Earth’s Largest Organism is Deteriorating
Researchers in Utah say what many consider to be the world’s largest living organism is dying but could be saved with what they call a ‘mega-conservation’ effort. The Pando aspen clone looks like a forest of trees, but since each of the trees is linked by common genetic markers and possibly one giant root system, […]
New Blood Test Tells Your Body’s Time
Each of Earth’s life forms, from animals (including humans), plants, fungi, and even cyanobacteria, has a built-in biological clock that functions over a 24-hour cycle. This so-called circadian clock is a well-structured biological process, which helps keep our bodies healthy and working by regulating tasks such as sleeping, waking, hormone release, body temperature, and other […]
Smartphone App Helps Farmers Fight Pest
Since being spotted in Nigeria in 2016, a fast-spreading agricultural pest called Spodoptera frugiperda, or the fall armyworm, has been threatening the food security of people who live in countries across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, this pest can cause significant damage to many hectares of […]
Scientists Trace Process Of How One Cell Can Develop into Complex Lifeforms
All forms of multicellular life here on Earth begin with just a single cell. From this one cell springs a stream of specialized cells that go on to serve needed functions to create and keep a new life-form alive. This complex process is one of nature’s greatest mysteries. A zebrafish egg cell forms a complex […]
New DNA Structure Observed in a Living Cell
When you visualize a DNA structure, you probably think about the well-known ‘double helix’ that was revealed in 1953 by Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick. The duo, along with physicist and molecular biologist Maurice Wilkins, won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for what the Nobel Foundation described as their […]
Obesity May Dull Sense of Taste
A new study published in the journal PLOS Biology supports past research that suggests the more weight you gain the less you are able to taste the food you eat. The study, based on research with mice, suggests that obesity-driven inflammation actually reduced the number of their taste buds on their tongues. There are 50 […]
Platypus Milk Helps Fight Antibiotic Resistance
The platypus is a mammal, yet instead of ‘live birth’ it lays eggs, it’s got a bill and webbed feet that looks like a duck, a tail like a beaver and is venomous. At first glance, the platypus looks like an animal that could be the product of a creative imagination. Yet, despite its odd […]
Can Stress From Others Affect Your Brain?
Are you stressed out? If so, a new Canadian study hints that you may want to take care when you’re among others who are stressed too. The new study published in the journal, Nature Neuroscience, shows that stress conveyed to you by others may change your brain in the same way as your own stress does. […]
Forensic Analysis May Have Solved Amelia Earhart Mystery
The 1937 disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, as she was attempting a grueling equatorial flight to circumnavigate the world, has been one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our time. Professor emeritus Richard Jantz, of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville conducted a forensic analysis that suggests bones found on the South Pacific Island of […]
Scientists Spot Penguin “Supercolony”
Penguins are among the most common birds in Antarctica. Of all the Antarctic penguin species, only two – the Adélie and Emperor are known to breed along the shorelines and islands that surround the entire continent. A new study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution outlines the discovery of a previously unknown […]