New Bird Discovered On Unexplored Colombian Mountain - A new bird to science was recently discovered on an unexplored mountain range in northern Colombia by a team supported by the BP Conservation Programme. It was named "Yariguies Brush-Finch," with the scientific name Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum. October 10, 2006

New Plant Family Tree Sheds Light On Evolution Of Life Cycles - In the history of life on earth, one intriguing mystery is how plants made the transition from water to land and then went on to diversify into the array of vegetation we see today, from simple mosses and liverworts to towering redwoods. October 9, 2006

Red Is For Hummingbirds, Yellow For Moths - Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the future of red and yellow varieties of a San Diego wildflower may depend on the fates of two different animals. October 8, 2006

A New Nanoscale View Of The Biological World - Echoing the journey through the human body in Fantastic Voyage, doctors might soon be able to track individual donor cells after a transplant, or to find where and how much of a cancer treatment drug there is within a cell. October 7, 2006

How Much Space Does An Animal Really Need? - Instead of wandering around aimlessly, most animals tend to stay in a certain area - known as their home range. October 6, 2006

Brown Widow Makes Its Home On Gulf Coast - As if the West Nile-toting mosquito isn't enough to worry Mississippians, add the poisonous Latrodectus geometricus to the state's list of creepy-crawly creatures. October 5, 2006

Why Do Cold Animals Make Bigger Babies? - Reproduction involves a critical decision: Should an organism invest energy in a few large offspring or many small ones? October 4, 2006

A Plan For Reintroducing Megafauna To North America - Dozens of megafauna (large animals over 100 pounds) - such as giant tortoises, horses, elephants, and cheetah - went extinct in North America13,000 years ago during the end of the Pleistocene. October 3, 2006

Bacteria Discovery Aids Food Production, Water Purification - The search for a type of bacteria that creates better ice cream and artificial snow has suddenly become a lot easier, thanks to a discovery by Queen's University biologist Virginia Walker. October 2, 2006

Islands Spark Accelerated Evolution - The notion of islands as natural test beds of evolution is nearly as old as the theory itself. October 1, 2006

Parasitic Weed Seems to Smell Its Prey - The parasitic dodder plant doesn't have a nose, but it knows how to sniff out its prey. September 30, 2006

Are Marine Organisms Able To Adapt To Ocean Acidification? - An international group of researchers under leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research demands a stronger consideration of evolutionary adaptations in predictive models. September 29, 2006

Spiders Spin Sticky Silk With Their Feet - Tarantulas secrete sticky silk from their feet to help them adhere to shiny surfaces, German scientists have learned. September 28, 2006

Researchers: Rare Woodpecker Sighted - After spending months in remote northwest Florida swamps searching for the ivory-billed woodpecker, researchers say they have seen and heard the rare bird once believed to be extinct. September 27, 2006

Squid Skin Reveals Hidden Messages - In the animal world, squid are masters of disguise. Pigmented skin cells enable them to camouflage themselves - almost instantaneously - from predators. September 26, 2006

Wild Bees Make Honeybees Better Pollinators - Up to a third of our food supply depends on pollination by domesticated honeybees, but the insects are up to five times more efficient when wild bees buzz the same fields, according to a study published Aug. 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. September 25, 2006

Fruit Fly Aggression Studies Have Relevance To Humans, Animals - Even the tiny, mild-mannered fruit fly can be a little mean sometimes – especially when there’s a choice bit of rotten fruit to fight over. And, like people, some flies have shorter tempers than others. September 24, 2006

Ancient Birds Flew On All-Fours - The earliest known ancestor of modern-day birds took to the skies by gliding from trees using primitive feathered wings on their arms and legs, according to new research by a University of Calgary paleontologist. September 23, 2006

Obesity Crisis In Insects? Not A Problem, Says Expert - Ever seen a fat insect? Probably not. Dr. Spencer Behmer may have the answer why, and that could have implications for what is billed as the current human obesity epidemic. September 22, 2006

Scientists Discover A New Healthy Role For Fat - Too much body fat may be a bad thing, but there is increasing evidence that too little fat also may have some surprisingly negative consequences. September 21, 2006

Bird Moms Manipulate Birth Order To Protect Sons - According to a new study by scientists at the University of Arizona, female house finches are able to change their hormonal makeup to ensure male birds hatch later, grow faster and spend less time in the nest than their sisters. September 20, 2006

Shark That Walks On Fins Is Discovered - Two recent expeditions led by Conservation International (CI) to the heart of Asia's "Coral Triangle" discovered dozens of new species of marine life including epaulette sharks, "flasher" wrasse and reef-building coral, confirming the region as the Earth's richest seascape. September 19, 2006

Genome Info from "Plant Destroyers" Could Save Trees, Beans And Chocolate - An international team of scientists has published the first two genome sequences from a destructive group of plant pathogens called Phytophthora - a name that literally means "plant destroyer. September 18, 2006

Rodent's Bizarre Traits Deepen Mystery Of Genetics, Evolution - A shadowy rodent has potential to shed light on human genetics and the mysteries of evolution. September 17, 2006

Scientists Find Natural Way To Control Spread Of Destructive Argentine Ants - Pesticides haven’t stopped them. Trapping hasn’t worked, either. But now chemists and biologists at the University of California, Irvine, (UCI) think they may have found a natural way to finally check the spread of environmentally destructive Argentine ants in California ... September 16, 2006

Researchers Unlock Genetic Code Of Tree - Researchers have deciphered for the first time the genetic code of a tree, which could lead to new varieties better at producing wood, paper and fuel. September 15, 2006

Using Microbes To Fuel The New Hydrogen Economy - “If the U.S. is to have a future hydrogen-based economy, we’ll need a way to generate abundant quantities of hydrogen safely and economically,” said Daniel (Niels) van der Lelie, a biologist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. September 14, 2006

'Conversation Stoppers' Fight Deadly Bacterial Infections - Bacterial infections are becoming more deadly worldwide due to increased resistance to antibiotics. September 13, 2006

Mobile Genes Found To Pressure Species Formation - Biologists at the University of Rochester have discovered that an old and relatively unpopular theory about how a single species can split in two turns out to be accurate after all, and acting in nature. September 12, 2006

Pathway Toward Gene Silencing Described In Plants - Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made an important breakthrough in understanding a pathway plant cells take to silence unwanted or extra genes using short bits of RNA. September 11, 2006

Virus May Control Australia's 'River Rabbit' - CSIRO scientists are investigating a potential new biological control agent that could hold the key to eradicating one of the nation’s most invasive aquatic pests - carp. September 10, 2006

How Did Our Ancestors' Minds Really Work? - How did our evolutionary ancestors make sense of their world? What strategies did they use, for example, to find food? September 09, 2006

How Proteins Fold Into Their Critical Shapes - Experimental evidence provided by a Cornell researcher and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., support a long-held theory of how and where proteins fold to create their characteristic shapes and biological functions. September 08, 2006

Iron Critical To Ocean Productivity, Carbon Uptake - A new study has found that large segments of the Pacific Ocean lack sufficient iron to trigger healthy phytoplankton growth and the absence of the mineral stresses these microscopic ocean plants ... September 07, 2006

Nanoscientists Create Biological Switch from Spinach Molecule - Nanoscientists have transformed a molecule of chlorophyll-a from spinach into a complex biological switch that has possible future applications for green energy, technology and medicine. September 06, 2006

'Stress And The City': Urban Birds Keep Cool - Animals colonizing cities are exposed to many novel and potentially stressful situations. Chronic stress, however, can cause deleterious effects. September 05, 2006

Evolution Of Old World Fruit Flies On Three Continents Mirrors Climate Change - Fast-warming climate appears to be triggering genetic changes in a species of fruit fly that is native to Europe and was introduced into North and South America about 25 years ago. September 04, 2006

Ocean Microbe Census Discovers Diverse World Of Rare Bacteria - A startling revelation about the number of different kinds of bacteria in the deep-sea raises fundamental new questions about microbial life and evolution in the oceans. September 03, 2006

Snakes’ Heat Vision Enables Accurate Attacks On Prey - Call it a sixth sense, or evolution’s gift to these cold-blooded reptiles: some snakes have infrared vision. September 02, 2006

Manatee Bones Lead To New Insight On Evolution - Most research professors spend their days writing grants, teaching and managing graduate students, so when Stanford's David Kingsley, PhD, ventured from his office to his lab, pulled out a scale and started weighing 114 pairs of manatee pelvic bones ... September 01, 2006

Surf's Up - And One Coastal Microbe Has Adapted - California beachgoers may look lazy. But just a few miles off shore, scientists have discovered that a common coastal strain of cyanobacteria works diligently to thrive in choppy, polluted waters. August 31, 2006

Wild Bees Make Honey Bees Better Pollinators - When honey bees interact with wild native bees, they are up to five times more efficient in pollinating sunflowers than when native bees are not present, according to a new study by a pair of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC Davis. August 30, 2006

All The Eggs In One Basket: Conserving Too Few Sea Turtle Nesting Sites - Current conservation assessments of endangered Caribbean sea turtles are too optimistic, according to Loren McClenachan and colleagues from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. August 29, 2006

Evolving Defenses Rapidly Suppress Male Killers - In the game of survival, anything goes - even the selective extermination of males. Male killing is the preferred strategy for a diverse group of bacteria that infect insects and other arthropods. August 28, 2006

The Power Of A Single Cell - In an advance touted as a way around current political logjams, scientists have said they can derive human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines without destroying an embryo. August 27, 2006

Physiology Allows Crucian Carp To Survive without Oxygen - Cooling water temperature during the fall prompts the crucian carp to store vast amounts of glycogen in its brain to keep the brain functioning and healthy from February to April, when there is no oxygen left in the ponds, a new study finds. August 26, 2006

Scientists Seek To Save Baby-Eating Sharks From Themselves - Sharks whose babies eat each other in the womb may not be everybody's idea of a species worth worrying about, but Australian scientists are desperately trying to save them from themselves. August 25, 2006

Virus Has 'Catastrophic' Affect On Red Squirrels, Research Shows - New research has revealed for the first time the catastrophic effect of a deadly virus on Britain's native red squirrels. August 24, 2006

Ant Jaws Break Speed Record, Propel Insects Into Air, Biologists Find - A species of ant native to Central and South America is entering the annals of extreme animal movement, boasting jaws arguably more impressive than such noteworthy contenders as the great white shark and the spotted hyena. August 23, 2006

Why Piglets Shudder To Keep Warm - Piglets are sensitive to cold and shiver to maintain their body heat. Researchers at Uppsala University have uncovered a genetic reason why these newborns are less tolerant of the cold than ... August 22, 2006

Ocean Noise Has Increased Considerably Since 1960s, According To New Analysis - With populations increasing around the globe in recent decades, no one would be surprised by an increase in the amount of noise produced in terrestrial environments. August 21, 2006

Big Eyes, Sharp Teeth, Craves Fish - Baleen whales, the gentle giants of the seas, have at least one fearsome skeleton in the closet. A 25-million-year-old fossil, representing a new family of the whales, was probably a small but ... August 20, 2006

Fat Regulating Hormone Found In Amphibian - For the first time, researchers have identified an amphibian version of the human hormone leptin. August 19, 2006

Biologists Uncover Mechanisms That Shape Cells For Better Or Worse - In a landmark study, biologists at Florida State University have uncovered a specific genetic and molecular mechanism that causes cell polarity - the asymmetric shape or composition critical to a cell's proper functioning. August 18, 2006

Discovery Of Metabolic Pathway For Parasite Could Lead To New Controls For Diseases - Toxoplasma gondii is one nasty bug. A microscopic parasite, it lives in the intestinal tract of cats but can be carried by most warm-blooded animals. August 17, 2006

Light Guides Flight Of Migratory Birds - Songbirds use multiple sources of directional cues to guide their seasonal migrations, including the Sun, star patterns, the earth's magnetic field, and sky polarized light patterns. August 16, 2006

When The Going Gets Tough, Slime Molds Start Synthesizing - In times of plenty, the uni-cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum leads a solitary life munching on bacteria littering the forest floor. August 15, 2006

Mussels Evolve Quickly To Defend Against Invasive Crabs - Scientists at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) have found that invasive crab species may precipitate evolutionary change in blue mussels in as little as 15 years. August 14, 2006

Computational Analysis Shows That Plant Hormones Often Go It Alone - Unlike the Three Musketeers who lived by the motto "All for one, one for all," plant hormones prefer to do their own thing. August 13, 2006

Time Of Day Tempers Tadpoles' Response To Predators - To a tiny tadpole, life boils down to two basic missions: eat, and avoid being eaten. But there's a trade-off. August 12, 2006

Humble Aquarium Fish May Be The Key To New Therapies For Birth Defects - A humble aquarium fish may be the key to finding therapies capable of preventing the structural birth defects that account for one out of three infant deaths in the United States today. August 11, 2006

Small Seabirds Log Longest Animal Migration Ever Recorded - Every summer, millions of sooty shearwaters arrive off the coast of California, their huge flocks astonishing visitors who may have trouble grasping that the dark swirling clouds over the water consist of seabirds. August 10, 2006

Like Flower, Like Son - It's not easy being a plant. Shrubs, flowers, and trees must regularly fend off attacks from animals and pathogens, to say nothing of their constant struggle to find enough light and nutrients. August 09, 2006

Flatworm, Heal Thyself: Scientists Identify Gene Involved In Stem Cell Self-renewal In Planaria - No matter how you slice it, the freshwater planarian possesses an amazing ability to regenerate lost body parts. August 08, 2006

Feigning Health For A Bit Of Romance? - Most people can relate to the adage "beauty is pain," having suffered through a taxing diet or a grueling gym workout. But the male northwestern song sparrow takes things a step further. August 07, 2006

Submerging saves Rare Bottom-Breathing Turtles - The endangered Mary River Turtle has learned the perfect way to avoid being eaten - stay underwater. August 06, 2006

Sequencing The Genome Of A New Kind Of Methane Producer - About 10 to 25 percent of the world's methane emissions come from flooded rice paddies. Methane is a greenhouse gas produced by various groups of microorganisms (methanogenic Archaea). August 05, 2006

Predators Prefer To Hunt Small-Brained Prey - They avoid more intelligent prey such as monkeys which have exceptionally large brains and are more capable of escaping attacks. August 04, 2006

The Midas Bug - Bacterial Alchemy Of Gold - Bacteria play an important role in the formation of gold nuggets in Australia according to new research published this month in the journal Science. August 03, 2006

Underwater Robots Work Together Without Human Input - This August in Monterey Bay, Calif., an entire fleet of undersea robots will for the first time work together without the aid of humans to make detailed and efficient observations of the ocean. August 02, 2006

Scientists Find More Microorganisms In Sea - The world's oceans contain many more types of microorganisms than had been thought, scientists report. "Microbiologists have formally described 5,000 microbial species. August 01, 2006

Genes Give Cells An Electric Personality - Talk about healing energy. Every wound, from the tiniest scratch to the nastiest gash, generates an electric field that pulls in cells that help repair the damage. Now researchers have identified the genes which allow cells to respond ... July 31, 2006

Satellite Images Reveal State Of Health Of World's Coral Reefs - A first-of-its-kind survey of how well the world's coral reefs are being protected was made possible by a unique collection of NASA views from space. July 30, 2006

Ain't No Mountain Low Enough - In his attempt to conquer the western world in 218 B.C.E., Carthaginian general Hannibal famously lost all but one of his elephants while crossing the Alps. A new study may explain why: Elephants just don't dig climbing. July 29, 2006

Male Praying Mantids Prefer Not To Be Victims Of Sexual Cannibalism - Female praying mantids are notorious for sexual cannibalism – that is, for eating their male partner during mating. July 28, 2006

Scientists Discover Evolutionary Origin Of Fins, Limbs - Performance on the dance floor may not always show it, but people are rarely born with two left feet. We have genes that instruct our arms and legs to grow in the right places and point in the right directions ... July 27, 2006

Direct Link Established Between Tropical Tree And Insect Diversity - Higher tree species diversity leads directly to higher diversity of leaf-eating insects, researchers report in the July 13, 2006 early-online version of the journal Science. July 26, 2006

Seeing The Serpent - The ability to spot venomous snakes may have played a major role in the evolution of monkeys, apes and humans, according to a new hypothesis by Lynne Isbell, professor of anthropology at UC Davis. July 25, 2006

Tiger Habitat Shrinks by 40 Percent In 10 Years - Tigers have 40 percent less habitat than they did a decade ago, due to intense poaching and the rise of an Asian middle class that puts pressure on the big cats and their environment, wildlife experts said. July 24, 2006

Hey Lady Lizards: Get a Whiff of This! - If a guy wants to smell nice for his lady, a splash of aftershave or cologne usually does the trick. Male lizards take a slightly different approach. They eat vitamins. July 23, 2006

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