News tagged with food source

Darwin in a test tube: Scientists make molecules that evolve, compete, mimick behavior of Darwin's finches

As described in an article published this week in an advance, online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the work demonstrates some of the classic principles of evolution. For in ...

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 29, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (18) | comments 6

Company that transforms garbage into ethanol attracts big investors

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the past several years, Montreal-based company Enerkem has been working on a way to make ethanol from old utility poles and household garbage. Earlier this week, the company announced ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jun 03, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 15 | with audio podcast weblog

Small fish exploits forbidding environment

Jellyfish moved into the oceans off the coast of southwest Africa when the sardine population crashed. Now another small fish is living in the oxygen-depleted zone part-time and turning the once ecologically ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 15, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Slime design mimics Tokyo's rail system

What could human engineers possibly learn from the lowly slime mold? Reliable, cost-efficient network construction, apparently: a recent experiment suggests that Physarum polycephalum, a gelatinous fungus ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 21, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Scientist finds rapidly adapting fanged frogs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists led by biologist Ben Evans of McMaster University have documented the rapid adaptation of new fanged frog species on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 16, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

We are not only eating 'materials', we are also eating 'information'

In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing university present a rather striking finding that plant miRNAs could make into the host blood and tissues via the route of food-intake. Moreover, once inside the host, they ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 4

Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war

Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 4

Is cannibalism in polar bears on the rise?

(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of photographs of cannibalism in polar bears have been released, and the researchers who witnessed the act think the rate of cannibalism may be increasing. They observed three instances ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 09, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 18 | with audio podcast report

The disappearance of the elephant caused the rise of modern man 400,000 years ago

Elephants have long been known to be part of the Homo erectus diet. But the significance of this specific food source, in relation to both the survival of Homo erectus and the evolution of modern humans, has n ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (9) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Archaeological study shows human activity may have boosted shellfish size

In a counter-intuitive finding, new research from North Carolina State University shows that a species of shellfish widely consumed in the Pacific over the past 3,000 years has actually increased in size, ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 31, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Sucking Up To Survive

Shrink a human being down to the size of an insect, and you would no longer be able to sip lemonade from a straw. The forces that hold liquid together would simply be too great to overcome at that tiny scale.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Tequila plant could fuel vehicles and help reduce emissions

In an article published today in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, plant physiologist Dr Daniel Tan and his University of Oxford collaborators have analysed the potential to produce bioethanol (biofu ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jul 29, 2011 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Multiple species of seacows once coexisted: study

Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and dugongs; today, only one species of seacow is found in each world region. Smithsonian scientists have discovered that this was ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

GM food solutions at risk from lobbyists, research suggests

Powerful lobby groups opposed to genetically modified (GM) food are threatening public acceptance of the technology in Europe, research suggests.

Biology / Other

created Sep 24, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (6) | comments 39

Slime mold prefers sleeping pills

In a new paper published in Nature Precedings, Andrew Adamatzky from the University of the West of England shows that slime molds like Physarum polycephalum prefers sleeping pills and their sedative effects over ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast weblog