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In a recent study, scientists discovered that white-nose syndrome (WNS)-affected little brown bats significantly boosted their foraging activities at artificial insect buffets. Bats will be able to boost their fat reserves before and during hibernation thanks to the bug buffets, which are situated close to hibernation areas. They should be able to survive the illness as a result. For bats with WNS, … Continue reading White-nose syndrome in little brown bats: how to protect them

A tiny insect known as a cynipid wasp has a larva that was recently found generating plant growths known as galls that possessed acidity levels comparable to lemons. Entomologist at Penn State and main author of an article on the discovery that was published on March 1 in Biology Letters, Antoine Guiguet, noted that it is a unique defense system that has never been observed before. … Continue reading The high acidity of a cynipid wasp’s gall may be a new way to defend against predators

The symbiotic interaction between fungus and algae, which science has mostly ignored up until now, has been detailed by researchers from the Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences. Alcobiosis is a novel term describing the coexistence of algae and corticioid basidiomycetes, which are widespread in temperate woods. Scientific Reports has published their study. The study’s lead author, Jan Vondrák of the Institute … Continue reading Researchers have found a new way for algae and fungi to live together

The “powerhouses” of cells called mitochondria can now be studied in a new way thanks to an innovative imaging-based technique developed by scientists at Scripps Research. The researchers reported their methods in the Journal of Cell Biology on February 14, 2023. These methods allow for the imaging and quantification of even subtle transformation inside mitochondria, and the linkage of these changes with … Continue reading Scientists at Scripps Research have developed a new technique for studying mitochondria

Scientists from Northeast Forestry University and the Zhejiang University School of Medicine collaborated to determine how the Chinese red-headed centipede detects light without the need of eyes or photoreceptors. The group explains its experiments with the myriapods to determine how they detect sunlight in a report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The venomous Chinese red-headed centipede has a … Continue reading Centipedes don’t have eyes, so how do they find the light?

New research demonstrates that an introduced European species of damselfly offers only a little threat to native British damselflies and dragonflies. The little red-eyed damselfly has expanded its range northward from the Mediterranean as temperatures rise. In 1999, it was first seen in the UK, and since then it has spread throughout the country. The new research examined data from the British … Continue reading A range-shifting damselfly species is now cohabitating alongside its UK relative

The threat posed by antibiotic-resistant microorganisms to world health is growing. Each year, millions of people die as a result of bacterial infections that acquire genetic resistance to antibiotics. However, one of the many ways that bacteria might resist antibiotics is through genetic resistance. Texas A&M University researchers are looking at how bacteria might become resistant to drugs without gaining new genes … Continue reading Scientists have found out how electrochemical energy in bacteria makes them resistant to antibiotics

Researchers at the University of Oregon have made important discoveries into the genetics of scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. UO biology professor Dan Grimes and his team of researchers have discovered two small proteins that play an important role in maintaining spinal alignment during critical stages of development. When these proteins are mutated in zebrafish, the fish develop deformed spines … Continue reading A study of zebrafish has contributed to the understanding of the causes of scoliosis

To recognize and understand viroids and viroid-like covalently closed circular RNAs, a team of researchers from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and partnering university research institutes have created a computer pipeline. Compared to linear RNA, this kind of single-stranded RNA forms a continuous, covalently closed circle. The journal Cell reported the findings. Viroids are the smallest and most basic known infectious … Continue reading Scientists learn about the wide variety of viroids and viroid-like entities

A study team from the University of Copenhagen was able to stop invasive development in a skin cancer model by utilizing artificial human skin. The study, which examines what exactly occurs when a cell transforms into a cancer cell, has been published in Science Signaling. The researchers have been investigating the so-called TGF beta pathway, one of the cell’s signaling mechanisms. This … Continue reading The development of artificial human skin offers the path for new treatments for skin cancer

An invasive “giant” cane toad, a warty brown animal the length of a human arm and weighing 2.7 kilograms, was found in the wilds of a coastal park in Australia and subsequently killed by park rangers. Wildlife workers in Queensland’s Conway National Park saw the toad after being forced to stop their vehicle by a snake crossing the road. Last week, ranger … Continue reading ‘Monster’ 2.7-kilogram cane toad discovered by park rangers in Australia

Dr. Alastair Robinson, Manager Biodiversity Services at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and colleagues in Western Australia, Queensland, Malaysia, and Germany have shown in a study released today in the Annals of Botany that some Nepenthes, known as the tropical pitcher plants, obtain more nitrogen and, by extension, nutrients, from mammal droppings than those that capture insects. Dr. Robinson claims that a small number of … Continue reading Carnivorous pitcher plant’s successful heterotrophic way of getting food is to eat the waste of other animals

In the United States, where mother and newborn mortality rates are far higher than in Europe and other developed countries, maternal health outcomes continue to worsen. Researchers from Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, are leading a new study that sheds light on how hospital organizational … Continue reading The United States has a shorter average pregnancy duration compared to Europe

A new species of fish belonging to the eelpout family was found by a team of researchers led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. It resides in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica. The first fish species to be identified from the hydrothermal seep location known as Jacó Scar, which is situated on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, … Continue reading The deep-sea eelpout Pyrolycus jaco was discovered by Scripps Oceanography researchers

Human health can greatly benefit from the microbiome’s presence. It’s crucial to the proper functioning of several bodily systems, including the digestive and immune ones. However, our understanding of the acquisition and transmission of the bacteria and other microorganisms that make up the microbiome is quite limited. Nicola Segata and colleagues from the Department of Cellular, Computational, and Integrative Biology at the University … Continue reading The gut and mouth microbiomes and how they are passed from person to person

A new study conducted by scientists at Western Sydney University examines a deadly fungal infection that is causing significant biological disturbance for frogs and evaluates how reactions vary across species. The study, which was published in Functional Ecology, analyzed the chytrid fungal infection, which is responsible for the decline of at least 501 amphibian species and is often regarded as the most devastating single disease … Continue reading Many frog species are affected by a deadly pathogen, but the effects vary by species

Scientists from the University of Otago have described a new species of New Zealand gecko by utilizing a new method to analyze ancient DNA. This unique species, once known as Duvaucel’s gecko, is now recognized in te reo Māori language as te mokomoko a Tohu. Its 600 or so mature individuals are restricted to the islands of Ngwhatu-kai-ponu (Brothers) and Kuru Pongi (Trios) … Continue reading An updated taxonomy and description of a new species of the New Zealand gecko genus Hoplodactylus

Neutropenia is the depletion of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, which is a typical side effect of cytotoxic cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. Patients with severe neutropenia often experience fever. The mucus-degrading commensal bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila was identified as the possible causative agent of this fever, according to research published on November 16 in Science Translational Medicine. The results of this study … Continue reading Fever following cancer treatment may be facilitated by mucus-eating gut bacteria

Several species of the gigantic reptiles originally roamed alongside their much smaller counterparts in the southwestern region of Madagascar, which was a hotspot for tortoises. Now, researchers may complete that picture with a new species. Astrochelys rogerbouri, which the scientists estimated to have had a carapace of around 50 centimeters long, would have been one of the island’s giant tortoises. Despite the … Continue reading After a century of misidentification, a species of giant tortoise has been uncovered

Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD), a hereditary lung condition that affects more than 100,000 people in the United States and results in one kind of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), may now be treated thanks to research from Scripps Research. The human variation-based discovery technique, as detailed in Cell Chemical Biology, works by enhancing a broadly functioning protein quality control process already found … Continue reading To treat lung disease by correcting the folding of a protein that has gone wrong

University of St. Andrews researchers have discovered that chimpanzees in two nearby groups in Uganda’s Budongo Forest utilize leaf motions in several languages to communicate with one another. A community of chimpanzees will employ their own preferred way of leaf-modifying motion, and nearby groups can use different ones, resulting in each group having its own gestural language, according to research published on Jan. 5 … Continue reading Leaf-clipping and other leaf-modifying actions among East African chimpanzees as a form of gestural dialects

The most dangerous form of skin cancer, known as melanoma, has been found to be driven by a protein discovered by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London, and the Francis Crick Institute. This protein gives the cancer cells the ability to change the shape of their nucleus, which enhances their migration and spread throughout the body. Skin cancer cells … Continue reading Scientists have found a protein that promotes the metastasis of skin cancer

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan that causes the illness toxoplasmosis. Numerous species of birds and mammals carry T. gondii, and human infections are frequent. T. gondii infection affects 22.5% of people aged 12 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however immunocompromised individuals usually show no symptoms. Domestic cats serve as the primary infection carriers since they … Continue reading Toxoplasma parasite has the potential to take control of our brain

Most people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s today have already shown typical symptoms including memory loss. Once symptoms have progressed so far, the best treatment choices do nothing more than slow the disease’s progression. However, studies have revealed that the seeds of Alzheimer’s are planted years, if not decades, before the onset of any cognitive deficits that would allow for a diagnosis. Amyloid beta … Continue reading Researchers have developed a blood test that may identify the ‘toxic’ protein years before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear

Dr. Rhea Burton-Roberts, a biologist and lecturer at Bangor University, found that elephants had extremely stable seasonal migratory patterns over years. In Kruger National Park, Rhea found that elephant family groups prefer to stay in regions that they know well, but a scarcity of food during very dry seasons might lead them to move their foraging to less known habitats. Her research was … Continue reading The ability of elephants to remain in their seasonal habitat despite environmental change

Differentiated cells are the building blocks of all multicellular organisms, including humans, animals, and plants. Thus, the cells that make up the skin are not the same as the cells that line the digestive tract, nor do they serve the same purpose. However, how these cells are able to maintain their unique characteristics remains uncertain. One of the important regulators, the transcription factor … Continue reading The transformation of a tentacle into a foot

Humans don’t have it, but other mammals like orangutans, mice, and horses do. For a long time, it has been mysterious to scientists why humans have such a small amount of body hair compared to other mammals. However, the story of how humans and other mammals lost their locks is just beginning to be revealed thanks to a groundbreaking analysis of genetic … Continue reading The process by which humans began to lose their body hair

New research shows that mass coral bleaching events are making it tougher for some reef fish species to distinguish between rivals. After widespread loss of coral due to bleaching, scientists studying reefs in five parts of the Indo-Pacific discovered that butterflyfish individuals’ capacity to detect competing species and respond appropriately was compromised. As a result of this change, the butterflyfishes are less likely to … Continue reading As a result of coral bleaching, reef fish needs to relearn the rules of interaction

When the internal pressure of the body drops too low, a condition known as decompression sickness (DCS) can set in. DCS occurs when gases that were previously dissolved in the blood or other body tissues become undissolved. Divers who come up to the surface of the water too quickly are susceptible to this illness, as are pilots flying at high altitudes in … Continue reading What is decompression sickness?

New discoveries in immunology have been driven by the recent push to increase vaccine efficacy, revealing several innovative approaches with unrealized medicinal possibilities. Tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM cells) are the subject of a rapidly expanding field of study because of the long-term immunity they give against infections that target certain organs and tissues. Researchers from the University of California San Diego School … Continue reading Learning the rules of tissue-specific immunity could pave the way to a more promising future

The edible fruit Actinidia arguta, commonly called Sarunashi, is grown in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan. Sakae Arimoto-Kobayashi, PhD, an associate professor in the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences at Okayama University, and his team have shown in a mouse model that Sarunashi juice (Sar-j) and its primary component, isoquercetin (isoQ), can both prevent and decrease lung cancer. In research titled “Chemopreventive effects and anti-tumorigenic … Continue reading Japanese fruit hardy kiwi suppresses development of lung cancer in mice