Rodents are mammals of the order Rodentia, characterized primarily by a single pair of ever-growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws, separated from the cheek teeth by a diastema and adapted for gnawing. This order encompasses extensive taxonomic diversity, including families such as Muridae, Cricetidae, Sciuridae, and Caviidae, occupying a wide range of terrestrial and arboreal habitats. Rodents exhibit high reproductive rates, diverse dietary strategies (from herbivory to omnivory), and complex social structures in some lineages. They play key ecological roles as primary consumers, seed predators and dispersers, and prey species, and serve as important model organisms in biomedical and evolutionary research.
Here's a novel idea for countering the painful side effects of chemotherapy: Beforehand, take the hallucinogenic drug found in magic mushrooms.
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 5, 2026
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17
For most mammals, cold suppresses neural activity and diminishes the sense of touch. But the thirteen-lined ground squirrel can detect touch in conditions as low as 4°C (39°F), about as cold as the inside of a refrigerator, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 4, 2026
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9
For decades, scientists have understood that each of the roughly 20,000 genes in the human body carries instructions for a single kind of protein. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that instructions ...
Biotechnology
Sep 2, 2026
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190
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) tropical forests stretch across an extraordinary landscape of rivers, wetlands, savannas and towering trees. But in a forest this vast, biodiversity doesn't exist on a single plane. ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 1, 2026
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64
A drug that targets the host rather than the virus could get around the problem of antiviral resistance. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die of seasonal influenza caused by infection with influenza A and B viruses.
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 1, 2026
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7
The ability to precisely adjust the expression of genes inside the human body—ramping up protective ones and tamping down harmful ones—holds enormous potential for treating and preventing disease. But the standard molecular ...
Biotechnology
Aug 31, 2026
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30
The genome—which contains genes encoded in DNA—acts as the fundamental blueprint of life. But what you might not know is that, in addition to this genetic information, we have something akin to an "instruction manual" for ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 27, 2026
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10
The deadly rabies virus was once common across Europe. A bite from an infected dog, wolf or fox could be fatal.
Plants & Animals
Aug 27, 2026
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9
A research team has uncovered fundamental molecular mechanisms governing the formation of tendons and ligaments, which are essential for musculoskeletal integration. Understanding these mechanisms could pave the way for the ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 26, 2026
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13
Can DNA traces in just two liters (0.5 gallons) of water reveal how a river's biodiversity changes over the course of a year? A study by the University of Duisburg-Essen using the River Lippe as an example shows how biodiversity ...
Ecology
Aug 26, 2026
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7
