Richard the Lionheart 'had mummified heart'

Forensic scientists on Thursday announced they had delved into the embalmed heart of Richard the Lionheart, finding chemical evidence that the remains of England's Crusader king were handled with holy reverence.

Poison: It's what's for dinner

As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer from 18,700 to 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing packrats of their favorite food. Now, University of Utah biologists have narrowed the hunt ...

Sustainability of new creosote alternative confirmed

A recently published study has confirmed the sustainability credentials of a new biobased alternative to creosote that is being developed in the Bio4Products project. The use of wood modification based on pyrolysis oil was ...

Fecal transplants let packrats eat poison

Woodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes. Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters, ...

"Big data" enables first census of desert shrub

The creosote is the king of the desert. This scraggly shrub dominates the landscape of the American southwest, creating mini-oases from the harsh heat for desert wildlife.