My picks from ScienceDaily

Red Is For Hummingbirds, Yellow For Moths:

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the future of red and yellow varieties of a San Diego wildflower may depend on the fates of two different animals. They report in the current issue of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology that monkeyflowers have two different animal pollinators. The red form, common along the coast, is strongly preferred by hummingbirds, while yellow monkeyflowers, found east of I-15, are favored by hawkmoths.

Study Suggests Earlier Crop Plantings Could Curb Future Yields:

In an ongoing bid to grow more corn, farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt are planting seeds much earlier today than they did 30 years ago, a new study has found. Earlier plantings -- which mean longer growing seasons -- have likely contributed to the increasing corn yields of recent decades. But a terrestrial ecologist at the UW-Madison's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment warns the trend can only continue for so long.

Hearts Or Tails? Genetics Of Multi-chambered Heart Evolution:

A new paper in the October 1 issue of G&D elucidates the genetics of heart formation in the sea squirt, and lends surprising new insight into the genetic changes that may have driven the evolution of the multi-chambered vertebrate heart.

Alaska Study Offers Strategies To Mitigate Climate Warming:

Using Interior Alaska's boreal forests as a case study, a team of scientists led by University of Alaska Fairbanks ecologist F. Stuart Chapin III recently offered four policy strategies for sustaining people and the environment as both face a dramatically warming climate.

Hail To The Hornworts: New Plant Family Tree Sheds Light On Evolution Of Life Cycles:

In the history of life on earth, one intriguing mystery is how plants made the transition from water to land and then went on to diversify into the array of vegetation we see today, from simple mosses and liverworts to towering redwoods.

'Failed' Experiment Yields A Biocontrol Agent That Doesn't Trigger Antibiotic Resistance:

A failed experiment turned out to be anything but for bacteriologist Marcin Filutowicz. As he was puzzling out why what should have been a routine procedure wouldn't work, he made a discovery that led to the creation of a new biological tool for destroying bacterial pathogens -- one that doesn't appear to trigger antibiotic resistance.

Fossils Pinpoint Tropics As Earth's Most Fruitful Biodiversity Spawning Ground:

A team of scientists has completed a study that explains why the tropics are so much richer in biodiversity than higher latitudes. And they say that their work highlights the importance of preserving those species against extinction.

Model Homes Offer National Indoor Air Quality Impact Results:

Engineers at NIST have developed a database of U.S. residential housing to help conduct nationwide analyses of ventilation, air cleaning or moisture control strategies to reduce indoor air pollution. The new database of over 200 residential dwellings, representing 80 percent of the United States housing stock, can be combined with a computer simulation technique to determine the impacts of indoor air quality interventions.