http://www.physorg.com/biology-news/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on biology, evolution, microbiology, biotechnology (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. http://www.physorg.com/news180810791.html Biology Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:20:02 EST news180810791 (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. http://www.physorg.com/news180728592.html Biology Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:02 EST news180728592 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 spiraled males. http://www.physorg.com/news180769252.html Biology Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:41:17 EST news180769252 An international team of scientists has discovered how changes in both gene expression and gene sequence led to the diversity of visual systems in African cichlid fish. http://www.physorg.com/news180727170.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:30:01 EST news180727170 (PhysOrg.com) -- At first glance, a dog chasing its tail seems a harmless, if fruitless, pursuit. But for many dogs and their owners, the habit has a dark side, one that means endless hours and energy spent on the same task, to the exclusion of nearly all others. The cause, a type of compulsive disorder, can result in lack of sleep and even physical injury. http://www.physorg.com/news180722905.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:00:02 EST news180722905 (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 now have figured out how those form. http://www.physorg.com/news180720809.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:18:18 EST news180720809 A team of researchers working in a high containment laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, have solved a fundamental mystery about smallpox that has puzzled scientists long after the natural disease was eradicated by vaccination: they know how it kills us. http://www.physorg.com/news180712105.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:10:18 EST news180712105 (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 publishing new results in PLoS Biology on 22 December. http://www.physorg.com/news180684435.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:08:08 EST news180684435 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 to think that getting food on the table is easy. But fungi are major disease-causing organisms for both plants and animals. With more research, we can find new ways to compete with them." Commonly known fungi are molds, mildews, mushrooms and yeast. http://www.physorg.com/news180681595.html Biology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:22:35 EST news180681595 (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 at the University of Michigan have learned that plants also respond to the past. http://www.physorg.com/news180640961.html Biology Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:50:01 EST news180640961 (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. http://www.physorg.com/news180632123.html Biology Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:36:19 EST news180632123 Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have determined the structures of two enzymes that customize histones, the spool-like proteins around which DNA coils inside the cell. http://www.physorg.com/news180530290.html Biology Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:00:15 EST news180530290 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 mechanisms for how these spots attract pollinators. But have you ever wondered what these spots are composed of, how they develop, or how they only appear on some but not all of the ray florets? http://www.physorg.com/news180376920.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:43:21 EST news180376920 (PhysOrg.com) -- There is no lack of worry this season over the flu, both the seasonal and H1N1 varieties, but there is a critical lack of understanding of the viruses that cause these illnesses. For years, scientists have recognized that interactions between the influenza virus and its human host - intricate dances involving the virus's genes and proteins and those in humans - are important in determining the course and severity of disease. But a deep, comprehensive knowledge of such host-virus interactions has been elusive. http://www.physorg.com/news180368422.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:42:36 EST news180368422 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Cambridge have discovered that a lowly grape variety grown by peasants - but despised by noblemen - during the Middle Ages was the mother of many of today`s greatest grape varieties, including the Chardonnay used in Champagne. http://www.physorg.com/news180366830.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:54:21 EST news180366830 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. http://www.physorg.com/news180350816.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:27:47 EST news180350816 A new study reveals the reason why orchids use sexual trickery to lure insect pollinators. The study, published in the January issue of The American Naturalist, finds that sexual deception in orchids leads to a more efficient pollinating system. http://www.physorg.com/news180289024.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:10:03 EST news180289024 Human activity is increasing the supply of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to stream systems all over the world. The conventional wisdom -- bolstered by earlier research -- has held that these additional nutrients cause an increase in production all along the food chain, from the tiniest organisms up to the largest predators. A long-term, ecosystem-scale study by a team of University of Georgia researchers, however, has thrown this assumption into question. http://www.physorg.com/news180289199.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:10:02 EST news180289199 In some ways a cell in your body or an organelle in that cell is like an ancient walled town. Life inside either depends critically on the intelligence of the gatekeepers. http://www.physorg.com/news180288888.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:00:17 EST news180288888 For decades, science texts have told a simple and straightforward story about a particular protein -a transcription factor -that helps the embryo of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, pattern tissues in a manner that depends on the levels of this factor within individual cells. http://www.physorg.com/news180283760.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:40:06 EST news180283760 (PhysOrg.com) -- The use and control of fire are behavioral characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Now, a new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz reports that savanna chimpanzees in Senegal have a near human understanding of wildfires and change their behavior in anticipation of the fire's movement. http://www.physorg.com/news180285365.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:16:50 EST news180285365 If the planet is headed for another mass extinction like the previous five, each of which wiped out more than 75 percent of all species on the planet, then North American mammals are one-fifth to one-half the way there, according to a University of California, Berkeley, and Pennsylvania State University analysis. http://www.physorg.com/news180273689.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:02:16 EST news180273689 (PhysOrg.com) -- The teeth of some apes are formed primarily to handle the most stressful times when food is scarce, according to new research performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The findings imply that if humanity is serious about protecting its close evolutionary cousins, the food apes eat during these tough periods -and where they find it -must be included in conservation efforts. http://www.physorg.com/news180206837.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:28:02 EST news180206837 The most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according to a University of Michigan research team. http://www.physorg.com/news180206563.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:23:43 EST news180206563 Our cells are more like us than we may think. They're sensitive to their environment, poking and prodding deliberately at their surroundings with hand-like feelers and chemical signals as they decide whether and where to move. Such caution serves us well but has vexed engineers who seek to create synthetic tissue, heart valves, implants and other devices that the human body will accept. http://www.physorg.com/news180202451.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:17:58 EST news180202451 (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. http://www.physorg.com/news180193135.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:10:04 EST news180193135 Bacteria inhabited our planet for more than 4 billion years before humans showed up, and they'll probably outlive us by as many eons more. That suggests they may have something to teach us. http://www.physorg.com/news180182479.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:30:05 EST news180182479 Tissue-specific genes, thought to be dormant or not marked for activation in embryonic stem cells, are indeed marked by transcription factors, with proper marking potentially crucial for the function of tissues derived from stem cells. http://www.physorg.com/news180181077.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:19:05 EST news180181077 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon. http://www.physorg.com/news180112213.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:01 EST news180112213 (PhysOrg.com) -- With its flamboyantly decorated plumage, the peacock is a classic example of how males among many bird species are more visually eye-catching than their female partners. But new research, led by Columbia biologist Dustin Rubenstein, shows that, in some cases, females living in family groups are just as showy as males. The findings, which appear in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Nature, shed new light on Darwin`s theory of sexual selection. http://www.physorg.com/news180104802.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:17:51 EST news180104802