http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Be it through the Internet, Facebook, the local grapevine or the spread of disease, interaction networks influence nearly every part of our lives. http://phys.org/news225360002.html Biology Mon, 23 May 2011 09:00:33 EST news225360002 It has been a hard winter for Monarch butterflies, according to Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. Taylor said that low temperatures, storms and habitat destruction have all threatened the butterflies' overwintering population in Mexico. http://phys.org/news192726160.html Biology Mon, 10 May 2010 16:20:02 EST news192726160 (PhysOrg.com) -- It's not all looking down microscopes for the work of a Natural History Museum scientist. Plant expert Maria Vorontsova is on the hunt for wild spiny aubergines in Africa and recording her daily activities in a new NaturePlus blog. http://phys.org/news189848576.html Biology Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:20:01 EST news189848576 One of the most common house ant species might have been built for living in some of the smallest spaces in a forest, but the ants have found ways to take advantage of the comforts of city living. http://phys.org/news189173184.html Biology Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:06:47 EST news189173184 Leafcutter ant queens can live for twenty years, fertilizing millions of eggs with sperm stored after a single day of sexual activity. http://phys.org/news188137790.html Biology Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:00:15 EST news188137790 (PhysOrg.com) -- The tree-dwelling tropical ants Cephalotes atratus build their nests in tall trees, but launch themselves into the air when threatened by predators. Scientists studying these wingless ants have discovered they use their rear legs as rudders to guide them back to the tree. http://phys.org/news188115440.html Biology Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:18:11 EST news188115440 In the 1930s, soil used as ballast to weigh down cargo ships from South America to Mobile, Alabama introduced the red imported fire ant to the southern United States. Since then, the ants have been found as far north as Maryland and as far west as California, shorting out streetlights and eating through crops and native plants in the process. http://phys.org/news187961578.html Biology Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:00:05 EST news187961578 Desert ants are well-known for their remarkable orientation: they use a compass along with a step counter and visible landmarks to locate their nest. After researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology discovered that these ants can navigate also by using olfactory cues, they now found that the animals even can take advantage of the distribution of different odors in a map-like manner by utilizing their antennae to smell their environment in stereo. http://phys.org/news187360582.html Biology Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:37:03 EST news187360582 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 1871, Charles Darwin puzzled over the evolution of altruism. "He who was ready to sacrifice his life, as many a savage has been," he wrote in The Descent of Man, "rather than betray his comrades, would often leave no offspring to inherit his noble nature." http://phys.org/news186416144.html Biology Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:16:18 EST news186416144 A team from the University of Copenhagen, led by postdoc Luke Holman of the Center for Social Evolution, describes in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published on the 24 February 2010, that ant queens are much more devious than previously thought. http://phys.org/news186318178.html Biology Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:40:05 EST news186318178 Australia's vile and poisonous plague of cane toads may finally have met its match -- and it comes in a tin of cat food. http://phys.org/news185691254.html Biology Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:00:01 EST news185691254 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying ants have discovered that when they are seriously ill they voluntarily go away from the nest to die, which reduces the chances of them passing their infection to nest mates. http://phys.org/news185522245.html Biology Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:00:01 EST news185522245 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new approach in the design of miniature, insectlike robots could lead to "microids" the size of ants that move their tiny legs and mandibles using solid-state "muscles." http://phys.org/news183812545.html Technology Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:03:01 EST news183812545 There is good news for coffee lovers and growers worldwide: A predator for the devastating coffee berry borer has just been discovered in Africa. Looking at coffee berries in Western Kenya, Dr. Juliana Jaramillo from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, Dr. Eric Chapman from the University of Kentucky, and colleagues have identified a previously unknown predatory thrips - Karnyothrips flavipes - which feeds on the eggs and larvae of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei. http://phys.org/news183642175.html Biology Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:10:02 EST news183642175 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research by Dr Nigel Raine, Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour at Royal Holloway, University of London has revealed how a special plant-ant relationship thrives on give and take for mutual benefit. http://phys.org/news181849055.html Biology Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:39:36 EST news181849055 A Smoky Mountain forest's woodland herb population has shown that climate may play a role in how forest understories recover from logging, according to Purdue University research. http://phys.org/news178983040.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:31:06 EST news178983040 Looks can be deceiving, but certain bird species have figured out that a voice can tell them most of what they need to know to find the right mate. http://phys.org/news178976123.html Biology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:36:15 EST news178976123 Broadly speaking, ants have two different feeding strategies. A large proportion of all species are "carnivorous," meaning that they are generalist predators feeding on other small animals or scavenging on their remains. Some, however, are "herbivorous". http://phys.org/news178893395.html Biology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:37:42 EST news178893395 (PhysOrg.com) -- Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities. http://phys.org/news177863147.html Biology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:20:01 EST news177863147 Poor Texas. First it was killer bees, then fire ants. Now, it's the Rasberry ants. http://phys.org/news177341639.html Biology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:34:36 EST news177341639 Tree-dwelling ants generally live in harmony with their arboreal hosts. But new research suggests that when they run out of space in their trees of choice, the ants can get destructive to neighboring trees. http://phys.org/news176749611.html Biology Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:07:58 EST news176749611 A researcher of the University of Granada, Spain, has designed a new system for the mobility of military troops within a battlefield based on the mechanisms used by ant colonies to move using a commercial videogame. http://phys.org/news176726947.html Technology Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00:02 EST news176726947 (PhysOrg.com) -- Colonies of army ants, whose long columns and marauding habits are the stuff of natural-history legend, are usually antagonistic to each other, attacking soldiers from rival colonies in border disputes that keep the colonies separate. But new work by a researcher at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen shows that in some cases the colonies can be cooperative instead of combative. http://phys.org/news176559182.html Biology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:15:19 EST news176559182 (PhysOrg.com) -- Experiments led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have demonstrated that normally friendly ants can turn against each other by exploiting the chemical cues they use to distinguish colony-mates from rivals. http://phys.org/news175894442.html Biology Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:34:55 EST news175894442 (PhysOrg.com) -- A breakthrough by scientists at Cambridge University may terminate the threat of termites, cockroaches and other pests such as ants and locusts - responsible for billions of pounds worth of damage to homes, crops and people's health across the globe each year. http://phys.org/news174645271.html Biology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:36:06 EST news174645271 (PhysOrg.com) -- There are approximately 40,000 species of spiders in the world, all of which have been thought to be strict predators that feed on insects or other animals. Now, scientists have found that a small Central American jumping spider has a uniquely different diet: the species Bagheera kiplingi feeds predominantly on plant food. http://phys.org/news174568827.html Biology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:21:30 EST news174568827 In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature's hardiest creatures -- the ant. http://phys.org/news173108776.html Technology Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:46:51 EST news173108776 Chimpanzees in the Congo have developed specialised 'tool kits' to forage for army ants, reveals new research published today in the American Journal of Primatology. This not only provides the first direct evidence of multiple tool use in this context, but suggests that chimpanzees have developed a 'sustainable' way of harvesting food. http://phys.org/news171172996.html Biology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:03:33 EST news171172996 The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers. http://phys.org/news170493929.html Biology Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:26:13 EST news170493929 A study in the September issue of The American Naturalist describes new details about a fungal parasite that coerces ants into dying in just the right spot -- one that is ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce. The study, led David P. Hughes of Harvard University, shows just how precisely the fungus manipulates the behavior of its hapless hosts. http://phys.org/news169223504.html Biology Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:32:14 EST news169223504