Bordetella bronchiseptica coccobacilli bacteria…Say it 5 times fast!
Like all organisms, bacteria must compete for resources to survive, even if it means a fight to the death.
Continue reading… “Mortal Chemical Combat Typifies the World of Bacteria”
trying to drink from a smooth metal plate.
For bats, any smooth, horizontal surface is water. That’s true even if vision, olfaction or touch tells them that the surface is actually a metal, plastic or wooden plate. Bats therefore rely more on their ears than on any other sensory system. This is due to how smooth surfaces reflect the echolocation calls of bats: they act just like mirrors. In nature there are no other extended, smooth surfaces, so these mirror properties prove to be a reliable feature for recognition of water surfaces.
Continue reading… “For Bats, All Smooth, Horizontal Surfaces Are Water”
Can I Have Some of that Potion?
Everybody knows that if you’re physically fit, you’re less likely to get a wide range of diseases. What most people don’t know is that some people are “naturally” in better shape than others, and this variation in conditioning makes it difficult to test for disease risk and drug effectiveness in animal models.
Continue reading… “Super Rats Resistant to Disease!?”
Imagine going fishing and catching this!
The giant dragonflies of ancient Earth with wingspans of up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) are generally attributed to higher oxygen atmospheric levels in the atmosphere in the past. New experiments in raising modern insects in various oxygen-enriched atmospheres have confirmed that dragonflies grow bigger with more oxygen, or hyperoxia.
Continue reading… ““How to” Raise Giant Insects!”
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this mantra time and again. When it comes to carbon‹the “Most Wanted” element in terms of climate change‹nature has got reuse and recycle covered. However, it’s up to us to reduce. Scientists at Harvard Medical School are trying to meet this challenge by learning more about the carbon cycle, that is, the process by which carbon moves from the atmosphere into plants, oceans, soils, the earth’s crust, and back into the atmosphere again.
Continue reading… “How Ocean Bacterium Turns Carbon Into Fuel”
Scientists at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica, formerly a blank spot on the map for researchers wanting to learn more about seafloor formation and the bizarre life forms drawn to these extreme environments.
Continue reading… “Hydrothermal Vents Discovered Off Antarctica”
Most animals don’t think anything of breaking into a run: they switch effortlessly from walking to a high-speed bouncing run. But what about elephants? Their sheer size makes it impossible for them to bounce up in the air at high speeds. So how are high-speed elephants moving: are they running or walking?
Continue reading… “Are High Speed Elephants Running or Walking?”
Hawaiian bobtail squid
Most humans are blissfully unaware that we owe our healthful existence to trillions of microbes that make their home in the nooks and crannies of the human body, primarily the gut.
Continue reading… “In Sync: Squid, Glowing Companions March in Genetic Harmony”
Only some bats and toothed whales rely on sophisticated echolocation, in which they emit sonar pulses and process returning echoes, to detect and track down small prey. Now, two new studies in the January 26th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that bats’ and whales’ remarkable ability and the high-frequency hearing it depends on are shared at a much deeper level than anyone would have anticipated — all the way down to the molecular level.
Continue reading… “In Bats and Whales, Convergence in Echolocation Ability Runs Deep”
Researchers at The University of Western Ontario (Western) led an international and multi-disciplinary study that sheds new light on the way that bats echolocate. With echolocation, animals emit sounds and then listen to the reflected echoes of those sounds to form images of their surroundings in their brains.
Deep within the Kairei Indian hydrothermal vent field, two-and-one-half miles below the central Indian Ocean, scientists have discovered a gastropod mollusk, whose armor could improve load-bearing and protective materials in everything from aircraft hulls to sports equipment.
Continue reading… “Unusual Snail Shell Could Be a Model for Better Armor”
It’s not thinking in the way humans, dogs or even birds think, but new findings from researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, show that bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than previously known.
Continue reading… “Bacteria Are More Capable of Complex Decision-Making Than Thought”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.
