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Commonly used pesticide turns honey bees into 'picky eaters'

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a small dose of a commonly used crop pesticide turns honey bees into "picky eaters" and affects their ability to recruit their nestmates to otherwise good sources of food.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 2 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Deep sea animals stowaway on submarines and reach new territory

Marine scientists studying life around deep-sea vents have discovered that some hardy species can survive the extreme change in pressure that occurs when a research submersible rises to the surface. The team's ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 2 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Octopuses focus on key features for successful camouflage

Octopuses camouflage themselves by matching their body pattern to selected features of nearby objects, rather than trying to match the entire larger field of view, according to new research published in the ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 9 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Top 10 new species list draws attention to diverse biosphere

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and a committee of scientists from around the world announced their picks for the top 10 new species described in 2011. This ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 13 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Newly discovered sensory organ in the chin of baleen whales allows them to be world's largest hunters

Lunge feeding in rorqual whales (a group that includes blue, humpback and fin whales) is unique among mammals, but details of how it works have remained elusive. Now, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 13 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

An introduced bird competitor tips the balance against Hawaiian species

Biologists Leonard Freed and Rebecca Cann from the University of Hawaii at Manoa have been studying birds at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge for 20 years. Located on an old cattle ranch on the windward ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 14 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Velvet spiders emerge from underground in new cybertaxonomic monograph

Velvet spiders include some of the most beautiful arachnids in Europe and some of the world's most cooperative species. Social species can be very abundant in parts of tropical Africa and Asia with conspicuous co ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 15 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Forensics ferret out fire beetle secret

Black fire beetles of the genus Melanophila possess unusual infrared sensors. Researchers from the University of Bonn and from the Forschungszentrum Julich have concluded that the beetles' sensors might even ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Project to examine 'Yeti' DNA

(Phys.org) -- A new collaboration between Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology will use the latest genetic techniques to investigate organic remains that some have claimed belong to the ‘Yeti’ ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 18 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Taiwan uses DNA mapping to save endangered sharks

Taiwan has begun testing DNA from shark fins sold in local markets in a bid to protect endangered species such as great whites and whale sharks, an official from the Fisheries Agency said Wednesday.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 19 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Hacking code of leaf vein architecture solves mysteries, allows predictions of past climate

(Phys.org) -- UCLA life scientists have discovered new laws that determine the construction of leaf vein systems as leaves grow and evolve. These easy-to-apply mathematical rules can now be used to better ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 21 hours ago | popularity 3.6 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Human-like spine morphology found in aquatic eel fossil

For decades, scientists believed that a spine with multiple segments was an exclusive feature of land-dwelling animals. But the discovery of the same anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel suggests ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 22 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

For monogamous sparrows, it doesn't pay to stray (but they do it anyway)

It's quite common for a female song sparrow to stray from her breeding partner and mate with the male next door, but a new study shows that sleeping around can be costly.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

In future, phones can identify the Troubadour on the tree top

In spring, the sound of birds serenading fills the air. The Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics is developing a system that can recognize a bird species based on a song segment. The system can be ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 22, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New frog species from Panama dyes fingers yellow

A new bright yellow frog species has been found in the mountains of western Panama. The frog belongs to a species-rich group of frogs, the so called rainfrogs that lack a tadpole stage, but develop directly ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 22, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0