New study shows the Amazon makes its own rainy season

A new study gives the first observational evidence that the southern Amazon rainforest triggers its own rainy season using water vapor from plant leaves. The finding helps explain why deforestation in this region is linked ...

Will climate change leave tropical birds hung out to dry?

The future of the red-capped manakin and other tropical birds in Panama looks bleak. A University of Illinois research project spanning more than three decades and simulating another five decades analyzes how changes in rainfall ...

El Nino could drive intense season for Amazon fires

The long-lasting effects of El Niño are projected to cause an intense fire season in the Amazon, according to the 2016 seasonal fire forecast from scientists at NASA and the University of California, Irvine.

Tramadol in plants and environment of Cameroon is anthropogenic

Tramadol, a synthetic opioid component of the painkiller tramal, was surprisingly identified in 2013 as a natural product of Sarcocephalus latifolia, a tree found in Cameroon. Scientists from Germany and Cameroon now refute ...

Early human diet explains our eating habits

Much attention is being given to what people ate in the distant past as a guide to what we should eat today. Advocates of the claimed palaeodiet recommend that we should avoid carbohydrates and load our plates with red meat ...

'Eyespots' in butterflies shown to distract predatory attack

Research has demonstrated with some of the first experimental evidence that coloration or patterns can be used to "deflect" attacks from predators, protecting an animal's most vulnerable parts from the predators most likely ...

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