From the smallest microbe to the largest dinosaurs and from the tiniest spore to the biggest giant sequoia, biological research continues to uncover weird and wonderful secrets of the creatures with whom we share the planet with – and could soon extend to the study of life on bodies in the solar system beyond our home.
“Mini-brains” grown in the lab are useful models of the real thing, giving researchers an accurate neuroscience platform without testing on animals. Now, a team of scientists from Brazil have doped the mini-brains with a form of the psychedelic drug DMT, to study the effects on neural pathways.
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The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, for their work in the 1980s that led to the discovery of the genes that drive the circadian rhythm in living organisms.
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Quick: What does a [insert sea creature here] like for lunch? Peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches, of course. While you could insert sharks, swordfish and tuna in that joke, up until recently, you would have left penguins out because no one thought they ate jellyfish. Turns out, we've been wrong.
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With about 40 million bacteria living in and on you, some microbes have developed a tiny speargun that injects lethal poisons to their neighbors to thin out the competition. Now, researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have finally figured out just how the deadly weapon works.
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Is it ok for vegetarians to eat fish? Turns out this dietary dilemma may date back further than we thought – to around 75 million years ago, in fact. Paleontologists studying the droppings of what was thought to be a strictly herbivorous dinosaur have found evidence they enjoyed the odd cheat day.
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The beach ball-sized Beelzebufo (devil toad) lived 68 million years ago, and a new study suggests it may have dined on dinosaurs. By measuring the bite force of its living relatives, researchers were able to scale up their findings to estimate the jaw strength of the extinct big-mouthed behemoths.
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The mystery of why we sleep has perplexed scientists for decades, and evidence of sleep-like behavior has been seen in virtually every animal on the planet. A team recently discovered signs of sleep in jellyfish, the first ever identified in an animal without a central nervous system.
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A few years ago, MIT scientists developed a novel way to separate blood cells using sound waves. Now the team has demonstrated the process can isolate exosomes from blood samples, potentially creating a fast way to detect biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
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If evolution works by selecting for the most advantageous genes, why haven’t we evolved immortality? A new study has identified genes that promote reproductive success in youth but aging later in life, and found that switching off those genes dramatically extended the lifespan of worms.
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Two new complimentary studies have utilized CRISPR gene editing technology to explore how specific genes affect wing pattern variation in butterflies. By selectively knocking out single genes and observing the effects, scientists have uncovered a key insight into how broad biodiversity can evolve.
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