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. Amphibians may be more susceptible to disease in undisturbed natural habitats, a study in this week's issue of PNAS finds. http://phys.org/news225993475.html Biology Mon, 30 May 2011 16:58:17 EST news225993475 A newly discovered strain of an airborne fungus has caused several deaths in Oregon and seems poised to move into California and other adjacent areas, according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center. http://phys.org/news191167424.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:00:32 EST news191167424 Approximately 7 percent of elementary school children across the bi-state, Kansas City metropolitan area are infected with the fungus Trichophyton tonsurans (T. tonsurans), the leading cause of ringworm in the U.S., according to a new study published today in Pediatrics. This is the largest study to date aimed at defining infection prevalence of the scalp fungus in children living in a metropolitan area and has implications for children nationwide. http://phys.org/news190814002.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:01 EST news190814002 (PhysOrg.com) -- Running electricity through a forest can be a dangerous business. To ensure that high-voltage power lines aren’t touched by branches or brought down by falling trees, they need to have a clear zone free of tall trees. Usually, tree-growth in these “right-of-ways” is managed with thousands of litres of chemical herbicide. However, a University of Victoria biology prof has come up with a novel way of dealing with this problem by developing a forestry-related biological herbicide. While seemingly simple, this idea brings together all the best aspects of forest management. http://phys.org/news190541341.html Biology Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:09:22 EST news190541341 (PhysOrg.com) -- Proteins from the fungus Cladosporium fulvum, which causes leaf blight in tomato plants, are very similar to the proteins of the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis, which causes the much-feared black Sigatoka disease in the banana. This paves the way for using genetic modification to build resistance into the banana via the tomato, report Wageningen phytopathologists in PNAS this week. http://phys.org/news190384936.html Biology Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:30:01 EST news190384936 A leading bat expert with the USDA Forest Service's Southern Research Station today identified nine bat species in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee that she believes are most threatened by white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungus that kills bats and appears to be rapidly spreading south from the northeastern United States. Station Research Ecologist Susan Loeb, Ph.D. says WNS has been confirmed in Tennessee, and she says it is just a matter of time before the fungus is detected in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. http://phys.org/news189863996.html Biology Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:00:23 EST news189863996 The Swiss needle cast epidemic in Douglas-fir forests of the coastal Pacific Northwest is continuing to intensify, appears to be unprecedented over at least the past 100 years, and is probably linked to the extensive planting of Douglas-fir along the coast and a warmer climate, new research concludes. http://phys.org/news189704627.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:20:12 EST news189704627 The popular forage and turf grass called tall fescue covers a vast amount of land in the U.S. -- an area that's estimated to be larger than Virginia and Maryland combined -- and a new study by ecologists at Rice University and Indiana University suggests there is more to fescue than meets the eye. http://phys.org/news187891578.html Biology Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:07:03 EST news187891578 Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica's Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped out dozens of other amphibians in the Americas. Many researchers have linked outbreaks of the deadly chytrid fungus to climate change, but the new study asserts that the weather patterns, at Monteverde at least, were not out of the ordinary. http://phys.org/news186668559.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:00:05 EST news186668559 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recent studies involving the fungus that causes the disease known as scab in barley have helped Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists identify the specific tissues the fungus infects. http://phys.org/news186138112.html Biology Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:40:01 EST news186138112 (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) -- Scientists have discovered that spring-fruiting fungi, including the morel and St George’s mushroom are fruiting nearly three weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago. http://phys.org/news179599392.html Biology Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:04 EST news179599392 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the Netherlands, including Gert Kema of Plant Research International, published an article in the Lancet Infectious Diseases about the relationship between fungicide use in agriculture and azole resistance. In the article the scientists argue that the intensive use of fungicides may contribute to resistance against pharmaceuticals in humans with life-threatening lung infections caused by the Aspergillus fungus. It is the first time that a probable relationship between fungicide use in agriculture and human health is demonstrated. http://phys.org/news178915899.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:52:18 EST news178915899 Amphibians like frogs and toads have existed for 360 million years and survived when the dinosaurs didn't, but a new aquatic fungus is threatening to make many of them extinct, according to an article in the November issue of Microbiology Today. http://phys.org/news178198770.html Biology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:40:13 EST news178198770 (PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers -- began their precipitous slide to extinction. http://phys.org/news177864298.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:45:49 EST news177864298 Most countries throughout the world participate in the $40-million-per-year culinary trade of frog legs in some way, with 75 percent of frog legs consumed in France, Belgium and the United States. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and colleagues have found that this trade is a potential carrier of pathogens deadly to amphibians. The team's findings are published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology, Thursday, Nov. 19. http://phys.org/news177858095.html Biology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:20:02 EST news177858095 A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections. The system can be a powerful tool for screening potential drug targets for conditions like thrush, athlete's foot and vaginal yeast infections, which affect millions of people each year but are difficult to treat with existing medications. Using the new model, the researchers also identified a gene that may be a promising target for a new anti-fungal drug. http://phys.org/news177851974.html Biology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:21:01 EST news177851974 (PhysOrg.com) -- CSIRO researchers have identified wheat and barley lines resistant to Crown Rot - a disease that costs Australian wheat and barley farmers $79 million in lost yield every year. http://phys.org/news175943197.html Biology Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:52:17 EST news175943197 (PhysOrg.com) -- Doppler technology -- the very same technology used by meteorologists to track thunderstorms -- is being used by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists to better understand the rate at which fescue toxicosis restricts blood flow in cattle. http://phys.org/news175356918.html Biology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:40:02 EST news175356918 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tomato plants under attack from the Botrytis fungus give off an aromatic substance that can be measured in greenhouses. This is the result of research performed by Roel Jansen with which he obtained his doctoral degree at Wageningen University on Friday 9 October. Working within a team of scientists from Wageningen and Germany, Jansen has opened the door to a new way of preventing and managing disease and plague problems in greenhouse horticulture. http://phys.org/news175238915.html Biology Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:40:01 EST news175238915 A workshop at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama has dramatically improved the ability of conservationists and regulatory agencies to monitor the spread of chytridiomycosis—one of the deadliest frog diseases on Earth. http://phys.org/news175180017.html Biology Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:20:02 EST news175180017 (PhysOrg.com) -- Six new inbred maize lines with resistance to aflatoxin contamination have now been registered in the United States by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS plant pathologist Robert Brown and colleague Abebe Menkir, with the Ibadan, Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, developed the lines. http://phys.org/news174894984.html Biology Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:20:01 EST news174894984 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sweet potatoes are a seasonal staple that earn U.S. producers some $370 million every year. Now Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have found traits in sweet potatoes that someday may make the vegetable as appreciated in the lab as it is in the kitchen. http://phys.org/news174822589.html Biology Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:10:04 EST news174822589 (PhysOrg.com) -- The means to fully understand and exploit a type of fungus that could form the basis of a new class of antibiotics has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol. With certain strains of bacteria becoming resistant to existing drugs, there is a growing need to find new sources of antibiotics. http://phys.org/news174720553.html Biology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:29:55 EST news174720553 Fungi travelled to Madagascar in the intestines of termites. Fungus serves as a source of food and helps in cellulose conversion. http://phys.org/news174241876.html Biology Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:31:49 EST news174241876 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists beleive extinct fungus species capitalised on a world-wide disaster and thrived on early Earth. http://phys.org/news173634124.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:43:32 EST news173634124 The number and diversity of male partners a queen honeybee has could help to protect her children from disease, say University of Leeds scientists, who are investigating possible causes of the widespread increase in bee deaths seen around the world. http://phys.org/news172139164.html Biology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:40:03 EST news172139164 At the 27th "Osnabrücker Baumpflegetagen," one of Germany’s most important annual conferences on all aspects of forest husbandry, Empa researcher Francis Schwarze’s "biotech violin" dared to go head to head in a blind test against a stradivarius -- and won. A brilliant outcome for the Empa violin, which is made of wood treated with fungus, against the instrument made by the great master himself in 1711. http://phys.org/news172135859.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:31:21 EST news172135859 Most natural rubber comes from rubber trees in Southeast Asia, but this source is now under threat from a fungus. Researchers have optimized the Russian dandelion to make it suitable for large-scale rubber production. http://phys.org/news171807909.html Biology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:00:02 EST news171807909 (PhysOrg.com) -- It’s surprising how much havoc the tiny termite can wreak. Each year infestations of these insects cause an estimated $30 billion in damage to buildings and crops nationwide. Historically, homeowners and plantation farmers have resorted to using harmful chemical pesticides to kill off the pests, but new research out of Northeastern University may soon change that. http://phys.org/news170618505.html Biology Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:10:04 EST news170618505