Many animals depend on their microbiome to digest their food. Symbiotic microorganisms produce enzymes their hosts cannot, and these work alone or together with the animals' own enzymes to break down their food. Many plant-feeding ...
Plants & Animals
May 31, 2016
0
16
Roses are red, violets are blue. Everybody knows that, but what makes them so? Although plant breeders were aware of some of the genes involved, there was as yet no quantitative study of how pigment turns a flower red, blue ...
Plants & Animals
May 10, 2016
0
373
The leaves of virus-infected plants reflect light differently to attract the attention of disease-spreading greenfly, new research suggests.
Plants & Animals
Apr 21, 2016
0
58
Do bees like the taste of nectar? Does the ant foraging for your crumbs feel better when she finds one?
Plants & Animals
Apr 19, 2016
108
366
A team of scientists has found that a species of ant that clusters together to form rafts to survive floods exhibits memory and repeatedly occupies the same position during raft formation, according to a just published paper.
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2016
1
1150
The globally increasing light pollution has negative effects on organisms and entire ecosystems. The consequences are especially hard on nocturnal insects, since their attraction to artificial light sources generally ends ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 13, 2016
0
55
After studying how insects navigate through dense vegetation, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have come up with a system that can be applied to flying robots. By adapting the system to drones, they can be made to ...
Robotics
Apr 6, 2016
1
44
Biomechanics researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how insects build internal bandages to repair their broken 'bones'. A DIY cuticle repair kit allows wounded insects to go about their day-to-day lives almost ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 5, 2016
0
1497
A new analysis of the prehistoric origin of malaria suggests that it evolved in insects at least 100 million years ago, and the first vertebrate hosts of this disease were probably reptiles, which at that time would have ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 28, 2016
0
176
Research from North Carolina State University finds that among eusocial insects – like ants, bees and termites – the more individuals there are in a typical species colony, the weaker the species' immune response. The ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 9, 2016
0
41
