http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Using sheep to control leafy spurge works best if it's done in the spring every year, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study. http://www.physorg.com/news173542061.html Biology Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:08:03 EST news173542061 (PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 20 years, Marc Abrams has studied how precipitation and temperature influence the timing and intensity of fall foliage colors in Pennsylvania. Every year during that span, there was some factor -- extreme cold or heat, drought, too much rain or insect infestations -- that threatened the brilliant hues of the display. http://www.physorg.com/news173464524.html Biology Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:50:01 EST news173464524 Sometimes to see something properly, you have to stand farther back. This is true of Chuck Close portraits where a patchwork of many small faces changes into one giant face as you back away. http://www.physorg.com/news172847382.html Biology Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:38:24 EST news172847382 Scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth are today calling for urgent research to understand the impact of renewable energy developments on marine life. The study, now published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, highlights potential environmental benefits and threats resulting from marine renewable energy, such as off-shore wind farms and wave and tidal energy conversion devices. http://www.physorg.com/news172401061.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:30:03 EST news172401061 (PhysOrg.com) -- A Yale anthropologist has captured photographic images of a rare, cougar-like cat ranging at night in an endangered Ugandan forest. http://www.physorg.com/news172324723.html Biology Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:59:25 EST news172324723 Bee colonies are well known for high levels of cooperation, but new research published in Molecular Ecology demonstrates a conflict for reproduction between worker bees and their Queens, leading some workers to selfishly exploit the colony for their own needs. http://www.physorg.com/news171746038.html Biology Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:20:01 EST news171746038 If you're looking for reliable information, then you won't necessarily find it in the newspaper. According to Dr. Susan Glover from the University of California in the US, public information from both informal and written sources, like newspapers, leads entrepreneurs astray. In a study just published online in Springer's journal Human Ecology, Dr. Glover took as an example how newspaper propaganda shaped the ore foraging strategies of the late nineteenth century Colorado silver prospectors. http://www.physorg.com/news170504098.html Other Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:40:01 EST news170504098 Without at least a temporary reprieve from hunting, the world's largest species of fruit bat, Pteropus vampyrus or the "large flying fox", could be driven to extinction in Peninsular Malaysia at the current hunting rate, scientists have warned. Writing in the new issue of the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, they say around 22,000 flying foxes are legally hunted (in addition to those illegally hunted) each year in Peninsular Malaysia, a level of hunting that is unsustainable based on their estimates of the number of bats in the country. http://www.physorg.com/news170447435.html Biology Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:40:02 EST news170447435 (PhysOrg.com) -- A long-term field and DNA study by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, University of Miami, Field Museum of Chicago and others has shown that young lemon sharks born at the Bimini islands, Bahamas, tend to stay near their coastal birthplace for many years. While shark research and conservation typically focuses on baby sharks confined to shallow habitats, or ocean-roaming adults, less is known about these intermediate-aged animals, which are the breeders of tomorrow and are roughly similar in development to human 'tweens' and teenagers. http://www.physorg.com/news170340406.html Biology Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:47:15 EST news170340406 The ability to envisage the future may be closer than you would think. A recent paper by Sean Hammond and Karl Niklas in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany presents an algorithm that may be used to predict the future dynamics of plant communities, an increasingly interesting area of study as significant environmental changes, such as global climate change and invasive species, are affecting current plant communities. http://www.physorg.com/news170071058.html Biology Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:58:31 EST news170071058 A new study into the social networks of Tasmanian devils may help prevent the further spread of an extinction-threatening disease. The research, published in Ecology Letters, has produced an intricate social network of devil social relationships, revealing how disease can spread through a population. http://www.physorg.com/news169879500.html Biology Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:45:53 EST news169879500 A new study reveals that treelines are not responding to climate warming as expected. The research, the first global quantitative assessment of the relationship between climate warming and treeline advance, is published in Ecology Letters and tests the premise that treelines are globally advancing in response to climate warming since 1900. http://www.physorg.com/news169372716.html Biology Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:59:25 EST news169372716 A longstanding and fruitful collaboration between researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, together with contributions from colleagues in Munich and the US, has produced another first: the successful manipulation of a crop plant to emit a signal that attracts beneficial organisms. http://www.physorg.com/news168539528.html Biology Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:20:01 EST news168539528 Dr Amber Teacher, studying a post-doctorate at Royal Holloway, University of London, has discovered evidence that a disease may be causing a behavioural change in frogs. The research, published in the August edition of Molecular Ecology, has unearthed a surprising fact about our long-tongued friends: wild frogs in the UK may be changing their mating behaviour. http://www.physorg.com/news167905623.html Biology Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:27:57 EST news167905623 (PhysOrg.com) -- From the time he was 21 and working toward his Ph.D., Mike Behrenfeld has been observing phytoplankton -- floating ocean plants that have a global impact. Observing these tiny plants under a microscope, Behrenfeld discovered early on that how you set up an experiment matters. http://www.physorg.com/news167658295.html Space & Earth Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:20:01 EST news167658295 The appearance of many species of flowering plants on Earth, and especially their relatively rapid dissemination during the Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) can be attributed to their capacity to transform the world to their own needs. In an article in Ecology Letters, Wageningen (The Netherlands) ecologists Frank Berendse and Marten Scheffer postulate that flowering plants changed the conditions during the Cretaceous period to suit themselves. The researchers have consequently provided an entirely new explanation for what Charles Darwin considered to be one of the greatest mysteries with which he was confronted. http://www.physorg.com/news166805247.html Biology Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:49:18 EST news166805247 Nineteenth century infant deaths attributed to smothering and overlaying, by either a co-sleeper or bedding, were in all likelihood crib deaths, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). These deaths would have been mislabeled by lawmakers as neglect and even infanticide, because SIDS had not yet been identified, according to Dr. Ariane Kemkes, an independent researcher from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. Her findings are published online this week in Springer's journal Human Ecology. http://www.physorg.com/news166785778.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:23:37 EST news166785778 Global warming may exact a toll on salt marshes in New England, but new research shows that one key constituent of marshes may be especially endangered. http://www.physorg.com/news166690205.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:50:26 EST news166690205 Ask biologists how many species live in a pond, a grassland, a mountain range or on the entire planet, and the answers get increasingly vague. Hence the wide range of estimates for the planet's biodiversity, predicted to be between 2 million and 50 million species. http://www.physorg.com/news166379160.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:28:50 EST news166379160 It's not just good manners to wait your turn -- it's actually down to evolution, according to new research by University of Leicester psychologists. http://www.physorg.com/news166337233.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:47:46 EST news166337233 Male seahorses have a clear agenda when it comes to selecting a mating partner: to increase their reproductive success. By being choosy and preferring large females, they are likely to have more and bigger eggs, as well as bigger offspring, according to Beat Mattle and Tony Wilson from the Zoological Museum at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Their findings have just been published online in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. http://www.physorg.com/news166187324.html Biology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:30:01 EST news166187324 The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Ecology Letters, an international team has studied this circadian clock from a molecular viewpoint and has found an ecological implication: it makes climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate. http://www.physorg.com/news165771470.html Biology Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:40:02 EST news165771470 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you are a cricket and it is a dry season on the San Pedro River in Arizona, on your nighttime ramblings to eat leaves, you are more likely to be ambushed by thirsty wolf spiders, or so a June 19 study suggests, published in the journal Ecology, and featured in the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news165163648.html Biology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:20:03 EST news165163648 "To thine own self be true" may take on a new meaning -not with people or animal behavior but with plant behavior. http://www.physorg.com/news164652485.html Biology Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:48:52 EST news164652485 In the future, will wind power tapped by high-flying kites light up New York? A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution and California State University identifies New York as a prime location for exploiting high-altitude winds, which globally contain enough energy to meet world demand 100 times over. The researchers found that the regions best suited for harvesting this energy match with population centers in the eastern U.S. and East Asia, but fluctuating wind strength still presents a challenge for exploiting this energy source on a large scale. http://www.physorg.com/news164281174.html Technology Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:39:49 EST news164281174 Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities. http://www.physorg.com/news163691961.html Biology Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:00:17 EST news163691961 When mobbing predators, Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group. A Swedish study from Uppsala University, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences, shows birds have evolved call systems that are as sophisticated as those of primates and meerkats. http://www.physorg.com/news163677302.html Biology Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:55:35 EST news163677302 In a drama played out across the southeastern U.S. in containers as small as a coffee cup, native and invasive mosquito larvae compete for resources and try to avoid getting eaten. One of the invasive mosquitoes, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), can carry dengue fever, a viral disease that sickens 50 to 100 million people a year in the tropics, so this seemingly inconsequential struggle has implications for human health. http://www.physorg.com/news163332110.html Biology Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:02:19 EST news163332110 The mysterious disease that has killed more than 90 percent of wintering bats in some caves and mines from Vermont to Virginia during the last three years has raised numerous questions about the nature of the disease and how to control it. http://www.physorg.com/news163250459.html Biology Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:21:24 EST news163250459 Retaining a network of wildlife conservation areas is vital in helping to save up to 90 per cent of bird species in Africa affected by climate change, according to scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news163103381.html Biology Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:30:10 EST news163103381