FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Scientists trap bacteria with optical tractor beam
Dec 13, 2016 (UPI)
Studying bacterial cells and other cell cultures at high resolutions is now much easier thanks to a team of researchers from Germany. Scientists at Bielefeld Un...
How miniature predators get their favorite soil bacteria
Dec 12, 2016 (SPX)
Tiny predators in the soil can literally sniff out their prey: soil bacteria, which communicate with each other using scent. A team of researchers from the Neth...
Macaques have the anatomy, not the brain, for human speech
Dec 12, 2016 (SPX)
Monkeys known as macaques possess the vocal anatomy to produce "clearly intelligible" human speech but lack the brain circuitry to do so, according to new resea...
Capuchin monkeys produce sharp stone flakes similar to tools
Dec 12, 2016 (SPX)
In addition to using rocks for various purposes, such as cracking open a seed or fruit to extract the edible part, the Bearded or Black-Striped Capuchin (Sapaju...
Giraffes 'threatened with extinction'
Dec 08, 2016 (AFP)
Wild giraffe numbers have plummeted by 40 percent in the last three decades, and the species is now "vulnerable" to extinction, a top conservation body warned T...
Thousands of geese die after landing in toxic US water
Dec 07, 2016 (AFP)
Thousands of migrating geese have died after taking refuge from a snowstorm in toxic mine waters in the western United States, mine officials have said. As many...
Captive elephants help save wild cousins on forest frontline
Dec 07, 2016 (AFP)
It was the middle of the night when the villagers sounded the alarm: a huge Sumatran elephant was raiding their rice fields, and they needed urgent help to driv...
Using the force
Dec 06, 2016 (SPX)
Whether building organs or maintaining healthy adult tissues, cells use biochemical and mechanical cues from their environment to make important decisions, such...
Fast evolution affects everyone, everywhere
Dec 06, 2016 (SPX)
Rapid evolution of other species happens all around us all the time - and many of the most extreme examples are associated with human influences. In a theme iss...
Canada caribou and monarch butterfly endangered: experts
Dec 05, 2016 (AFP)
Canada's caribou population has reached "all-time low" levels, particularly in the eastern Arctic, where the animal was classified as endangered Monday along wi...
Intensification of land use leads to the same species everywhere
Dec 02, 2016 (SPX)
In places where humans use grasslands more intensively, it is not only the species diversity which decreases - the landscape also becomes more monotonous, and u...
To communicate, some ants swap spit
Nov 29, 2016 (UPI)
Florida carpenter ants share food through a mouth-to-mouth exchange called trophallaxis. New research shows fluid exchange during trophallaxis offers ants anoth...
US rancher allowed to hunt mountain lion behind alpaca slaughter
Nov 29, 2016 (AFP)
A California rancher was given the green light on Monday to hunt down and kill a mountain lion that slaughtered 10 of her pet alpacas over the weekend. The male...
Right timing is crucial in life
Nov 25, 2016 (SPX)
The non-biting marine midge Clunio marinus lives along Europe's tide-shapen coasts, where precise timing is of existential importance: Reproduction and oviposit...
Indian court bans firecracker sales in smog-hit Delhi
Nov 25, 2016 (AFP)
India's top court ordered a temporary ban on the sale of firecrackers in New Delhi on Friday, after air quality reached crisis levels in the world's most pollut...
World of viruses uncovered
Nov 25, 2016 (SPX)
A groundbreaking study of the virosphere of the most populous animals - those without backbones such as insects, spiders and worms and that live around our hous...
Reshaping our ideas of bacterial evolution
Nov 25, 2016 (SPX)
The shape of bacteria does not influence how well they can move - this is the surprising finding of new research which could have major implications for the fut...
Diversity without limits
Nov 25, 2016 (SPX)
Bacteria were the original masters of their domain, having the Earth to themselves for the majority of their existence, filling every environmental niche, nook ...
Endangered Australasian marsupials are ancient survivors of climate change
Nov 25, 2016 (SPX)
In a new paper, published in Scientific Reports, an international team of researchers has analysed fossils and DNA from living and recently extinct species to s...
S.African police nab Chinese man with 18 rhino horns
Nov 24, 2016 (AFP)
South African police Thursday said they had arrested a Hong Kong-bound Chinese man found with 18 rhino horns hidden in his luggage. He was detained on Wednesday...
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