Plants & Animals news
Wiggling and waggling: Study sheds light on amazing bee brain
Dec 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Their brains are tiny - about the size of sesame seeds - and yet the behaviour of the humble honey bee is so advanced it has scientists scratching their heads in disbelief.
Soap opera in the marsh: Coots foil nest invaders, reject impostors
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The American coot is a drab, seemingly unremarkable marsh bird common throughout North America. But its reproductive life is full of deception and violence.
Scientists discover aggression-promoting pheromone in flies (w/ Video)
Dec 06, 2009 |
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Have you ever found yourself struggling to get your order taken at a crowded bar or lunch counter, only to walk away in disgust as more aggressive customers elbow their way to the front? It turns out that ...
Right/left handedness of snails changed in the lab
Nov 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Like most animals, snails have either left- or right-handed asymmetry (chirality), both internally and externally, and the handedness is hereditary. A new study has for the first time found ...
Wide heads give hammerheads exceptional stereo view
Nov 27, 2009 |
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Hammerhead sharks are some of the Ocean's most distinctive residents. 'Everyone wants to understand why they have this strange head shape,' says Michelle McComb from Florida Atlantic University. One possible ...
Ladder-walking locusts show big brains aren't always best
12 hours ago |
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Scientists have shown for the first time that insects, like mammals, use vision rather than touch to find footholds. They made the discovery thanks to high-speed video cameras - technology the BBC uses to ...
Scientists show that plants have measure of the shortest day
Dec 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It is not only people who feel the effects of short winter days - new research by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Warwick has shed light on how plants calculate their own winter solstice. ...
Bees show off the perfect landing
Dec 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Honey bees undergo a sudden transition from speeding aircraft to hovering helicopter as they perform the delicate art of landing on a flower.
Researchers reveal secrets of duck sex: It's all screwed up
Dec 23, 2009 |
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Female ducks have evolved an intriguing way to avoid becoming impregnated by undesirable but aggressive males endowed with large corkscrew-shaped penises: vaginas with clockwise spirals that thwart oppositely ...
Study sheds light on microscopic flower petal ridges
Dec 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Microscopic ridges contouring the surface of flower petals might play a role in flashing that come-hither look pollinating insects can't resist. Michigan State University scientists and colleagues ...
Meddling in mosquitoes' sex lives could help stop the spread of malaria, says study
Dec 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Stopping male mosquitoes from sealing their sperm inside females with a 'mating plug' could prevent mosquitoes from reproducing, and offer a potential new way to combat malaria, say scientists ...
Fungal footage fosters foresight into plant, animal disease (w/ Video)
Dec 22, 2009 |
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Mold and mildew may be doomed. Researchers are closer to understanding how these and other fungi grow. "Fungi have a big impact on our dinner plate," said Dr. Brian Shaw, Texas AgriLife Research plant pathologist. "We tend ...
The past matters to plants
Dec 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It's commonly known that plants interact with each other on an everyday basis: they shade each other out or take up nutrients from the soil before neighboring plants can get them. Now, researchers ...
How the daisy got its spots... and why
Dec 18, 2009 |
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Dark spots on flower petals are common across many angiosperm plant families and occur on flowers such as some lilies, orchids, and daisies. Much research has been done on the physiological and behavioral ...
The how and why of freezing the common fruit fly
Dec 18, 2009 |
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Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot.
