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. (PhysOrg.com) -- Keeping water vole and mink populations apart is vital if efforts to reintroduce water voles, one of Britain’s most endangered mammals, are to be successful. http://phys.org/news150728581.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:03:01 EST news150728581 (PhysOrg.com) -- The evolutionary history of diatoms -- abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year -- needs to be rewritten, according to a new Cornell study. The findings suggest that after a sudden rise in species numbers, diatoms abruptly declined about 33 million years ago -- trends that coincided with severe global cooling. http://phys.org/news150642726.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:12:06 EST news150642726 When extremes of drought and flood come in rapid succession, the extent of damage to vegetation may depend in part on the sequence of those events, according to a new study published in The American Naturalist. http://phys.org/news150642444.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:07:24 EST news150642444 Researchers have found that a technique used to visualize amyloid fibers in the laboratory might have the potential to destroy them in the clinic. The technique involves zapping the fluorescently-tagged fibers with a laser, which can inhibit their growth and degrade them. http://phys.org/news150560905.html Biology Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:28:25 EST news150560905 Scientists have discovered a new way for bacteria to transfer toxic genes to unrelated bacterial species, a finding that raises the unsettling possibility that bacterial swapping of toxins and other disease-aiding factors may be more common than previously imagined. http://phys.org/news150481769.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:29:29 EST news150481769 Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have produced the first link between a species of bacteria most commonly found in sheep and human illness. http://phys.org/news150473724.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:15:24 EST news150473724 Researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Yale University have made a significant advancement in understanding the cause behind why some pregnant women suffer from inflammations in the inner womb without any signs of an infection. http://phys.org/news150372671.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:11:11 EST news150372671 Aquaculture production of seafood will probably remain the most rapidly increasing food production system worldwide through 2025, according to an assessment published in the January 2009 issue of BioScience. The assessment, by James S. Diana of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, notes that despite well-publicized concerns about some harmful effects of aquaculture, the technique may, when practiced well, be no more damaging to biodiversity than other food production systems. Moreover, it may be the only way to supply growing demand for seafood as the human population increases. http://phys.org/news150115484.html Biology Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:44:44 EST news150115484 (PhysOrg.com) -- New species of flowering plants called proteas are exploding onto the scene three times faster in parts of Australia and South Africa than anywhere else in the world, creating exceptional 'hotspots' of species richness, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://phys.org/news149189012.html Biology Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:23:32 EST news149189012 Researchers have created a new family of fluorescent probes called hydrocyanines that can be used to detect and measure the presence of reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are highly reactive metabolites of oxygen that have been implicated in a variety of inflammatory diseases, including cancer and atherosclerosis. http://phys.org/news148561277.html Chemistry Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:01:17 EST news148561277 (PhysOrg.com) -- For years, scientists have wondered why only males of the rarely seen family of beaked whales have “tusks,” since they are squid-eaters and in many of the species, these elaborately modified teeth seem to actually interfere with feeding. http://phys.org/news148319331.html Biology Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:48:51 EST news148319331 You'd think that if scientists were to discover a new species, it would be in some remote, uncharted tropical forest, not a laboratory in New York. But a team from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History has done the unexpected. Looking at the genes of the African dwarf crocodile, researchers found that the group—genetically speaking—comprises three distinct species rather than one. This not only ends a long debate about the taxonomy of this group, previously thought to consist of two closely related subspecies, but also defines a new, distinct species from genetic samples. http://phys.org/news148316247.html Biology Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:57:27 EST news148316247 Researchers at the University of Calgary have found the biodiversity picture in the region known as the "lungs of the Earth" contradicts commonly held views relating to extinction in that area. http://phys.org/news148104391.html Biology Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:06:31 EST news148104391 (PhysOrg.com) -- Why do some species of birds lay only one egg in their nest, while others lay 10 or more? A global study of the wide variation among birds in this trait, known as the "clutch size," now provides biologists with some answers. The study, published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Biology, combined data on the clutch sizes of 5,290 species of birds with information on the biology and environment of each of these species. http://phys.org/news148048524.html Biology Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:35:24 EST news148048524 An international team of biologists has discovered a new species of microsporidia, a single-celled parasite of animals, in a roundworm used in genetic laboratories around the world. http://phys.org/news148019311.html Biology Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:28:31 EST news148019311 What began as an homage to achievement in the field of coral reef geology has evolved into the discovery of an unexpected link between corals of the Pacific and Atlantic. Dr. Ann F. Budd from the University of Iowa and Dr. Donald McNeill of the University of Miami named a new species of fossil coral found on the Island of Curaçao – some six million years old – after renowned coral reef geologist and University of Miami Rosenstiel School professor, Dr. Robert N. Ginsburg. The new species, originally thought to be an elkhorn coral (genus Acropora), a species widely distributed throughout the Caribbean that was informally christened Acropora ginsburgi in 1995 on Ginsburg's 70th birthday. http://phys.org/news147959822.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:57:02 EST news147959822 Many studies of evolution focus on the benefits to the individual of competing successfully – those who survive produce the most offspring, in Darwin's classic 'survival of the fittest'. But how does this translate to the evolution of species? A new paper, published in this week's issue of PLoS Biology, studies an aspect of the natural world that, like survival of the fittest individual, is explained by natural selection: namely, mutualism – an interaction between species that has benefits for both. The work shows that some species of butterfly that live alongside one another have evolved in ways that, surprisingly, benefit both species. http://phys.org/news147422979.html Biology Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:49:39 EST news147422979 Mercury levels in fish are prompting widespread consumption advisories and uncertainty among consumers over which species are safe to eat. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a model that will help scientists and regulators around the country predict which areas are likely to have fish with high mercury levels – a breakthrough that should help officials address public uncertainty by developing health advisories for specific water bodies and fish species. http://phys.org/news147354867.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:54:27 EST news147354867 Hawai`i's ongoing problem with invasive species such as snails and slugs, including their serious impact on plant nurseries and other aspects of the local horticultural industry, has been investigated and documented by four University of Hawai'i at Mānoa researchers. It is the first documented baseline compilation of the distributions of all snail and slug species associated with the horticultural industry throughout the Hawaiian Islands. http://phys.org/news146913407.html Biology Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:16:47 EST news146913407 A species of fruit fly from the Seychelles Islands often lays larvae instead of eggs, UC San Diego biologists have discovered. Clues to how animals switch from laying eggs to live birth may be found in the well-studied species' ecology and genes. http://phys.org/news146827823.html Biology Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:30:23 EST news146827823 (PhysOrg.com) -- Marine mammal experts have uncovered a new species of dolphin in Australian waters, challenging existing knowledge about bottlenose dolphin classifications and highlighting the country's marine biodiversity. http://phys.org/news146494868.html Biology Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:01:08 EST news146494868 Scientists report the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus, provisionally named Bundibugyo ebolavirus, November 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. The virus, which was responsible for a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda in 2007, has been characterized by a team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia the Uganda Virus Research Institute; the Uganda Ministry of Health; and Columbia University. http://phys.org/news146472322.html Biology Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:45:22 EST news146472322 It doesn't tick, it doesn't have hands, and it doesn't tell you what time of day it is. But a molecular clock does tell time -- on an epoch scale. The molecular clock, explained S. Blair Hedges, is a tool used to calculate the timing of evolutionary events. http://phys.org/news146418967.html Biology Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:56:07 EST news146418967 For the first time it is now possible to get a comprehensive overview of which alien species are present in Europe, their impacts and consequences for the environment and society. More than 11,000 alien species have been documented by DAISIE (Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventory for Europe), a unique three year research project with more than 100 European scientists, funded by the European Union that provides new knowledge on biological invasions in Europe. Biological invasions by alien species often result in a significant loss in the economic value, biological diversity and function of invaded ecosystems. http://phys.org/news146411582.html Biology Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:53:02 EST news146411582 A virus that causes cold-like symptoms in humans originated in birds and may have crossed the species barrier around 200 years ago, according to an article published in the December issue of the Journal of General Virology. Scientists hope their findings will help us understand how potentially deadly viruses emerge in humans. http://phys.org/news146399764.html Biology Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:36:04 EST news146399764 Plants that range northward because of climate change may be better at defending themselves against local enemies than native plants. http://phys.org/news146328549.html Biology Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:49:09 EST news146328549 (PhysOrg.com) -- Australian and New Zealand researchers have used ancient DNA from penguin fossils to make a startling discovery that may change the way we view species extinctions. http://phys.org/news146252612.html Biology Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:43:32 EST news146252612 Closely related animal species share most of their genes and look almost identical. However, minor morphological differences allow us to tell them apart. What is the genetic basis for these differences? Often, the explanation is provided by minor changes in spatial and temporal activity of transcription factors - "regulator" genes which are conserved throughout the animal kingdom. However, every group of animals also possesses a small proportion of genes which are, in contrary, extremely variable among closely related species or even unique. http://phys.org/news146220252.html Biology Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:44:12 EST news146220252 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evolution isn't just for living organisms. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found that the mineral kingdom co-evolved with life, and that up to two thirds of the more than 4,000 known types of minerals on Earth can be directly or indirectly linked to biological activity. The finding, published in American Mineralogist, could aid scientists in the search for life on other planets. http://phys.org/news145805221.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:27:01 EST news145805221 A scientific team from the John Innes Centre and University of St Andrews has identified a key gene that was transferred from a Sicilian plant into a close relative in Britain, showing how genetic cross-talk between species can be important for evolution. http://phys.org/news145804962.html Biology Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:22:42 EST news145804962