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.
It's common knowledge that a drink or two can lower inhibitions and result in people becoming aggressive and violent. Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia are asking why, using MRI scans to trace which part of the brain controls aggression.
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Scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory and the University of Cambridge have found that the cuttlefish controls its stealth ability using a giant neural circuit that similar to the one that squids use to control their iridescence.
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Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have used a new technique to produce detailed images of dragonfly wings, showing more than 10 billion tiny 'fingers' (nanostructures) lining the wing surface that make bacteria tear themselves apart.
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Researchers have grown human eggs from their earliest stages to maturity in a laboratory for the very first time. The achievement offers a future for women at risk of infertility, either through illness or medical treatment, to be able to store immature eggs for later fertilization.
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A study has generated molecular profiles for several psychiatric disorders by examining RNA in brain tissue samples from 700 subjects. The research revealed fascinating physical similarities, and differences, in the patterns of gene expression across disorders including autism and schizophrenia.
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UCSD researchers have identified an enzyme that plays a key role in controlling the metabolic changes relating to energy expenditure, suggesting we could tweak this pathway artificially to help our bodies burn fat more efficiently.
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Marine researchers have discovered that some species of skate were incubating their eggs in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, a behavior never before observed in marine animals.
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Naked mole rats are hardy creatures, and a University of Rochester team had a theory on how they manage to live such long lives: perhaps their cells didn’t undergo the process of senescence. But when they looked at the cells of naked mole rats, they found the story is much stranger.
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Although familiar in our own homes, scientists have for the first time discovered which insects pollinate Venus flytraps in their native environment, and why they appear to be getting away from being the plant’s next meal.
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If the goose that laid the golden egg had a real-life counterpart, it would be C. metallidurans. This bacterium consumes toxic metals and excretes tiny gold nuggets, but how and why has never been fully understood. Now researchers have peered inside the microorganism and figured out that mechanism.
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