A year and a half ago, researchers at Brown University found a molecular gas pedal for melanin production. Now they've found a brake. For scientists, the finding deepens not only the basic understanding of how eyes, skin ...
Archaeology
May 27, 2016
0
40
In the bird world, the color red has special significance. Many species use red signals to attract mates or deter rivals, adding the color to their beaks, feathers, or bare skin. Generally speaking, as far as many birds are ...
Plants & Animals
May 19, 2016
0
130
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
Scientists have announced a major breakthrough in their understanding of how the fungus Aspergillus terreus - the cause of serious illness in humans - can move around the body, rather than remaining in the lungs as with similar ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 28, 2016
0
20
A 300 million year-old fossil mystery has been solved by a research team led by the University of Leicester, which has identified that the ancient 'Tully Monster' was a vertebrate—due to the unique characteristics of its ...
Archaeology
Apr 13, 2016
6
620
Plants use certain colour pigments in order to convert light into energy by way of photosynthesis. They allow plants to gather light energy. This also works in a similar way for microbes, for instance cyanobacteria. The fact ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 5, 2016
0
27
Ten million years ago, a green and black snake lay coiled in the Spanish undergrowth. Once, paleontologists would have been limited to the knowledge they could glean from its colorless fossil remains, but now they know what ...
Archaeology
Mar 31, 2016
0
104
The many colors and patterns of bird eggs can provide camouflage and help parents tell their own eggs apart from those of invaders, but a forthcoming study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances suggests another function for ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 20, 2016
0
106
Scientists have discovered how the distinctive piebald patches seen in black and white cats and some horses are formed in the womb.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 6, 2016
0
1018
A mathematical model developed by Brown University researchers is shedding new light on how zebrafish get their iconic stripes. The model helps to demonstrate how two dynamic processes—the movement of pigment cells across ...
Mathematics
Nov 17, 2015
0
58
