Video: Vampire folklore has more chemistry than you'd think
Halloween season wouldn't be the same without the undead.
Halloween season wouldn't be the same without the undead.
Other
Oct 31, 2019
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In the arms race between predators and prey, each evolves more and more sophisticated ways of catching or escaping from the other. Rachel Page, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Ximena Bernal, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2019
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The sense of smell is one of the most poorly understood of the five major senses. But now an international team of scientists led by Laurel Yohe of Stony Brook University suggests a new method to quantify olfactory receptors ...
Evolution
Sep 20, 2019
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Vampire bats could hold the key to new treatments for a range of serious medical problems, but researchers have hit a snag accessing the specimens needed to advance their work.
Biochemistry
Jan 15, 2019
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When asked to describe a vampire, most people think of a tall, pale creature, with fangs and a cloak. But were the creatures of folklore inspired by real traits seen in the animal kingdom? From avoiding sunlight to using ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 29, 2018
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The vampire bat's diet consists of blood. It prefers to feed on domestic animals such as cows and pigs, but when it does so, there is a risk of transmitting pathogens such as rabies. Now, a new study lead by Assistant Professor ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 23, 2018
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It may seem batty, but blood is the diet of choice for several species of bats. Now, scientists discover that jumping genes provide the evolutionary key to this vampiric life.
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2018
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The availability of livestock as a food source for vampire bats influences their immune response and infection by bacterial pathogens, according to a new paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Because ...
Ecology
Mar 26, 2018
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At first glance, the cost-benefit ratio of a blood-only diet suggests that vampire bats—the only mammals to feed exclusively on the viscous, ruby-red elixir—flew down an evolutionary blind alley.
Evolution
Feb 20, 2018
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The fossilized remains of a giant burrowing bat that lived in New Zealand millions of years ago have been found by a UNSW Sydney-led international team of scientists.
Archaeology
Jan 10, 2018
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