Biology News

Accurate Age Predictions are Possible Using as Few as 50 DNA Molecules: Study

Using ultra-deep sequencing of >300 blood samples from healthy individuals, we show that age-dependent methylation changes occur regionally across clusters of CpG sites either stochastically or in a coordinated block-like manner. Image credit: Ochana et al., doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115958.
Jul 15, 2025 by News Staff

Using deep learning networks analyzing DNA methylation patterns, scientists at Hebrew University achieved chronological age (defined as the amount of time since birth) predictions with a median accuracy of 1.36-1.7 years for individuals under 50. Their results appear in the journal Cell Reports. Using ultra-deep sequencing of >300 blood samples from healthy individuals, we show that age-dependent methylation changes occur regionally across clusters...

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Guan et al. demonstrate that venoms are a rich source of previously hidden antimicrobial scaffolds, and that integrating large-scale computational mining with experimental validation can accelerate the discovery of urgently needed antibiotics. Image credit: Guan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60051-6.

AI Finds 386 Potential Antibiotics in Animal Venoms

Jul 14, 2025 by News Staff

To identify new antimicrobial candidates, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania mined global venomics datasets using a deep-learning system called...

Polyethylene degradation by wax worms. Left: plastic bag after exposure to about 100 wax worms for 12 hours; Right: magnification of the area indicated in the image at left. Image credit: Bombelli et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.060.

Wax Moth Caterpillars Can Metabolically Degrade Plastics and Store Them as Body Fat: Study

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

Plastic polymers are ubiquitous in our lives, and while their resilience makes them ideal for a variety of uses, finding means to effectively dispose of...

The cases presented by Towers et al. are among the first recorded where wild killer whales (Orcinus orca) used prey and other items to instigate interactions with humans. Image credit: Towers et al., doi: 10.1037/com0000422.

Wild Killer Whales Sometimes Offer Food to Humans, Scientists Say

Jul 7, 2025 by News Staff

In a paper published online in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, marine biologists report on 34 interactions spanning two decades in which killer...

Pristimantis chinguelas. Image credit: Chávez et al., doi: 10.3897/evolsyst.9.148522.

Herpetologists Discover Three New Species of Frogs in Peru

Jul 4, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Herpetologists have described three new species of the frog genus Pristimantis from the rugged, misty highlands of northwestern Peru. Pristimantis chinguelas....

Arabidopsis plants growing in a greenhouse. Image credit: Elena Zhukova / UCR.

Biologists Uncover How Plants Sense Heat during Day

Jul 1, 2025 by News Staff

New research led by University of California, Riverside’s Professor Meng Chen shows that plants rely on multiple heat-sensing systems and that sugar...

Allokelping in southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater). Image credit: Weiss et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.021.

Killer Whales Fashion Tools from Kelp and Use Them for Grooming

Jun 30, 2025 by News Staff

In a paper published this month in the journal Current Biology, marine researchers report evidence of the widespread manufacture and use of grooming tools...

Representative cryo-electron microscopy image of the leading edge of a RAT-1 cell cultured on cryo-EM grids. Lamellipodia and filopodia in the upper right corner delineate the cell border, separating the cytoplasm (Cyt) from the extracellular space (Ext). Vesicular organelles are highlighted in color: early endosome-like vesicles (En, pink), multivesicular bodies (MVB, blue), hemifusomes (HF, yellow), and flipped hemifusomes (fHF, green). Scale bar - 0.5 µm. Image credit: Tavakoli et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59887-9.

Hemifusomes: Biologists Discover Previously Unknown Organelle Complexes inside Human Cells

Jun 25, 2025 by News Staff

Hemifusomes constitute up to 10% of vesicular organelles at the cell periphery but do not engage in canonical endocytic pathways, according to a team of...

Johnson et al. report a biocompatible Lossen rearrangement that is catalyzed by phosphate in the bacterium Escherichia coli for the transformation of activated acyl hydroxamates to primary amine-containing metabolites in living cells. Image credit: Johnson et al., doi: 10.1038/s41557-025-01845-5.

Common Gut Bacterium Can Turn Everyday Plastic Waste into Paracetamol

Jun 24, 2025 by News Staff

Paracetamol, a pain medication also known as acetaminophen, is traditionally made from dwindling supplies of fossil fuels including crude oil. Thousands...

Isparta et al. believe that the significant leftward bias in sleeping position in cats may have been evolutionarily driven by hemispheric asymmetries of threat processing. Image credit: Noah Dustin von Weissenfluh / Gleb Kuzmenko / Isparta et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.043.

Two-Thirds of Domestic Cats Prefer to Sleep on Their Left Side, Study Shows

Jun 24, 2025 by Natali Anderson

New research led by scientists from the Ruhr-University Bochum, the University of Prince Edward Island, Ankara University and the University of Bari Aldo...

Tetragonula carbonaria combs. Image credit: Tobias Smith.

Honey from Australian Stingless Bees Has Unique Antimicrobial Properties, Study Shows

Jun 23, 2025 by News Staff

Honey from Australian stingless bees, commonly referred to as sugarbag bees, has historically served as a food source. It is also a traditional remedy...

The Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa), female. Image credit: Lucinda Gibson & Ken Walker, Museum Victoria / CC BY 3.0.

Bogong Moths Use Starry Night Sky as Compass, Scientists Say

Jun 19, 2025 by News Staff

Each spring, billions of Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) escape hot conditions across southeast Australia by migrating up to 1,000 km to a place that they...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient DNA Study Traces Incredible Journey of Dogs across Americas

Jun 18, 2025 by News Staff

Pre-contact Central and South American dogs (Canis familiaris) — all dogs preceding contact with European settlers — descended from a single...

Phylogeny of teleost fishes showing ancestral state reconstructions of biofluorescence (absence/presence). Image credit: Carr et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59843-7.

Two New Studies Shed Light on Ancient Origins of Biofluorescence in Fishes

Jun 17, 2025 by News Staff

Biofluorescence, the absorption of high-energy light and its reemission at lower energy wavelengths, is widespread across vertebrate and invertebrate lineages,...

An AI impression of the Tumat Puppies. Image credit: Gemini AI.

14,000-Year-Old ‘Tumat Puppies’ from Siberian Permafrost Are Not Early Dogs, New Analysis Shows

Jun 12, 2025 by News Staff

The Tumat Puppies, two permafrost-preserved Late Pleistocene canids, have been hypothesized to have been littermates and early domesticated dogs due to...

The wild boar (Sus scrofa). Image credit: Elşad İbrahimov / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pigs Were Domesticated from Wild Boars in South China over 8,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jun 10, 2025 by News Staff

China has long been considered one of the locations for original domestication of wild boars (Sus scrofa) but tracking the initial process has always been...

Cats love cat-appropriate songs. Image credit: © Natali Anderson.

Scientists Identify Genetic Variants Associated with Increased Purring in Cats

Jun 2, 2025 by News Staff

Cats (Felis catus) are companions familiar to people worldwide. Despite their popularity, few studies have investigated the genetic background of their...

Lauren Scott & Brittany Florkiewicz show that cat facial signals correspond to different social functions, which have likely been influenced by domestication. Image credit: Sci.News / Makieni777 / Rise-a-mui / Alexas_Fotos / Dorothe / Vaclav Zavada / Artem Makarov / Daga Roszkowska / Birgit / Pasi Mammela.

Domestic Cats Recognize Odor of Their Owner, Researchers Say

May 29, 2025 by News Staff

People all around the world live with cats and cats engage in many social behaviors toward their owners. Olfaction is one of the most important sensory...

Kim et al. hypothesize that the vast interindividual differences in shift work adaptation -- critical for shift worker health -- can in part be explained by biological mechanisms for seasonal timing. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Humans are Seasonal Creatures, New Research Reveals

May 29, 2025 by News Staff

Daily biological functions such as sleep, heart rate and metabolism are timed by intracellular circadian clocks which exist within almost all cells throughout...

The recording device, the model Antirrhinum plant, and the approaching Rhodanthidium sticticum bee. Image credit: Vibrant Lab.

Buzzing Sounds of Pollinators Lead Plants to Increase Their Nectar Production, Study Says

May 29, 2025 by News Staff

Flower visitors, including pollinators, produce characteristic sounds through flapping wing movements during flight. These sounds may provide key information...

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