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. (Phys.org) —A multi-institutional team from the Department of Energy's Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) used metagenomic and metaproteomic approaches to provide insight into the symbiotic relationship between leaf-cutter ants, fungi, and bacteria. In doing so, they have mapped the first draft genome of the predominant fungus and clarified its role in lignocellulose degradation in underground fungal gardens tended by the ants. Ultimately, scientists hope that this understanding will help the development of cellulosic biofuels. http://phys.org/news287650387.html Biology Mon, 13 May 2013 08:40:03 EST news287650387 (Phys.org) —Caffeine is the naturally occurring drug most widely used by humans. In nature, though, it is reported to act as a bitter and toxic deterrent to herbivores, preventing leaves and seeds from being eaten. http://phys.org/news287643238.html Biology Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:01 EST news287643238 Females in the animal kingdom have many methods available to them to help bias male paternity. One such process is displayed by Euxesta bilimeki, a species of Ulidiid fly, whose females expel and then consume male ejaculate after copulation. A new study by Christian Rodriguez-Enriquez and his colleagues from the Instituto de Ecologia in Mexico has been researching the possible reasons why the female of this species might adopt this behavior. Their study is published in the Springer journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. http://phys.org/news284904047.html Biology Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:00:57 EST news284904047 A new study reveals that governments in Latin America have returned to natural resources extraction to fuel development—while paying scant attention to the impact mining, oil exploration and other activities have on the environment or on the people who own the land. The study, which reported on both domestic and international investments, was released at the 14th Rights and Resources Initiative Dialogue on Forests, Governance, and Climate Change bringing stakeholders and indigenous, Afro-descendant and rural community leaders from 13 nations to Bogotá this week. http://phys.org/news283175745.html Space & Earth Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:56:50 EST news283175745 As part of the study, scientists sampled the presence of 20 species of birds both near and far from 30 rural residences in the Adirondack Park. Calculating their occurrence at increasing distances from the residences, they determined that "human-adapted" species are 36 percent more likely to occur near the homes than in the surrounding mixed hardwood-conifer forests, and that "human-sensitive" species were 26 percent less likely. Beyond 200 meters, occupancy rates were similar to the surrounding forest. http://phys.org/news281019772.html Biology Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:03:01 EST news281019772 (Phys.org)—Some reptile species give birth to live young, but turtles have never evolved this ability. New research is revealing why. http://phys.org/news279369541.html Biology Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:39:25 EST news279369541 (Phys.org)—Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment. http://phys.org/news275123829.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:17:20 EST news275123829 (Phys.org)—Fish play a far more important role as contributors of nutrients to marine ecosystems than previously thought, according to researchers at the University of Georgia and Florida International University. In a pair of papers in the journal Ecology, they show that fish contribute more nutrients to their local ecosystems than any other source—enough to cause changes in the growth rates of the organisms at the base of the food web. http://phys.org/news274467653.html Biology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:01:09 EST news274467653 How does evolution innovate? We exist because our ancestors have had the ability to adapt successfully to changes in their environment; however, merely examining present-day organisms can limit our understanding of the actual evolutionary processes because the crucial events have been masked by the passage of aeons – what we need is a time machine. Scientists from VIB, KU Leuven, University of Ghent and Harvard have done the next-best thing; by reconstructing DNA and proteins from prehistoric yeast cells, they were able to directly examine the evolutionary forces that have acted over the last 100 million years to shape modern-day enzymes – biological catalysts that enable organisms to manipulate molecules to their will. http://phys.org/news274465289.html Biology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:00:17 EST news274465289 (Phys.org)—Australian sugar ants know their surroundings so well that putting them in a different place can immediately trigger a 'lost' reaction, new research shows. http://phys.org/news272017740.html Biology Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:10:02 EST news272017740 Chinese scientists on Sunday began a survey of the dwindling population of an endangered porpoise in the country's longest river, as the animal edges towards extinction from man-made threats. http://phys.org/news271834059.html Biology Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:10:02 EST news271834059 Humans don't have a monopoly on being smart: many other animals, including birds, can solve problems and even make and use tools. http://phys.org/news269765739.html Biology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:55:46 EST news269765739 The European Commission said Wednesday that it was cutting targets for the use of biofuels so as to reduce the negative impact on food production and prices. http://phys.org/news269701287.html Technology Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:01:45 EST news269701287 While flies initially prefer food with a sweet flavor, they quickly learn to opt for less sweet food sources that offer more calories and nutritional value, according to new research by University of British Columbia zoologists. The findings, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, are the first to measure the shift in food preference over time, and the first to find that flies opt for nutritious food more quickly when they're hungry. http://phys.org/news269615431.html Biology Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:00:01 EST news269615431 Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories' National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC). http://phys.org/news267971595.html Technology Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:33:58 EST news267971595 One of the most invasive species on the planet is able to source food from the land as well as its usual food sources in the water, research from Queen Mary, University of London has found. http://phys.org/news263233745.html Biology Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:29:19 EST news263233745 Human diversity in Africa is greater than any place else on Earth. Differing food sources, geographies, diseases and climates offered many targets for natural selection to exert powerful forces on Africans to change and adapt to their local environments. The individuals who adapted best were the most likely to reproduce and pass on their genomes to the generations who followed. http://phys.org/news262517530.html Biology Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:20:03 EST news262517530 Australia's feral camel population has dropped by an estimated 250,000 in recent years, but the arid outback is still home to the world's largest wild herd, officials said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news262353985.html Biology Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:07:50 EST news262353985 Deer hinds (Cervus elaphus) have a hierarchical organisation system: the oldest and largest hold the most dominant positions. Therefore, a nutrient rich diet benefits the more dominant hinds, who have preferential access to the best food sources. This allows them to grow even bigger, improving their milk production and body condition. http://phys.org/news261996996.html Biology Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:56:42 EST news261996996 (Phys.org) -- One of the really cool things about science is how the mundane can suddenly seem not just interesting, but truly fascinating. One great example of this is the bee hive, specifically the honeybee hive, where it appears that little of interest is going on when viewed as an outsider. But then, some people spend an enormous amount of time studying what goes on in such a hive, and then go on to explain it to others, and then just like that, the mundane, becomes exciting. One such researcher is Dr Margaret Couvillon, who along with her colleagues at the University of Sussex, have found, as they describe in their paper published in Biology Letters, that when forager bees return to the hive to report on their findings, by doing a little waggle dance, they tend to do a better job of it when prancing vertically versus horizontally. http://phys.org/news254043363.html Biology Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:36:18 EST news254043363 Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and dugongs; today, only one species of seacow is found in each world region. Smithsonian scientists have discovered that this was not always the case. According to the fossil record of these marine mammals, which dates back 50 million years ago, it was more common to find three, or possibly more, different species of seacows living together at one time. This suggests that the environment and food sources for ancient seacows were also different than today. The team's findings are published in the journal PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news250441033.html Other Sciences Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:57:21 EST news250441033 As scientists continue the hunt for energy sources that are safer, cleaner alternatives to fossil fuel, an ever-increasing amount of valuable farmland is being used to produce bioethanol, a source of transportation fuel. And while land-bound sources are renewable, economists and ecologists fear that diverting crops to produce fuel will limit food resources and drive up costs. http://phys.org/news250167611.html Technology Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:10:01 EST news250167611 The pigs and poultry in Professor Xingen Lei's lab have been consuming feed one wouldn't expect in Ithaca: marine algae. http://phys.org/news246176081.html Biology Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:14:47 EST news246176081 Worker ants from a particular species of African ants have potent venom that can paralyze and kill termites from a distance, according to a study published Dec. 14 in the online journal PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news243105823.html Biology Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:23:58 EST news243105823 Field work by researcher Fred Kraus from Bishop Museum, Honolulu has found the world's smallest frogs in southeastern New Guinea. This also makes them the world's smallest tetrapods (non-fish vertebrates). The frogs belong to the genus Paedophryne, all of whose species are extremely small, with adults of the two new species - named Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa - only 8-9 mm in length. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. http://phys.org/news242907000.html Biology Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:10:13 EST news242907000 Ever wondered why flies are attracted to beer? Entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have, and offer an explanation. They report that flies sense glycerol, a sweet-tasting compound that yeasts make during fermentation. http://phys.org/news240752263.html Biology Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:37:53 EST news240752263 In 1925, Henry Ford observed that fuel is present in all vegetative matter that can be fermented and predicted that Americans would some day grow their own fuel. Last year, global biofuel production reached 28 billion US gallons, and biofuel accounted for 2.7% of the world's transportation fuel. Bioethanol, a popular type of biofuel, is largely derived from sugary food crops such as corn and sugarcane. However, technologies are being developed to generate bioethanol from non-food sources, such as the lignocellulosics present in switchgrass and trees. The sugars locked in the polymers of cell walls, i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, can be extracted and fermented by yeast into bioethanol. http://phys.org/news240659157.html Biology Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:46:06 EST news240659157 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many meat-eating animals have unique ways of hunting down a meal using their senses. To find a tasty treat, bats use echolocation, snakes rely on infrared vision, and owls take advantage of the concave feathers on their faces, the better to help them hear possible prey. Leeches have not just one but two distinct ways of detecting dinner and, according to new findings from biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), their preferred method changes as they age. http://phys.org/news239350612.html Biology Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:17:21 EST news239350612 Powerful lobby groups opposed to genetically modified (GM) food are threatening public acceptance of the technology in Europe, research suggests. http://phys.org/news236057483.html Biology Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:31:41 EST news236057483 In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing university present a rather striking finding that plant miRNAs could make into the host blood and tissues via the route of food-intake. Moreover, once inside the host, they can elicit functions by regulating host "target" genes and thus regulate host physiology. http://phys.org/news235629106.html Biology Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:32:00 EST news235629106