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) -- Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ten thousand years of (mainly cultural) evolution to adopt this habit and we are far from convinced that it is sustainable. http://www.physorg.com/news177954268.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:20:01 EST news177954268 Rice University evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann argue in a new paper that high cooperation and low conflict between components, from the genetic level on up, give a living thing its "organismality," whether that thing is an animal, a plant, a bacteria - or a colony. http://www.physorg.com/news176990429.html Biology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:06:53 EST news176990429 (PhysOrg.com) -- Female water striders often reject their most persistent and aggressive suitors and prefer the males who aren't so grabby, according to new research. Water striders are insects commonly seen skittering across the surface of streams. http://www.physorg.com/news176652474.html Biology Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:08:45 EST news176652474 (PhysOrg.com) -- Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Jonathan G. Lundgren, while exploring corn fields at night, has found a very different group of predators than the ones that feed during the day. It turns out that these night-time predators have a great appetite for corn rootworms, the most costly pest of corn in the world. http://www.physorg.com/news176195831.html Biology Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:40:02 EST news176195831 Just in time for Halloween, researchers have announced the discovery of a new, real-world "monster" - what they are calling a "unicorn" fly that lived about 100 million years ago and is being described as a new family, genus and species of fly never before observed. http://www.physorg.com/news175787192.html Biology Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:47:29 EST news175787192 (PhysOrg.com) -- A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK. http://www.physorg.com/news175353553.html Biology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:29:05 EST news175353553 (PhysOrg.com) -- A breakthrough by scientists at Cambridge University may terminate the threat of termites, cockroaches and other pests such as ants and locusts - responsible for billions of pounds worth of damage to homes, crops and people's health across the globe each year. http://www.physorg.com/news174645271.html Biology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:36:06 EST news174645271 (PhysOrg.com) -- Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Texas are staying up late to search for beneficial insects that feed on crops pest eggs at night. http://www.physorg.com/news174145326.html Biology Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:42:32 EST news174145326 (PhysOrg.com) -- Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news173976128.html Biology Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:20:13 EST news173976128 (PhysOrg.com) -- According to a new Cornell study, an optimized flapping wing could actually require 27 percent less power than its optimal steady-flight counterpart at small scales. http://www.physorg.com/news173545978.html Physics Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:13:49 EST news173545978 (PhysOrg.com) -- A showy butterfly with bright orange-red wings and a 4-inch wingspan is back in the Sacramento metropolitan area after a four-decade absence and in the Davis area after 30 years. http://www.physorg.com/news173029761.html Biology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:00:01 EST news173029761 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many insects have been known for decades to hold their breath when resting, but the reasons have not been well understood. A new study on cockroaches suggests the insects reduce their breathing to conserve moisture. http://www.physorg.com/news173000242.html Biology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:40:01 EST news173000242 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded research, published this week in Chemical Communications, describes how scientists have discovered molecules that could confuse insects' ability to detect plants by interfering with their sense of smell. This could reduce damage to crops by insect pests and contribute to food security. http://www.physorg.com/news173002938.html Chemistry Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:22:48 EST news173002938 (PhysOrg.com) -- Female monarch butterflies in eastern North America have significantly declined over the past 30 years, a new study by a University of Georgia researcher reveals. http://www.physorg.com/news172944025.html Biology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:53 EST news172944025 A common household nuisance, the fruit fly, is capable of intricate social learning much like that used by humans, according to new research from McMaster University. http://www.physorg.com/news172319630.html Biology Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:34:27 EST news172319630 (PhysOrg.com) -- John McCutcheon remembers the song of the cicada - the loudest song in the insect world - as the sound track to countless summer hours spent playing outside his childhood home in Rockford, Ill. http://www.physorg.com/news172174809.html Biology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:30:02 EST news172174809 The smell of recent death or injury that repels living relatives of insects has been identified as a truly ancient signal that functions to avoid disease or predators, biologists have discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news171892983.html Biology Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:03:32 EST news171892983 (PhysOrg.com) -- Misidentifying boll weevils caught in pheromone traps could be easier to avoid, thanks to a new DNA fingerprinting method devised by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators. http://www.physorg.com/news171790886.html Biology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:50:03 EST news171790886 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found new evidence to explain how female insects can influence the father of their offspring, even after mating with up to ten males. A team from the University of Exeter has found that female crickets are able to control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate to select the best father for their young. http://www.physorg.com/news171627059.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:11:41 EST news171627059 (PhysOrg.com) -- A BBC expedition exploring inside the crater of an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has discovered a lost world of dozens of weird new species and rare animals, including new frogs, a giant rat, many new insects and spiders, giant caterpillars, and a new bat species. http://www.physorg.com/news171612975.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:20:01 EST news171612975 Insects, such as some moths and fruit flies, react to microbial infection in the same way as mammals and so can be used to test the efficiency of new drugs, thereby reducing the need for animal testing. Dr Kevin Kavanagh from the National University of Ireland - Maynooth, presented his research findings at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, today (8 September). http://www.physorg.com/news171604992.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:14:50 EST news171604992 (AP) -- A year after they launched a nationwide search for dwindling native ladybugs, New York researchers are breeding colonies of them from insects found by citizen scientists in Oregon and Colorado. http://www.physorg.com/news171307054.html Biology Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:18:01 EST news171307054 The first engineering study of the internal fluid flows of insects, creatures that have evolved efficiently over millions of years, may provide engineers and scientists with new ideas for how to build better artificial tissues and organs, and for the design of new medically implantable microdevices. http://www.physorg.com/news171194881.html Biology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:40:03 EST news171194881 Plants are anything but as defenceless as they might seem. Various plant hormones work together to specifically fend off attacks. Dutch researcher Antonio Leon-Reyes has now shown how these hormones cooperate. By 'consulting' with each other plant hormones determine which defence mechanism they shall set in motion. http://www.physorg.com/news171137116.html Biology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:10:01 EST news171137116 (PhysOrg.com) -- Carnivorous plants defy our expectations of how plants should behave, with Venus flytraps employing nerve-like reflexes and powerful digestive enzymes to capture and consume fresh meat. http://www.physorg.com/news170524421.html Biology Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:55:54 EST news170524421 The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news170493929.html Biology Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:26:13 EST news170493929 Why is it that you can instantly recall your own phone number but have to struggle with your mental Rolodex to remember a new number you heard a few moments ago? The two tasks "feel" different because they involve two different types of memory - long-term and short-term, respectively - that are stored very differently in the brain. The same appears to be true across the animal kingdom, even in insects such as the fruit fly. http://www.physorg.com/news169750319.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:52:30 EST news169750319 He may study grasses by profession, but Texas AgriLife Research forage agronomist Dr. Dariusz Malinowski has a passion for flowers, particularly winter hardy hibiscus. http://www.physorg.com/news169471324.html Biology Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:23:10 EST news169471324 (PhysOrg.com) -- Water striders, the familiar semi-aquatic bugs gliding across the lake at the cottage, have a novel body form that allows them to walk on water. This was not always the case. Achieving the gliding ability required the evolution of a unique arrangement of the legs, with the mid-legs greatly elongated. Scientists at the University of Toronto's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology have discovered the gene behind this evolutionary change. http://www.physorg.com/news169379468.html Biology Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:10:01 EST news169379468 Walking outdoors in the fall, the splendidly colorful leaves adorning the trees are a delight to the eye. In Europe these autumn leaves are mostly yellow, while the United States and East Asia boast lustrous red foliage. But why is it that there are such differences in autumnal hues around the world? A new theory provided by Prof. Simcha Lev-Yadun of the Department of Science Education- Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim and Prof. Jarmo Holopainen of the University of Kuopio in Finland and published in the Journal New Phytologist proposes taking a step 35 million years back to solve the color mystery. http://www.physorg.com/news169376021.html Biology Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:54:18 EST news169376021