Biology News

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Lund University scientist Stanley Heinze, a network of compass and speed neurons in the bee brain integrates every detail of changes in direction and distance covered on outbound journeys, and enables the insect to return directly home. Brain of the sweat bee Megalopta genalis (body length: 1-2 cm). Highlight/inset shows compass regions. Abbreviations: CBL – lower division of the central body, CBU – upper...

Oct 6, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Animal Cognition demonstrates that raccoons (Procyon lotor) are able to learn to solve complex problems and that they...

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

Using camera traps, University of Nottingham researcher Sheema Abdul Aziz and colleagues collected video evidence showing the small flying fox (Pteropus...

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health has discovered lymphatic vessels in the dura, the leathery outer coating of the brain. Described...

Oct 3, 2017 by News Staff

New research from the University of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes University predicts which species acted as an intermediary between the ancestors of Homo...

Oct 2, 2017 by News Staff

A new study has found that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can use tools spontaneously to solve a task, without needing to watch others first. Chimpanzee...

Sep 27, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new rodent species with an unusual lifestyle has been discovered on Vangunu — an island, part of the New Georgia Islands in the Solomon Islands...

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, a marine biologist at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues have documented nearly 200 cases...

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

The Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae (causative agent of cholera) is armed with a nano-speargun, which it uses to combat unwelcome competitors....

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of spider experts and students from the University of Vermont has discovered and described 15 new species of the spider genus Spintharus from the...

Sep 25, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Exeter, UK, studied how Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) behaved in various situations and found complex...

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

Cassiopea jellyfish, a genus of true jellyfish found throughout the tropics in shallow ocean waters and mudflats, exhibit reversible behavioral quiescence...

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

Exceptionally large individuals of Beelzebufo ampinga, an extinct species of frog that lived in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 68 million...

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

A research team led by Boston University scientists has identified a new type of lung cell that is implicated in the body’s immune defense against pneumonia-causing...

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Two bird species that look the same, but have songs so different they can’t recognize each other, should be considered distinct species, according to...

Sep 13, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at New York University has found that the nucleus of a human cell exhibits subtle, but measurable, fast shape fluctuations, and that...

Sep 12, 2017 by News Staff

Australian magpies ‘dunk’ their food in water before eating, a process that appears to be watched and ‘copied’ by their offspring, say University...

Sep 5, 2017 by News Staff

Olfaction (sense of smell) is a key factor in long-distance oceanic navigation in birds, according to a new University of Oxford-led study. Cory’s shearwaters...

Aug 30, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the UK created a series of puzzles baited with food, and found smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) watched and copied...

Aug 28, 2017 by News Staff

A new survey of DNA fragments circulating in human blood suggests the bacteria and viruses living within us are vastly more diverse than previously known....