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Until now, only two species of seadragon had been reported, with the last one being discovered 150 years ago! Now, biologists have discovered a new species off the coast of Australia: a red hot sea dragon. “All this time we thought that there were only two species,” marine biologist Nerida Wilson of the Western Australia […]
Life has found our blue gem planet as a welcoming host, but it hasn't always been all fun and games. To our knowledge, life has gone through five major mass extinctions over the past couple hundred millions of years. During this time countless species and even families were wiped out in a heart beat, but geological time frame standards. When faced with overwhelming odds, nature favors those who can adapt. According to researchers at the University of Gothenburg plants have always been surprisingly resilient to these challenging times, compared to animals. That's not to say that plants didn't go extinct as well - sure, countless as well, but others soon filled their space at a much great pace than animals could.
According to a new study, limpet teeth may be the strongest material known to man, stronger than spider silk or kevlar. Scientists from Portsmouth University made the surprising discovery after analyzing limpets with a technique called atomic force microscopy.
Scientists believe that collagen extracted from fish (especially tilapia) can be applied as a "wound dressing", to help clean the wound and accelerate healing.
A new liquid-infused polymer can make sure that medical equipment is bacteria free by being extremely slippery. This technology, which involves silicone infused with a silicone oil also has a myriad of potential applications outside of medical equipment - in the oil industry, in air planes and cosmetics.
Penguins have lost most of their sense of taste - they can't detect the savory taste of the fish they eat, and they also can't enjoy fruits or sugar. For penguins, food come in two tastes: salty and sour.
A new study has revealed the fun-loving side of crocodiles; the reptiles, generally regarded as ferocious and aggressive, are reported to surf waves, play ball and engage in piggyback rides to have fun.
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, some of you might be tempted to employ some of those spray-on pheromone products. I won't give names, but you must have seen the ads - they're all over TV and the internet. Odorless pheromones are secreted by many animals to attract mates, and while synthesized versions have been shown to work for bees and other insects, the human nose and brain for that matter is a whole different thing.
The most extensive DNA survey of the NYC subway has revealed that New Yorkers really like pizza and mozzarella, but also that drug-resistant microbes are widespread. They also found traces of the plague, anthrax, and learned that a tasmanian devil never took the subway in the city. In a way, the human body is very similar […]
If two tape worms infect the same host, they can either cooperate to thrive, or battle it out for complete control. A new study has found that the parasites actively sabotage each other in a competition to seize control of the host. Tape worms are nasty creatures. They live in the digestive tracts of vertebrates […]
So, we’ve already discussed about the largest and heaviest organisms in the world, now it’s time to see what the world’s oldest animal is – spoiler alert, this one is also a surprise. If you’re thinking it’s a turtle or an elephant… you’re way off. If you think it’s a whale, you’re a bit closer, […]
Most spiders weave sticky, wet webs to trap their prey, but the feather-legged lace weaver spider, Uloborus plumipes, employs a totally "high-tech" strategy. It spins an extremely thin nano-sized web, which becomes charge with electrostatic energy. Just like dust latches on to your sweater, insects are attracted and stuck to the the web. Biologists believe they've figured out how the spider does all of this in a newly reported paper which might help the industry design and develop ultra-strong nano filaments in the future.
Global warming is all fun and games until somebody breaks a penis! For a long time, scientists have been aware that chemical pollution makes polar bears' testes and penis bone smaller. Concerns over polar bears' mating potential have now grown after Danish researchers found pollution also reduces penile bone density, increasing the risk of fracture during mating.
The harbor in Hong Kong sparkled with an eerie blue glow, creating a surprising and beautiful picture. But few people know that the cause of this lovely landscape is actually pollution - pig manure, fertiliser and sewage. This nutrient-rich pollution encouraged a bloom of Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as "Sea Sparkle."
Researchers at the Université de Strasbourg made a polymer gel that is able to contract similar to how a muscle concentrates motor proteins to elicit motion. The contraction occurs under the influence of light, but besides contraction, the gel also stores some of the absorbed light.
Harbor seals and most likely all pinnipeds rely on their whiskers to track prey even in the murkiest waters. Now, a new research has revealed the secret to the seal's formidable sensitive whiskers: it's their wavy shape.
Piotr Naskrecki, a Harvard biologist, did what few people would have the courage to do – he let maggots grow inside his skin, then documented the entire process. The result is, while very gross, spectacularly interesting. Proceed at your own risk. I’ve got you under my skin The Human Bot Fly from Piotr Naskrecki on […]
Two teams of researchers from the US recoded the genome of the E. coli bacteria such that it dies when it runs out of synthetic chemical, unavailable in nature. This way, it's impossible for the bacteria to spread into the wild uncontrolled. Effectively, this self-destruct measure puts GMOs on a tight leash!
Chimps, our favorite primate cousins, communicate with each other through a complex gesture language, partially decoded by scientists. Depending on the situation and the gesture, chimps tell each other things like “Stop that,” “Climb on me,” or “Move away.” Now, an exciting new study found that chimps also communicate through vocalization. Researchers found that the primates would "speak" to their peers and relay what their favorite fruits are and where the best trees can be found.
What do you do if you need to catch your own food... but you're just not fast enough? That's the problem cone snails had to face, and the solution they came up with is pretty amazing: they kill fish by lowering their sugar levels with a unique type of insulin, researchers found
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to enlarge and map brain samples. This inexpensive technique will now allow scientists to get a much closer look at the human brian and perhaps figure out some of its long standing secrets.
The New Zealand tuatara (Sphenodon) is one of those unique animals that warrants revision for biology textbooks. The lizard-like reptile that is the only survivor of a group that was globally widespread at the time of the dinosaurs uses its highly specialised jaws to slice its food like a "steak knife". Typically, chewing is associated with high metabolism in animals, but in this instance this is far from being the case.
Having a smart strategy doesn't require a brain, a new study has shown. Researchers found an insect-eating plant from Borneo which can outsmart ants and temporarily turn off its trap to attract more prey.
Buttereflies are pretty awesome insects - the pupal transformation into a butterfly through metamorphosis is one of the most spectacular processes in the biological world. For one month, until February 16, Drexler University will exhibit a spectacular sample: a butterfly suffering from bilateral gynandromorphism - in other words, a butterfly that is half male, half female.
A female orangutan born in the wild has learned to use her tongue to whistle and produce vowel sounds just like a human - suggesting that all giant apes are able to do so. Although orangutans are known to create diverse vocalisations, what Tilda can do is unique.
In 1833, biologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger showed that animals with warm blood that live closer to the equator tend to be darker. The finding took surprised biologists at the time and now, a new study has shown that this applies for flowers too.
A giant reptile which looked somewhat like a dolphin but had the behavior of a dinosaur was discovered around what is now the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. The predator, an Ichtyosaur lived 170 million years ago and its diet probably consisted of fish and invertebrates, but it may have also eaten sharks and even dinosaurs.
Only humans and great apes can recognize themselves when looking in a mirror, but new findings suggest that it's possible for rhesus monkeys to realize they're looking at themselves if trained properly. The findings bear important implications for humans as well, since they suggest patients with impairment of self-recognition can have their condition remedied with training.
Using innovative microfluidics devices, US researchers were able to study thousands of bacteria individually, something extremely difficult if not impossible to do in the past, and found that generation by generation bacteria actually change their size and shape, but collectively retain the same volume. The bacteria stick to this behavior as if governed by a rule or law; something that might help explain why animal organs are always of particular size and shape, why are individual cells of a particular shape for that matter or, ultimately, what is it that regulates all this.
For the very first time, engineers have used the DNA origami assembly method to build complex DNA-based mechanism that performs a repeatable and reversible function. Mechanical engineers at The Ohio State University built their devices such that they may function like any regular macro-object, like opening and closing hinges. Their approach, however, is different than other […]
The bright, rainbow-colored thermal pools of Yellowstone park may owe their spectacular color to tourist pollution, a new study suggests. Using mathematical models, the study showed the initial colors of the ponds – the ones they had before tourists started polluting them. Morning Glory Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of […]
Some animals have extraordinary sensorial abilities; there have been scientific works documenting dogs which react to an earthquake 5 minutes before the waves reached the surface, but this is perhaps even more spectacular – some birds can sense an earthquake from 900 km away (560 miles). It seems that have avoided a devastating storm by fleeing […]
It has been known for quite some time that male praying mantises can get their heads ripped off while copulating with females. But a new study has shown that deceptive females can trick the males and eat them even without copulation; basically, they lure them in pretending to be full of eggs and eat them when […]
They say that when two people fall in love, you can see sparks flying. Well, that may or may not be true, but researchers from the US have shown that when sperm meets and egg – sparks definitely fly. Fertilization Fireworks These are the first images captured at the exact moment when a mammal’s egg is […]
There isn’t a less dreaded sight in any respectable bar than a beer bottle gushing foam. It’s not the bartender’s fault though (not necessarily), since different assortments of beer have their signature foam – some make more, some make less. Breweries nowadays use all sorts of anti-foaming agents, and now food scientists in Belgium – the […]
A mind blowing international project performed a mass genome sequence to build the entire avian tree and reveal how birds evolved, particularly after the fall of the dinosaurs some 65 million years. A fallen dinosaur kingdom was replaced by a bird republic, as the direct descendants of the dinosaurs began to fill all the now […]
Transferring knowledge from one individual to the other forms the basis of all human cultures, whether we’re talking about learning how to chop wood, how the Earth actually revolves in a counter-intuitive manner around the sun and no the other way around, or how the Earth is a planet in the first place and everything […]
Arguably the most efficient predator in the world today is the dragonfly, which boats a 95% success rate. Obviously, there’s more to the dragonfly than meets the eye or more than you would expect from some random insect, at least. One of the reasons it’s so successful may be due to how the dragonfly moves […]
Two specially adapted pseudoscorpions have been reported in a cave on the northern side of the Grand Canyon. The creatures, which are not really scorpions, have adapted to their lightless environment by losing their eyes. Unlike true scorpions, pseudoscorpions don’t have a tail with a venomous stinger and are harmless to humans; as a matter […]
The world isn’t just fight or flight, there’s also a third option: hide. The reef-dwelling fish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris), also known as the harlequin filefish, is a true master of disguise that not only blends with its environment to avert itself from the gaze of a hungry predator, it also dissimulates its odor. In other words, the fish not […]
A rare 520-million-year-old fossil shaped like a ‘squashed bird’s nest’ has been discovered by a Chinese team of paleontologists. The team believes that the fossil, which is in excellent shape, will help us better understand how the Earth’s seas were like during the Cambrian.The fossil probably belongs to the ‘chancelloriid’, a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped creatures […]
Scientists have made a significant step towards developing fully artificial life – for the first time, they demonstrated evolution in a simple chemistry set without DNA. In a way, the researchers showed that the principle of natural selection doesn’t only apply to the biological world. Using a simple a robotic ‘aid’, a team from the University of […]
A team of researchers from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has revealed how the atomic structure of proteins changes during photosynthesis using an X-Ray laser which captures snapshops with unprecedented temporal resolution. As if conventional lasers weren’t awesome enough, scientists invented X-Ray lasers – which use stimulated emission to generate or amplify electromagnetic radiation in the near […]
The Electric Eel, a scaleless fish from the Amazon possesses an electroshock system very similar to a Taser. Not only can it stun its prey with the shock, but it can also make it twitch involuntarily, revealing its position. The electric eel is able to generate powerful electric shocks of up to 650 volts, which it uses […]
The human body is a complex biological machine, where each part of the system works in tandem, from cells to whole organs, to keep us alive. When something in the system goes astray or downright haywire, disease creeps in. I’m not going to go into biological details on how the human body works – there […]
High speed photography is no longer a new thing… but then again, it depends what you mean by high speed photography; you likely don’t mean one hundred billion frames per second (100,000,000,000 fps) – but that’s exactly what Liang Gao, Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University means. He and his team have developed the world’s fastest […]
People who chronically abuse marijuana may be able to quit by replenishing the supply of a molecule that normally activates cannabinoid receptors in the brain, thus reducing anxiety and relieving mood. A truly natural high In the 1980s and 90s, researchers identified cannabinoid receptors, long, ropy proteins that weave themselves into the surfaces of our […]
Evidence of ancient bony fish suggests that they copulated even though many of their descendants stopped doing so. Paleontologists believe this is the first-known animal to stop reproducing by spawning and instead mate by having sex. The primitive fish (Microbrachius dicki) measured about 8cm long and is now long extinct. As it often is today, the first sexual […]
It’s very small and incredibly old – scientists have found the egg of a 240 million year old parasite – a pinworm, to be more precise. It’s the oldest pinworm ever found, and one of the oldest evidences of parasitism ever found. The pinworm, also known as threadworm, is a parasitic intestinal worm, pretty common […]
Charle’s Darwin’s original notes during which he first scribbled down the ideas which led to evolution have been digitized and published online by Cambridge University. Over 12,000 high-res images have been published online – including the ones with the pages where he actually coins the term ‘natural selection’. “One may say there is a force […]
