Distribution Of Creatures Great And Small Can Be Predicted Mathematically:
In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time two SFI researchers explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework.
Bees Go 'Off-color' When They Are Sickly:
Bumble-bees go 'off colour' and can't remember which flowers have the most nectar when they are feeling under the weather, a new study from the University of Leicester reveals.
Tips On How To Build A Better Home For Biological Parts:
Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have compiled a series of guidelines that should help researchers in their efforts to design, develop and manage next-generation databases of biological parts. The stakes are high: the concept of biological parts is essential if methods developed in other fields of engineering are to be applied to biology. If successful, this approach will result in significant productivity gains for the biotechnology industry.
New Model Explains Why We Overestimate Our Future Choices:
When people make choices for future consumption, they select a wider variety than when they plan to immediately consume the products. A new study examines the reasons behind this diversification of choices.
Paradoxical Relationship Discovered Between Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever And Its Carrier Mosquitoes:
A study by researchers in Thailand, Japan, and the UK has shown a negative correlation between dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and the density of the Aedes mosquitoes that transmit the virus. The study explains how current efforts to reduce the mosquitoes may actually increase the incidence of the potentially fatal viral disease.
Leatherback Turtles' Newly Discovered Migration Route May Be Roadmap To Salvation:
With a name like "Leatherback Turtle" you might think the sea turtles could stand up to just about anything the ocean can throw at them, and for more than a hundred million years, they have. But tough, long-lived critters though they are, the population of leatherbacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean has plummeted by over 90 percent in the last 20 years.
Life Science
