit from the palm family may have developed their taste for coconuts long ago, according to a team of scientists studying suspected insect damage in a 60-million-year-old fossil. |
| 'I know this song!' Evolutionary keys to musical perception Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:11 AM PDT When we hear a song that we already know, we can identify it even if it is not an exact version of the original. If it sounds higher or lower, faster or slower, or if the instruments are different from the known version, humans can identify it even if there are these superficial changes to the melody. New research explores the extent to which this skill is based on skills that are also present in other animals, i.e., not unique to humans. |
| These male spiders catapult at impressive speeds to flee their mates before they get eaten Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:11 AM PDT After males of the orb-weaving spider Philoponella prominens mate with a female, they quickly launch themselves away, researchers report. Using a mechanism that hadn't been described before, the male spiders use a joint in their first pair of legs to immediately undertake a split-second catapult action, flinging themselves away from their partners at impressive speeds clocked at up to 88 centimeters per second (cm/s). |
| Scientists have discovered how bloodworms make their unique copper teeth Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:11 AM PDT Bloodworms are known for their unusual fang-like jaws, which are made of protein, melanin, and concentrations of copper not found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Scientists have observed how these worms use copper harvested from marine sediments to form their jaws, and the process may be even more unusual than the teeth themselves. |
| A new era of mitochondrial genome editing has begun Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:11 AM PDT A new era of mitochondrial genome editing has begun. Scientists successfully achieve A to G base conversion, the final missing piece of the puzzle in gene-editing technology. |
| Researchers discover drug-resistant environmental mold is capable of infecting people Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:10 AM PDT A new study finds that drug-resistant mold is spreading from the environment and infecting susceptible people's lungs. |
| Posted: 25 Apr 2022 09:10 AM PDT A major new study shows adding rock dust to UK agricultural soils could remove between 6 and 30 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere annually by 2050. |
| How equal charges in enzymes control biochemical reactions Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:49 AM PDT It is well known in physics and chemistry that equal charges repel each other, while opposite charges attract. It was long assumed that this principle also applies when enzymes -- the biological catalysts in all living organisms -- form or break chemical bonds. |
| Bean cultivation in diverse agricultural landscapes promotes bees and increases yields Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:49 AM PDT Pollination by insects is essential for the production of many food crops. The presence of pollinators, such as bees, depends on the availability of nesting sites and sufficient food. If these conditions are lacking, the pollinators also fail to appear and the yield of flowering arable crops, such as broad beans or oilseed rape, suffers as well. A team has investigated how the composition of flowering crops and semi-natural habitats in the landscape affects the density of bees, their behavior when collecting nectar, and the faba bean (Vicia faba) yields. |
| When male bees don't get lucky Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:49 AM PDT Do pesticides have anything to do with the decline in bee populations? A research team has now found a connection between fenbuconazole and the insects' mating behavior. |
| A friend, not foe: Parasite in gastrointestinal system found to promote health Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:49 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated that a gut parasite suppresses inflammation and improves the health of the gastrointestinal system. |
| Automated analysis of animal behavior Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:48 AM PDT Researchershave developed a new method that uses artificial intelligence to analyze animal behavior. This opens the door to longer-term in-depth studies in the field of behavioral science -- while also helping to improve animal welfare. |
| Offspring weakens when parents are given antibiotics Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:48 AM PDT New study shows the immune system of zebrafish weakens if one parent has been exposed to antibiotics. Antibiotics can have unwanted effects for several generations, researchers discover. |
| Ecotourism is having a negative effect on primate's behavior Posted: 25 Apr 2022 07:48 AM PDT New research shows that the increase in primate ecotourism is having a negative effect on monkey's behavior. The study found that this fast-growing tourism sector where tourists can conveniently reach primates via motor boats is causing stress-related behaviors in monkeys. |
| Marine mollusc shells reveal how prehistoric humans adapted to intense climate change Posted: 25 Apr 2022 05:57 AM PDT A study reveals the impact and consequences of the '8.2 ka event', the largest abrupt climate change of the Holocene, for prehistoric foragers and marine ecology in Atlantic Europe. |
| Newly discovered protein in fungus bypasses plant defenses Posted: 25 Apr 2022 05:57 AM PDT Scientists have identified a protein that allows the fungus which causes white mold stem rot in more than 600 plant species to overcome plant defenses. Knowledge of this protein, called SsPINE1, could help researchers develop a new, more precise system of control measures for the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum fungus, which attacks potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers, peas, lentils, canola, and many other broad leaf crops. |
| Meet the forest microbes that can survive megafires Posted: 25 Apr 2022 05:57 AM PDT New research shows fungi and bacteria able to survive redwood tanoak forest megafires are microbial 'cousins' that often increase in abundance after feeling the flames. |
| Humans possess surprising nutritional intelligence Posted: 24 Apr 2022 05:32 PM PDT Pioneering research has shed new light on what drives people's basic food preferences, indicating our choices may be smarter than previously thought and influenced by the specific nutrients, as opposed to just calories, we need. |
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