(PhysOrg.com) -- It was a relatively inexpensive winter for heating in central North America, with mild temperatures reducing the need to warm our houses, but the mild, fluctuating temperatures will cause ...

Biology - Ecology

Apr 02, 2012 4 / 5 (4) 0

Beetles, caterpillars and wasps could supplement the diets of billions of people globally and help feed livestock, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Monday, calling for more investment i ...

Biology - Ecology

May 13, 2013 4 / 5 (4) 0

One of the peskiest household pests, while disastrous to homes, could prove to be a boon for cars, according to a Purdue University study.

Biology - Biotechnology

Jul 05, 2011 5 / 5 (3) 3 |

Toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria (Bt toxins) are used in organic and conventional farming to manage pest insects. Sprayed as pesticides or produced in genetically modified plants, Bt toxins, us ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Oct 19, 2011 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

(Phys.org) -- Most animals move around by using their appendages, such as legs, wings, or fins. But a few exceptional creatures employ rolling as a mode of locomotion. Included in this group are rolling salamanders, ...

Technology - Engineering

Jun 18, 2012 3.8 / 5 (4) 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Conkers, a favourite playground game in British schools, could soon be just a fond memory if a serious threat to horse chestnut trees continues to spread. Now academics from the Universities ...

Biology - Ecology

Jun 11, 2010 4.3 / 5 (3) 0

Caterpillars belonging to a species of butterfly previously unknown as far north as Canada have been discovered in Montreal, in a sign that this country's cool climate is warming, researchers said Monday.

Biology - Ecology

Jul 16, 2012 3 / 5 (4) 0

Songbird populations can handle far more disrupting climate change than expected. Density-dependent processes are buying them time for their battle. But without (slow) evolutionary rescue it will not save ...

Biology - Ecology

Apr 25, 2013 3.7 / 5 (3) 1 |

Plants are anything but as defenceless as they might seem. Various plant hormones work together to specifically fend off attacks. Dutch researcher Antonio Leon-Reyes has now shown how these hormones cooperate. By 'consulting' ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Sep 03, 2009 5 / 5 (2) 1

Cis-OPDA (12-oxophytodienoic acid) is a highly reactive plant hormone which simultaneously serves as a precursor molecule of the metabolic "master switch" jasmonic acid. Both signal herbivory in leaves and ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Sep 14, 2009 5 / 5 (2) 0

We normally think of pollinators as providing a valuable service to plants, and they certainly do. In exchange for nectar, pollinators like the well-known honey bee carry pollen from one plant to the other ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Jan 21, 2010 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Lions, tigers and bears top the ecological pyramid-the diagram of the food chain that every school child knows. They eat smaller animals, feeding on energy that flows up from the base where ...

Biology - Ecology

Apr 15, 2010 3.3 / 5 (3) 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- With an amazing example of convergent evolution, Niels Bjerg Jensen of the University of Copenhagen published a report in Nature Communications discussing the bird's-foot trefoil plant and th ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Apr 13, 2011 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

The Flight Artists team from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, has been the first to make high-speed camera footage of parasitic wasps of about 1 mm wingspan.

Biology - Plants & Animals

May 25, 2011 5 / 5 (2) 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Males of an unusual group of wasps fight to the death over females, even if they've already mated or are competing with their own brothers, a new study shows. The behaviour was seen in parasitoid ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Aug 09, 2011 5 / 5 (2) 3 |