Shoulder Ligament A Linchpin In The Evolution Of Flight:
Brown and Harvard scientists have learned that a single ligament at the shoulder joint stabilizes the wings of birds during flight. In an advanced online publication of Nature, they explain how this tough bit of tissue evolved to become a linchpin for today's fliers.
Internal Compass Of Immune Cell Discovered:
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have discovered how neutrophils -- specialized white blood cells that play key roles in inflammation and in the body's immune defense against bacteria -- navigate to sites of infection and inflammation. These findings could potentially lead to new treatments for serious infections and inflammatory diseases in patients.
Pesticides Need Sunscreen To Beat The Heat:
A pesticide with a new in-built sunscreen could reduce costs to farmers and the environment. Special capsules shield the pesticide from sunshine, which normally causes rapid degradation.
A Green Way To Slag Off Bunnies:
Using slag on wheat plants deters rabbits from eating, and consequently damaging the plant. Calcium silicate gives the leaves a bitter taste, putting the bunnies off their food.
For Pacific White Shrimp, Gender Matters When Competing For Food:
A new study in Journal of the World Aquaculture Society suggests that, while larger shrimp consistently win over smaller shrimp of the same gender when competing for food, male shrimp will almost always beat female shrimp - even though adult males of the species are typically much smaller than the adult females of the same age.
Steering Toward The Much-discussed Lab-on-a-chip:
Scientists are reporting discovery of technology that may simplify construction of those much-discussed Micro Total Analysis Systems (micro-TASs) -- "labs-on-a-chip" with whole medical and scientific laboratories shrunk to the size of computer chips.
Small Furry Mammal Was Capable Of Gliding Flight Possibly Before Birds:
An American Museum of Natural History paleontologist and his colleagues have named a new order of mammals based on their description of a fossil of a bat- or squirrel-sized Mesozoic mammal, called Volaticotherium antiquus (meaning "ancient gliding beast"), which was capable of gliding flight.
New Male-specific Gene In Algae Unveils An Origin Of Male And Female:
By studying the genetics of two closely related species of green algae that practice different forms of sexual reproduction, researchers have shed light on one route by which evolution gave rise to reproduction though the joining of distinct sperm and egg cells. The findings, which indicate that a gene underlying a more primitive system of reproduction was likely co-opted during evolution to participate in sex-specific sperm development, are reported by Hisayoshi Nozaki and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University, and Osaka University.
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