Biology News

Camera Study Reveals Wildlife Abundance in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

A pack of gray wolves visits a scent station in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The photograph was taken by one of the remote camera stations and was triggered by the wolves’ movement. Image credit: Sarah Webster / Jim Beasley / National Geographic.
Apr 19, 2016 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment documents animal species prevalent in the human-free Chernobyl Exclusion Zone — a 1,620-square-mile area of contamination around the Chernobyl nuclear plant — and supports the findings of a 2015 study that animal distribution is not influenced by radiation levels. A pack of gray wolves visits a scent station in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The photograph was...

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Asiagomphus reinhardti. Image credit: Oleg E. Kosterin / Naoto Yokoi / TU Dresden.

Asiagomphus reinhardti: New Species of Dragonfly Discovered

Apr 18, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of entomologists has described a new species of dragonfly from Annamense Mountains in eastern Cambodia and southern Laos. Asiagomphus...

The Ganzhorn’s mouse lemur (Microcebus ganzhorni). Image credit: Giuseppe Donati.

Three New Species of Mouse Lemurs Found in Madagascar

Apr 15, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Three new species of the genus Microcebus (mouse lemurs) have been discovered by an international team of scientists from the German Primate Center, the...

The binturong (Arctictis binturong). Image credit: Carolina Tiger Rescue.

Researchers Explain Why Binturongs Smell Like Popcorn

Apr 15, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Prof. Christine Drea of Duke University has identified a chemical compound that gives binturongs (Arctictis binturong) their...

Postnatal maturation of pancreatic beta cells necessary for maximal glucosestimulated insulin secretion is coordinated by the estrogen-related receptor g (ERRg). ERRg drives a transcriptional program promoting mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, and its expression in iPSC-derived beta-like cells generates functional beta cells in vitro. Image credit: Eiji Yoshihara et al.

Scientists Create Insulin-Producing Beta Cells in a Dish

Apr 14, 2016 by News Staff

Generating functional pancreatic β (beta) cells in the lab has been a challenge for diabetes researchers. When human stem cells develop into beta cells...

Marine Scientists Capture Rare Video of Swarming Red Crabs

Apr 12, 2016 by News Staff

A team of marine scientists has captured a rare video of thousands of pelagic red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes) swarming in hypoxic (low-oxygen) waters...

The Chinese skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis). Image credit: Dalgial / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study Reveals How Chinese Skullcap Makes Anti-Cancer Compounds

Apr 11, 2016 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, has revealed how the popular Chinese herbal remedy Huang-Qin (Scutellaria baicalensis) —...

Spider Mecysmauchenius sp. uses power-amplified high-speed predatory strikes. Image credit: H. Wood.

Mecysmaucheniid Spiders Strike Prey with Lightning Speed, Scientists Find

Apr 8, 2016 by News Staff

Mecysmaucheniid spiders — which occur only in New Zealand and southern South America — have a remarkable ability to strike their prey at very...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Image credit: Janice Haney Carr / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers Find New Way to Inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Apr 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists from the United States and Australia claim they have found a new way to inhibit the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium that is...

Fungi use reverse photosynthesis to access sugars and nutrients in plants. This image shows the rust fungus Aecidium magellanicum growing on the bush Berberis microphylla. Image credit: Jason Hollinger / CC BY-SA 3.0.

‘Reverse Photosynthesis’ Process Discovered

Apr 5, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has discovered a natural process it describes...

A representation of the surface of Zika virus with protruding envelope glycoproteins (red) shown. Image credit: Devika Sirohi et al / Purdue University.

New Study Reveals Structure of Zika Virus

Apr 1, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Purdue University scientists Michael Rossmann and Richard Kuhn is the first to determine the structure of the Zika virus,...

Brown skuas (Stercorarius antarcticus). Image credit: B. Navez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Brown Skuas Can Recognize Individual Humans, New Study Shows

Mar 28, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists from South Korea and Poland have shown for the first time that Antarctic brown skuas (Stercorarius antarcticus), a species that typically...

The waterfall climbing cave fish (Cryptotora thamicola): dorsal view, resting on the bottom of glass tank. Image credit: Daphne Soares.

Cryptotora thamicola: Cavefish Walks Like Four-Legged Creature

Mar 25, 2016 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists, led by Dr. Brooke Flammang from New Jersey Institute of Technology, has identified unique anatomical features in a...

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) by Frederick William Frohawk, 1905.

Researchers Create 3D Atlas of Dodo’s Skeletal Anatomy

Mar 25, 2016 by News Staff

A multinational team of scientists has created the first 3D atlas of the skeletal anatomy of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), based upon two exceptional skeletons. The...

Myloplus zorroi: female (upper image) and male. Image credit: Douglas Bastos / Andrade M.C. et al.

Myloplus zorroi: New Species of Pacu Discovered in Rio Madeira Basin

Mar 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Scientists led by Dr. Marcelo Andrade of the Universidade Federal do Para report that they have discovered a new species of omnivorous freshwater fish...

This electron micrograph shows particles of the Phoenix provirus resurrected from human DNA in 2006. Scale bar - 200 nm (Marie Dewannieux et al).

Nineteen New Pieces of Ancient Retroviral DNA Found in Human Genome

Mar 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nineteen previously unidentified pieces of non-human DNA — left by retroviruses that first infected human ancestors hundreds of thousands of years...

The Barbados bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis). Image credit: Postdlf / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Urban Birds are Smarter than Their Rural Counterparts, Say Ornithologists

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Birds living in urban environments are smarter than their country counterparts, says a group of ornithologists at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The...

Scientists Find ‘Fairy Circles’ in Australia

Mar 16, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of scientists, led by Dr. Stephan Getzin of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany, has announced the exciting...

New Species of Shieldtail Snake Discovered in India

Mar 12, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of snake, named the Khaire’s black shieldtail (Melanophidium khairei), has been discovered in India. The Khaire’s black shieldtail (Melanophidium...

Ideonella sakaiensis. Image credit: Shosuke Yoshida et al.

Ideonella sakaiensis: Newly-Discovered Bacterium Can Break Down, Metabolize Plastic

Mar 11, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

According to a group of biologists in Japan, the newfound species — named Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 — breaks down the plastic by using two...

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