Bright colors are often considered an evolutionary tradeoff in the animal kingdom. Yes, a male peacock's colorful feathers may help it attract a mate, but they also make it more likely to be seen by a hungry jungle cat. Jewel ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 23, 2020
0
135
A parasitic wasp has shown tremendous potential attacking and controlling spotted wing drosophila—an invasive, destructive fruit fly that costs Oregon growers close to a billion dollars a year, Oregon State University researchers ...
Ecology
Dec 11, 2019
0
99
Thrips are tiny insects 2 millimeters long, about as long as four human hairs are thick. Thrips are known for their unwelcome ability to devour garden plants and, lately, to inform the design of microrobotics.
General Physics
Dec 10, 2019
1
16
When studying how organisms evolve, biologists consider most traits, or features, as derived from some earlier version already present in their ancestors. Few traits are regarded as truly "novel."
Plants & Animals
Nov 21, 2019
3
1024
Sheep and dog bones can be whittled into orthopedic pins that stabilize pigeons' fractured wings, helping the fractures to heal properly without follow-up surgery. Researchers describe the treatment, which is cheaper and ...
Veterinary medicine
Nov 20, 2019
0
3
Walking on Caltech's campus, research engineer Chris Roh (MS '13, Ph.D. '17) happened to see a bee stuck in the water of Millikan Pond. Although it was a common-enough sight, it led Roh and his advisor, Mory Gharib (Ph.D. ...
General Physics
Nov 18, 2019
1
7561
An international team of scientists working with Heliconius butterflies at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama was faced with a mystery: How do pairs of unrelated butterflies from Peru to Costa Rica ...
Evolution
Nov 14, 2019
1
39
A cache of 118 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur and bird feathers has been recovered from an ancient lake deposit that once lay beyond the southern polar circle.
Archaeology
Nov 12, 2019
0
3634
Birds come in an astounding array of shapes and colours. But it's their physical prowess—like a bald eagle's incredible ability to soar—that captivates human imagination.
Plants & Animals
Oct 23, 2019
0
288
A leading science facility in the English countryside is helping in a bid to decipher Roman-era scrolls carbonised in the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.
Archaeology
Oct 3, 2019
0
401
