Light Inside Sponges: Sponges Invented (and Employed) The First Fiber Optics:
Fiber optics as light conductors are obviously not just a recent invention. Sponges (Porifera) -- the phylogenetically oldest, multicellular organisms (Metazoa) -- are able to transduce light inside their bodies by employing amorphous, siliceous structures.
Pollinator Decline Not Reducing Crop Yields Just Yet:
The well-documented worldwide decline in the number of bees and other pollinators is not, at this stage, limiting global crop yields, according to a new study.
Turtles Alter Nesting Dates Due To Temperature Change:
Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University.
Woolly-mammoth Genome Sequenced:
Scientists at Penn State are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, according to Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and one of the project's two leaders.
How Do Bacteria Swim? Physicists Explain:
Imagine yourself swimming in a pool: It's the movement of your arms and legs, not the viscosity of the water, that mostly dictates the speed and direction that you swim.
Floppy-footed Gibbons Help Us Understand How Early Humans May Have Walked:
The human foot is a miracle of evolution. We can keep striding for miles on our well-sprung feet. There is nothing else like them, not even amongst our closest living relatives. According to Evie Vereecke, from the University of Liverpool, the modern human foot first appeared about 1.8 million years ago, but our ape-like ancestors probably took to walking several million years earlier, even though their feet were more 'floppy' and ape like than ours.
Gut Check Reveals Vast Multicultural Community Of Bugs In Bowels:
Mention the phrase "diverse ecosystem," and it conjures images of tropical rainforests and endangered coral reefs. It also describes the human colon.
'New' Penguin Species In New Zealand Found Using Ancient DNA From Fossils:
Australian and New Zealand researchers have used ancient DNA from penguin fossils to make a startling discovery that may change the way we view species extinctions.
Long-lost 'Furby-like' Primate Discovered In Indonesia:
A team led by a Texas A&M University anthropologist has discovered a group of primates not seen alive in 85 years. The pygmy tarsiers, furry Furby-like, or gremlin-looking, creatures about the size of a small mouse and weighing less than two ounces, have not been observed since they were last collected for a museum in 1921.
Life Science
