Biology

Trapdoor spiders disappearing from Australian landscape

Recent surveys by Australian scientists have identified an apparent significant decline in the numbers of trapdoor spiders across southern Australia Famous for their carefully camouflaged burrows – some with lids or 'trapdoors' from which they…

Male vs. female stress responses may explain sex differences in diseases

The fruit fly genome sequence, which shares similarities with the human genome, is useful in many research labs. Credit: Christopher S. Newhard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute The differences in how male and female fruit flies resist…

Bushmeat hunting threatens mammal populations and ecosystems, poses food security threat

Credit: Wikipedia. The ongoing decline of more than 300 species of animals is having significant environmental impacts and posing a food security threat for millions of people in Asia, Africa and South America, according to…

Fate of turtles and tortoises affected more by habitat than temperature

Credit: NHM, London Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research. More than 60 per cent of the group are listed by…

Landmark map reveals the genetic wiring of cellular life

Credit: University of Toronto Researchers at the University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre have created the first map that shows the global genetic interaction network of a cell. It begins to explain how thousands of genes…

Fluorescent trypanosomes reveal invasion of skin and beyond following tsetse fly bites

Trypanosoma bruceiparasites (blue) interact with an adipocyte (grey) in the ear dermis of a mouse bitten by an infected tsetse fly. Credit: Caljon et al. (2016) Trypanosome parasites cause sleeping sickness in Africa. If left…

Slithery new species: Researchers discover Silver Boa in the Bahamas Islands

Credit: R. Graham Reynolds The team encountered the first individual, a beautiful meter-long silvery female, climbing in a Silver Palm tree near the water's edge on a remote island in the southern Bahamas. As dusk…

Beating the limits of the light microscope, one photon at a time

Photoluminescence (red) and second harmonic generation (grayscale) from pure cadmium-telluride solar cells, imaged simultaneously. Standard resolution is on the left, and enhanced resolution, on the right, was captured by a CSU custom-built microscope. Credit: Jeffrey…

Ocelot density in the Brazilian Amazon may be lower than expected

Ocelot. Credit: Daniel Rocha / Instituto Mamirauá The population density of ocelots in the Brazilian Amazon may be stable but lower than expected, according to a study published May 18, 2016 in the open-access journal…