New weather warning gauge for Australia

Australia, the driest inhabited continent, is prone to natural disasters and wild swings in weather conditions—from floods to droughts, heatwaves and bushfires.

Marmoset monkeys have personalities too

In humans, differences in personalities have been evident since the ancient times. Personality in animals has long been ignored, but recently this question has received increasing research interest as it has been realized ...

Study shows that viruses can evolve to benefit the host organism

A research group from the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) confirms that a virus that affects a cruciferous plant reduces its virulence in drought conditions.This is the first piece of research showing ...

How climate caprices can trigger plants

Plants and other organisms can adapt their phenotypes to fluctuating environmental conditions within certain limits. The leaves of the dandelion, for example, are much more small in sunny locations than in shady places. In ...

Seeds transfer their microbes to the next generation

Scientists have been pondering if the microbiome of plants is due to nature or nurture. Research at Stockholm University, published in Environmental Microbiology, showed that oak acorns contain a large diversity of microbes, ...

Ultraviolet light helps marine animals to tell the time of year

Most organisms on Earth depend on the energy from the sun. Sunlight is also an important coordinator of life's timers. Animals take important cues for proliferation, activity, feeding, or sleep from changing light conditions. ...

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