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Bring Out your Dead--Can We, Should We Reverse Extinction

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

By Andrew Porterfield
 
Until the very late 1800s, a migration of passenger pigeons was a sight to behold. Hundreds of millions of the birds took flight together, their massive living cloud soaring its way up and down eastern North America. When they laid eggs, they did so in hundreds of nests, right next to each other. These traits led to their extinction--they were easy to shoot, delicious to eat. The last passenger pigeon, a female named "Martha," died in 1914. She's preserved at the...

Crows Know When You're Looking at Them

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

Crows can tell if you are looking at them, and respond accordingly. The finding is the first of its kind in a wild animal.

Crows are pretty smart creatures. They can use tools to get food, recognize people (and even the cars they drive), and have shown signs of extensive social behavior. But it is pretty unusual for a wild animal to respond to human facial expressions or eye contact. While any dog owner (and possibly cat owner) can tell you that these pets can read our emotions and faces, this...

Gut Bacteria: A 100 Trillion Guests?

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

New research shows that our body chooses which microorganism can live in our gut. The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is home to about 100 trillion symbiotic bacteria, which, seen from their DNA content, amount to more than 150 times the number of genes in the human genome. But, don't worry, many of these GI tract bacteria have beneficial functions. Beneficial gut bacteria ally with your intestinal cells to break down indigestible plant fibers, they also help your immune system protect...

Bigfoot Genome Sequenced, Perhaps

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

"Bigfoot is real, according to genetic analysis." This bold statement appears on the website of a new journal, where its only paper so far claims to have obtained genome sequence of the (still-mythical) creature Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot.

The research team, led by Dr. Melba Ketchum, announced the analysis of 111 blood, tissue and hair samples of the famous creature. The team also claims to have sequenced portions of mitochondrial DNA (which traces a lineage from the mother side), single...

Unlocking the Secret of Regeneration

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

Newts and salamanders are known for their ability to grow new limbs after injury, yet little is known about the inner workings of this ability. Now, a new study led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of Dayton, in Ohio, USA, makes a significant step towards understanding this amazing ability. Their findings, published online on February 20 in the journal Genome Biology, may one day lead the way for new approaches to regenerate limbs or organs in...

How the Whale lost its Hair

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

Scientists identify the genes responsible for the evolution of hairless skin in whales, which evolved from land (and hairy) mammals eons ago. Hair is important, specially if you're a land mammal as it keeps you warm. But for a whale, hair just gets in the way. What matters most in a marine environment is streamlining, improving your ability to catch a prey. Now, a research group from  Nanjing,  Normal University in China, has pinpointed the genes responsible for whale's hairless...

Scientists find new clues on how bacteria resist antibiotics

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

New research shows how some bacteria manage to evade a widely used antibiotic by removing it from their protein factories.

The widespread use of antibiotics over the past decades has led to the emergence of resistant bacteria. Since their discovery in the 1930s, antibiotics have been overused in human medicine and in industrial farms as food supplements to promote animal growth. A shocking 80% of antibiotics produced in the USA are used in farms, despite warnings from the World Health...

Why Dinosaurs got so big?

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

A new study defies previous theories of why dinosaurs got so big. The real reason may not be so clear cut. Just before the dinosaurs died out, giant plant-eating dinosaurs covered in feathers roamed the earth, walking on two legs, with hands carrying huge scythe-like claws. They were called the Therizinosaurs, and they were the terror the Earth's trees. Relatives of meat eating dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus or Velociraptor, they grew to enormous sizes several times in history, and some...

Cancer research: fruit flies take it down a notch

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

You wouldn't think that those pesky flies hovering around your fruit bowl could help scientists understand cancer. Flies don't have cancer, and a fly is, well, just a fly. However, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been one of scientists' favourite animal models for over a century, and is nowadays used to study many human diseases. New research using fruit flies has now uncovered molecular details in tissue overgrowth that explain some long-standing questions in cancer research.

Why...

For These Apes Social Networking is Worth More Than Food

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

Bonobos will share some bread with strangers rather than with old friends, new research shows. The finding, led by Dr. Brian Hare, from Duke University, USA, was published online in the January 2 edition of PLoS ONE. Such behaviour has never been observed in non-human primates before and may help guide our understanding of how certain altruistic and social behaviors evolved in human ancestors.  Bonobos are very social creatures, and researchers think this behaviour may help. "...they're...

Good Genes, Bad Genes, Who Knows...

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

Genetic testing aims to find altered genes that could lead to a disease, and give doctors a head start in finding the best treatment. However, new research now suggest that finding these potentially ill-fated genes may not be such a big deal.

Researchers from Cambridge and Cardiff universities found that a normal person typically has about 400 DNA mutations in potentially important sites in the genome. But the researchers also found that people carrying these disease-causing mutations usually,...

How plants helped us evolve

April 22, 2025 • 03:00 PM

A lesser known hypothesis suggesting that our relationship with fruit may have helped us evolve into humans, gains new support. According to the theory, known as the angiosperm coevolution hypothesis, long ago, our primate ancestors evolved key adaptations like forward-facing eyes, excellent colour vision, rounded, blunt teeth and fingers without claws, all for the purpose of eating and living from fruits.

The most widely accepted hypothesis proposed to explain how primates evolved from other...

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Join us at the Kunstraum in der Au for the exhibition titled ,,Ereignis: Erzählung" by Christoph Scheuerecker, focusing on the captivating world of bees. This exhibition invites visitors to explore the intricate relationship between bees and their environment through various artistic expressions,...

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