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Feeding bumblebees caffeine helps them better remember the smell of a specific flower with nectar inside. Image credit: Arnold et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.068.

Bumblebees Work Better after Caffeine Intake, New Study Shows

Jul 29, 2021 by News Staff

Caffeine is a widely occurring plant defense chemical that occurs in the nectar of some plants, e.g., coffee and citrus, where it may influence pollinator...

Honeybees begin constructing honeycombs in multiple locations, which they will eventually bridge together. Image credit: Michael Smith / Cornell University.

Honeybees are Skilled Architects, New Research Confirms

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are renowned for constructing perfect hexagonal honeycombs, hailed as the pinnacle of biological architecture for its ability...

Identifying the raw material used by wild New Caledonian crows for manufacturing hooked stick tools: (A) New Caledonian crow holding a hooked stick tool manufactured from Desmanthus virgatus at site-2; (B) satellite photograph showing study sites on the west coast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia; (C) timeline of animal-centered approaches employed while attempting to identify the tool material used at site-3, with short explanations for their limited success; (D) timeline of the artifact-centered, DNA barcoding approach which ultimately led to successful material identification; (i) hooked stick tool recovered at site-3; (ii) Mimusops elengi trees, with close-up of a forked terminal branch, which would be suitable for tool manufacture; (iii) simplified maximum-likelihood ITS phylogenetic tree detailing clustering of tool samples and a subset of reference data; (iv) ‘refit’ of a hooked stick tool made from Mimusops elengi material by a temporarily captive crow from site-1: the tool is displayed along with stem and plant debris which were discarded by the crow during the manufacture process. Scale in mm. Image credit: Steele et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2020699118.

Scientists Use DNA Barcoding to Identify Tool Materials of New Caledonian Crows

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

Using a taxonomic method called DNA barcoding, researchers have identified, from just a few recovered tool specimens, the plant species New Caledonian...

A sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) opening the lid of a household waste bin using one of many different opening techniques; this bird holds the lid with the bill and its left foot; a second bird is observing it closely. Image credit: Klump et al., doi: 10.1126/science.abe7808.

Study: Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos Spread Bin-Opening Behavior through Social Learning

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

Ornithologists from Germany and Australia have documented the emergence of a cultural adaptation to urban environments — opening of household waste...

Jaquemontia chuquisacensis. Image credit: John Pink.

Five New Species of Flowering Plants Discovered in Bolivia

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

A team of U.K. botanists has discovered five new species in the plant genus Jacquemontia in the Andes of Bolivia. Jaquemontia chuquisacensis. Image credit:...

Yao Tandong, left, and Lonnie Thompson, right, process an ice core drilled from the Guliya ice cap in the Tibetan Plateau in 2015. Image credit: Lonnie Thompson.

Scientists Find 14,400-Year-Old Microbes and Viruses in Tibetan Glacier Ice

Jul 20, 2021 by News Staff

Microbiologists at the Ohio State University have found that the ancient bacteria and their phages (bacteria-infecting viruses) from Tibetan glacier ice...

Study: Domestication Changed Not Just How Dogs Look, But Their Minds As Well

Jul 13, 2021 by News Staff

A new study led by a Duke University researcher supports the idea that domestication enhanced the cooperative-communicative abilities of dogs as selection...

The Romanesco cauliflower. Image credit: Marc Pascual.

New Study Reveals How Romanesco Cauliflowers Develop ‘Fractal’ Shape

Jul 13, 2021 by News Staff

Cauliflowers present an unusual organ arrangement with a multitude of spirals nested over a wide range of scales. How such a fractal, self-similar organization...

A special feature in the feeding behavior of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), related to eating bamboo, is the habit to skim the outer green skin of the hard bamboo culm; although the feeding preferences have a seasonal shift, the culm is consumed and skinned during all the year; while eating culm, the outer skin is removed for reasons which until now have remained poorly understood. This image shows a male giant panda named Xiao Liwu at San Diego Zoo. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Research Sheds Light on Giant Panda’s Adaptation to Bamboo Diet

Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The evolutionary adaptation of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to bamboo diet has taken place by adaptations in its masticatory (chewing) system,...

The western yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava), a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Songbirds Can Taste Sugar, Ornithologists Say

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Seeing a bird eat nectar from a flower is a common sight in our world. The ability to detect sugars, however, is not ancestral in the bird lineage, where...

Kennedy et al. found that fetal gut colonization of healthy term infants does not occur before birth. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Most Bacteria in Gut Microbiome are Heritable, New Study Suggests

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Commensal bacteria are found throughout an organism, but it is not known whether associations between gut bacteria and their host are heritable. In a new...

Illustration showing trends in the levels of purifying selection (purple) and thermostability (green) in G-quadruplexes across different regions of the genome (shown at bottom). Image credit: Kateryna Makova & Dani Zemba, Penn State.

G-Quadruplexes are Fundamental, Functional Elements of Human Genome, Researchers Say

Jul 6, 2021 by News Staff

DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape — two strands wound around each other. But approximately 1% of the human genome has the ability...

Dolichomitus meii, holotype, female; habitus in lateral view. Scale bar - 5 mm. Image credit: Di Giovanni et al., doi: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e67438.

Striking New Species of Wasp Discovered in Ecuador

Jul 2, 2021 by News Staff

Entomologists have described a new iridescent species of the parasitoid wasp genus Dolichomitus from the Ecuadorian Andes. Dolichomitus meii, holotype,...

An area (red-yellow) in the brain’s temporal pole specializes in familiar face recognition. Image credit: Sofia Landi.

New Class of Neurons Discovered

Jul 2, 2021 by News Staff

The question of how the human brain recognizes the faces of familiar individuals has been important throughout the history of neuroscience. Cells linking...

The mottled cup moth caterpillar (Doratifera vulnerans). Image credit: Jiayi Jin.

Australian Cup Moth Caterpillars Produce Highly Complex Venom

Jun 23, 2021 by News Staff

Contrary to dogma that defensive venoms are simple in composition, mottled cup moth caterpillars (Doratifera vulnerans) produce a very complex venom containing...

The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Myriam.

Bumblebees Can Detect Humidity of Flowers, Biologists Say

Jun 23, 2021 by News Staff

Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are able to use differences in floral humidity to distinguish between rewarding and non-rewarding flowers, according...

Latimeria chalumnae off Pumula on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa, on November 22, 2019. Image credit: Bruce Henderson, doi: 10.17159/sajs.2020/7806.

African Coelacanths Can Live for Up To 100 Years, Scale Analysis Shows

Jun 18, 2021 by News Staff

African coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae) reach maturity around the age of 55 and gestate their offspring for 5 years, according to a study published in...

A female sweat bee Megalopta genalis. Scale bar - 2 mm. Image credit: Ajay Narendra.

Study: Nocturnal Sweat Bees Able to Distinguish Dorsal Landmarks during Homing

Jun 18, 2021 by News Staff

The sweat bee Megalopta genalis, a Neotropical nocturnal bee species that navigates under the forest canopy at light intensities 10 times dimmer than starlight,...

A glial cell of new type (green), arising from adult stem cells in the brain, contacts nerve cells (magenta). Image credit: Biozentrum, University of Basel.

Scientists Discover Two New Types of Glial Cells in Mouse Brain

Jun 16, 2021 by News Staff

The two novel types of neuroglial cells — usually referred to simply as glial cells or glia — may play an important role in brain plasticity...