The evolution of mucus: How did we get all this slime?
From the slime coating slugs to the saliva in our mouths, many slippery bodily fluids contain mucus. So how did this marvel of biology evolve?
From the slime coating slugs to the saliva in our mouths, many slippery bodily fluids contain mucus. So how did this marvel of biology evolve?
Evolution
Aug 26, 2022
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171
It's a question that keeps some scientists awake at night: Do spiders sleep?
Plants & Animals
Aug 8, 2022
1
485
Deep in a Panamanian rain forest, bird populations have been quietly declining for 44 years. A new University of Illinois-led study shows a whopping 70% of understory bird species declined in the forest between 1977 and 2020. ...
Ecology
Apr 4, 2022
3
237
For female common yellowthroats, beauty isn't just skin—or features—deep. New research provides evidence that large or showy physical features of males attract females because they signal high-quality male genes, such ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 14, 2022
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174
Plump and ponderous, tardigrades earned the nickname "water bears" when scientists first observed the 0.02-inch-long animals' distinctive lumbering gaits in the 18th century. Their dumpy plod, however, raises the question ...
General Physics
Aug 27, 2021
3
1406
Mitochondria—the 'batteries' that power our cells—play an unexpected role in common diseases such as type 2 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, concludes a study of over 350,000 people conducted by the University of Cambridge.
Molecular & Computational biology
May 17, 2021
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1487
One of the big questions in biology is why certain plants and animals are found in some places and not others. Figuring out how species evolve and spread, and why some places are richer in species than others, is key to understanding ...
Ecology
Jul 30, 2020
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207
Flowering strips—pollinator-friendly rows of plants that increase foraging habitat for bees—can help offset pollinator decline but may also bring risks of higher pathogen infection rates for pollinators foraging in those ...
Plants & Animals
May 11, 2020
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155
When researchers in Nicole King's lab looked through a microscope at the strange organisms they had collected in Curaçao, they saw sheets of cells clustered together in a pattern that resembled skin. That was unusual enough, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 17, 2019
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251
When a series of large mammal species began going extinct roughly 12,000 years ago, many surviving species began going their separate ways, says new research led by Macquarie University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Ecology
Sep 19, 2019
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802