A new study’s finding that urban light pollution may disrupt the winter dormancy period for mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus could be considered both good news and bad news.
Blog
Trees in Hurricane-Prone Areas Have Strong Ability to Survive Even After Severe Damage
As their plane flew low on its approach to land at the airport on the island of Dominica, researchers from Clemson and Harvard universities looked out the window to see miles of forests with trees that looked like matchsticks.
Early crop plants were more easily ‘tamed’
Borrowing a page from what we know about animal behavior, archaeologists say that we should reassess our understanding of the process of plant domestication.
Scientists advocate for integration of biogeography and behavioral ecology to rapidly respond to biodiversity loss
An interdisciplinary team of researchers is advocating for convergent research that integrates the fields of biogeography and behavioral ecology to more rapidly respond to challenges associated with climate change and biodiversity loss.
Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution
A new study shows that if U.S. nuclear power plants are retired, the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas to fill the energy gap could cause more than 5,000 premature deaths.
This elephant’s self-taught banana peeling offers glimpse of elephants’ broader abilities
Elephants like to eat bananas, but they don't usually peel them first in the way humans do. A new report however, shows that one very special Asian elephant named Pang Pha picked up banana peeling all on her own while living at the Berlin Zoo. She reserves it for yellow-brown...
Engineered plants produce sex perfume to trick pests and replace pesticides
Tobacco plants have been engineered to manufacture an alluring perfume of insect sex pheromones, which could be used to confuse would-be pests looking for love and reduce the need for harmful pesticides.
Here’s how a worm’s embryonic cells changed its development potential
Researchers have spotted how specific proteins within the chromosomes of roundworms enable their offspring to produce specialized cells generations later, a startling finding that upends classical thinking that hereditary information for cell differentiation is mostly ingrained within DNA and other genetic factors.
Scientists discover a way Earth’s atmosphere cleans itself
Human activities emit many kinds of pollutants into the air, and without a molecule called hydroxide (OH), many of these pollutants would keep aggregating in the atmosphere.
In Florida study, nonnative leaf-litter ants are replacing native ants
A new look at decades of data from museum collections and surveys of leaf-litter ants in Florida reveals a steady decline in native ants and simultaneous increase in nonnative ants -- even in protected natural areas of the state, researchers report.