A Blog Around The Clock

Mosquitoes Create Harmonic Love Song Before Mating, Study Finds:

That pesky buzz of a nearby mosquito is the sound of love, scientists have known for some time. But a new Cornell study reports that males and females flap their wings and change their tune to create a harmonic duet just before mating.

How Did Life Begin? RNA That Replicates Itself Indefinitely Developed For First Time:

One of the most enduring questions is how life could have begun on Earth. Molecules that can make copies of themselves are thought to be crucial to understanding this process as they provide the basis for heritability, a critical characteristic of living systems. New findings could inform biochemical questions about how life began.

In Fight Against Pathogens, Calcium Helps Plants Make Their Own Aspirin:

Calcium builds strong bones, good teeth--and healthy plants, according to a new study from Washington State University. Experiments show that calcium, when bound to a protein called calmodulin, prompts plants to make salicylic acid (SA) when threatened by infection or other danger. SA is a close chemical relative of aspirin. In plants, SA acts as a signal molecule that kicks off a series of reactions that help defend against external threats.

Andes' Formation Was A 'Species Pump' For South America:

South America is the world's most species-rich area. There have been many theories as to why, ranging from animals and plants accompanying the continent when it broke loose from Africa to variations in the extent of the rainforests over millions of years creating new species.

Online Racial Discrimination Linked To Depression, Anxiety In Teens:

In the early days of the Internet, some scholars once predicted a lessening of racism and race-based discrimination in online interactions thanks to the anonymity and race-neutral nature of the medium.

Hind Wings Help Butterflies Make Swift Turns To Evade Predators, Study Finds:

New tires allow race cars to take tight turns at high speeds. Hind wings give moths and butterflies similar advantages: They are not necessary for basic flight but help these creatures take tight turns to evade predators.

Reverse Evolution In Real-time Provides Key Insights Into Basic Mechanisms Of Evolution:

Scientists have turned back the clock on the evolution in the fruit fly to provide key insights into the basic mechanisms of evolution. In his book, Wonderful World, Stephen Jay Gould writes about an experiment of 'replaying life's tape', wherein one could go back in time, let the tape of life play again and see if 'the repetition looks at all like the original'. Evolutionary biology tells us that it wouldn't look the same - the outcome of evolution is contingent on everything that came before. Now, scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Portugal, New York University and the University of California Irvine, provide the first quantitative genetic evidence of why this is so.

How Cheating Ants Give Themselves Away:

In ant society, workers normally give up reproducing themselves to care for their queen's offspring, who are their brothers and sisters. When workers try to cheat and have their own kids in the queen's presence, their peers swiftly attack and physically restrain them from reproducing.