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. 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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Birds' alarm calls serve both to alert other birds to danger and to warn off predators. And some birds can pull a ventriloquist's trick, singing from the side of their mouths, according to a UC Davis study. http://www.physorg.com/news179082717.html Biology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:12:29 EST news179082717 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, scientists at The University of Western Ontario have shown that insects exposed to repeated periods of cold will trade reproduction for immediate survival. http://www.physorg.com/news178391046.html Biology Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:05:32 EST news178391046 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have extracted organically preserved muscle tissue from an 18 million years old salamander fossil. The discovery by researchers from University College Dublin, the UK and Spain, reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that soft tissue can be preserved under a broader set of fossil conditions than previously known. http://www.physorg.com/news176660912.html Other Sciences Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:20:01 EST news176660912 (PhysOrg.com) -- Colonies of army ants, whose long columns and marauding habits are the stuff of natural-history legend, are usually antagonistic to each other, attacking soldiers from rival colonies in border disputes that keep the colonies separate. But new work by a researcher at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen shows that in some cases the colonies can be cooperative instead of combative. http://www.physorg.com/news176559182.html Biology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:15:19 EST news176559182 (PhysOrg.com) -- In new research, UCLA scientists claim that "secondary sexual traits" like coloring may let animals know which species to avoid fighting. http://www.physorg.com/news176195425.html Biology Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:11:50 EST news176195425 Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study released Wednesday that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe. http://www.physorg.com/news175955032.html Biology Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:50:01 EST news175955032 A genetic tendency to depression is much less likely to be realized in a culture centered on collectivistic rather than individualistic values, according to a new Northwestern University study. http://www.physorg.com/news175895586.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:53:33 EST news175895586 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research shows that male suitors of a female cannibalistic spider risk facing a premature death unless they perform an adequate courtship lasting a minimum of 100 minutes. Further, the research shows that "sneaker" males can slip by and mate successfully on the courtship efforts of the hard-working first suitor. http://www.physorg.com/news175430479.html Biology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:20:01 EST news175430479 (PhysOrg.com) -- It may take a village to raise a child, and apparently it takes at least two adult birds to teach a young song sparrow how and what to sing. http://www.physorg.com/news175327244.html Biology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:50:01 EST news175327244 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new dinosaur species, Fruitadens haagarorum, is the smallest dinosaur ever discovered from North America. The tiny Fruitadens weighed less than a kilogram (two pounds) and was just 70 cm (28 inches) in length. http://www.physorg.com/news175324667.html Other Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:28:28 EST news175324667 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international group of researchers from the University of Leicester (UK), and the Geological Institute, Beijing (China) have identified a new type of flying reptile - providing the first clear evidence of an unusual and controversial type of evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news174679429.html Other Sciences Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:04:34 EST news174679429 Fungi travelled to Madagascar in the intestines of termites. Fungus serves as a source of food and helps in cellulose conversion. http://www.physorg.com/news174241876.html Biology Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:31:49 EST news174241876 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many studies have found widespread asymmetry in the brains of different species, including humans, and most have assumed asymmetry is advantageous. A new paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests it is not always an advantage, at least for one species of fish. http://www.physorg.com/news173596829.html Biology Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:20:02 EST news173596829 The origin of the 'Celtic fringe' of genetically and culturally distinctive people in the northern and western British Isles is the source of fierce academic controversy. http://www.physorg.com/news173513472.html Biology Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:11:43 EST news173513472 (PhysOrg.com) -- Life's ability to replicate itself is essential for evolution, yet even the simplest kind of replication requires a relatively complex system. So what kind of non-replicating system might have served as the predecessor of evolution, paving the way for life as we know it? The answer, according to a recent study, is a kind of "prelife" -- a chemical system that can lead to information and diversity, and that is capable of selection and mutation, but does not yet have the ability to self-replicate. http://www.physorg.com/news173351870.html Chemistry Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:18:22 EST news173351870 When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic placement of a group of worms called Acoelomorpha. This collection of worms, which comprises roughly 350 species, is part of a much larger group called bilateral animals, organisms that have symmetrical body forms, including humans, insects and worms. The question about acoelomorpha, was: Where do they fit in? http://www.physorg.com/news172924812.html Biology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:43:18 EST news172924812 (PhysOrg.com) -- The reason some female hoofed animals have horns while others do not has long puzzled evolutionary biologists, even the great Charles Darwin. But now a survey of 117 bovid species led by Ted Stankowich, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggests an answer: Females that can`t readily hide in protective cover and those who must defend a feeding territory are more likely to have horns than those who live in protective habitat or don`t defend a territory. http://www.physorg.com/news172428997.html Biology Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:50:01 EST news172428997 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 Well-preserved craniodental fossil remains from two primate species have been discovered during excavations at an Algerian site. They reveal that the small primate Algeripithecus, which is 50 million years old and until now was considered as the most ancient African anthropoid, in fact belonged to another group, that of the crown strepsirhines. http://www.physorg.com/news172218403.html Other Sciences Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:40:04 EST news172218403 A rare opportunity has allowed a team of biologists to evaluate corals and the essential, photosynthetic algae that live inside their cells before, during, and after a period in 2005 when global warming caused sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean Ocean to rise. The team, led by Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Todd LaJeunesse, found that a rare species of algae that is tolerant of stressful environmental conditions proliferated in corals as the more-sensitive algae were being expelled from corals. The results will be published in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 9 September 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news171746067.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:15:25 EST news171746067 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from Yale University and Dartmouth College has used microRNA data to investigate the evolutionary relationships of annelids, which include earthworms, leeches and bristle worms, to show that this large animal group evolved as a single, unique evolutionary branch. Their work represents the first time that microRNAs have been used to study the evolutionary relationships between organisms. http://www.physorg.com/news171716884.html Biology Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:08:28 EST news171716884 Computer animations of yawning chimpanzees provoke the same irresistible grins in real chimps, according to an unusual study released Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news171657927.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:46:07 EST news171657927 (PhysOrg.com) -- A creature dubbed a "Giraffe of the Mesozoic" has been discovered in China. The animal, with its giraffe-like long neck and long forelimbs is the first well-preserved Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaur to be discovered in Asia. It lived about 100 million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news171612710.html Other Sciences Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:12:46 EST news171612710 Biologists have discovered that a species of Australian pigeon has a secret way of alerting fellow birds to predators -- a "whistle" emitted by flapping wings when the bird takes off in alarm. http://www.physorg.com/news171051509.html Biology Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:10:13 EST news171051509 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Uruguay studying extinct mammals called glyptodonts have discovered they used a "sweet spot" in their tails, just like baseball players use the center of percussion (CP), or sweet spot, in their bats to hit the ball with maximum power and minimum chance of injury. http://www.physorg.com/news170583442.html Biology Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:18:31 EST news170583442 Geckos are very adept at climbing through difficult terrain using an intricate adhesive system. Until now it has not been known when and how they switch on their unique system of traction. http://www.physorg.com/news168683226.html Biology Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:27:31 EST news168683226 Climate change is altering North American winter bird communities in ways that models currently favored by ecologists fail to predict. http://www.physorg.com/news167237672.html Biology Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:20:01 EST news167237672 (PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a new primate fossil in Myanmar (formerly Burma) lends weight to the hypothesis that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes (anthropoid primates) originated in Asia, and not in Africa. To support the hypothesis, an international team of paleontologists, including two French researchers, has shown that these primates, which are 37 million years old and named Ganlea megacanina, had an ability observed today in modern monkeys, but not in lemurs: they pried open and ate seeds in a specific way by using their greatly enlarged canine teeth, like certain South American monkeys today. This ability is one of the reasons that justifies them being placed in the family of anthropoid primates. http://www.physorg.com/news166891773.html Biology Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:51:12 EST news166891773 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from The University of Manchester have identified preserved organic molecules in the skin of a dinosaur that died around 66-million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news165682506.html Other Sciences Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:55:50 EST news165682506