An insect's sense of smell is vital to its survival. Only if it can trace even tiny amounts of odor molecules is it is able to find food sources, communicate with conspecifics, or avoid enemies. According to scientists at ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2014
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How do we smell? The answer lies in the 1,000 or so genes that encode what's known as olfactory receptors inside our noses.
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2014
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(Phys.org) —Early diagnosis is critical in treating Lyme disease. However, nearly one quarter of Lyme disease patients are initially misdiagnosed because currently available serological tests have poor sensitivity and specificity ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 25, 2013
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Vanderbilt biologists have discovered that mosquito sperm have a "sense of smell" and that some of same chemicals that the mosquito can smell cause the sperm to swim harder.
Plants & Animals
Feb 3, 2014
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Queen ants spend most of their time having babies. To reign supreme in a colony, they exude a special scent, or pheromone, on the waxy surface of their body that suppresses ovary development in their sisters, rendering the ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 17, 2017
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Mammals possess several lines of defense against microbes. One of them is activated when receptors called Fprs, which are present on immune cells, bind to specific molecules that are linked to pathogens. Researchers at the ...
Evolution
Jun 26, 2017
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The common vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster is a very well-studied animal. For decades, the fly has been used as a model organism in genetic research; its genome was fully sequenced in 2000. However, until now researchers ...
Plants & Animals
May 20, 2015
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Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have shown that receptors in the noses of mice exposed to certain smells during life are different to genetically similar mice that lived without ...
Biotechnology
Apr 25, 2017
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To date, it has been unknown exactly how mammals are capable of sniffing out whether a conspecific is ill. The biologists Prof. Marc Spehr and Daniela Flügge are following a good lead. They have discovered that a messenger ...
Plants & Animals
May 7, 2009
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The koala's nose is distinctive—it's a big black leathery rectangle in the middle of a round, gray face that's surprisingly soft to the touch. And every koala nose is unique.
Plants & Animals
Jun 5, 2019
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