Navigation: Using Geometry To Navigate Is Innate, At Least For Fish:
Many animals, including humans, frequently face the task of getting from one place to another. Although many navigational strategies exist, all vertebrate species readily use geometric cues; things such as walls and corners to determine direction within an enclosed space. Moreover, some species such as rats and human children are so influenced by these geometric cues that they often ignore more reliable features such as a distinctive object or colored wall.
This surprising reliance on geometry has led researchers to suggest the existence of a geometric module in the brain. However, since both humans and laboratory animals typically grow up in environments not entirely made up of right angles and straight lines, the prevalent use of geometry could reflect nurture rather than nature. A new study published in the July issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is the first attempt to examine whether early exposure to strong geometric cues influences navigational strategy.
Unravelling New Complexity In The Genome:
A major surprise emerging from genome sequencing projects is that humans have a comparable number of protein-coding genes as significantly less complex organisms such as the minute nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Clearly something other than gene count is behind the genetic differences between simpler and more complex life forms.
Rainforest Biodiversity Shows Differing Patterns:
Rainforests are the world's treasure houses of biodiversity, but all rainforests are not the same. Biodiversity may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others and, therefore, may require different management and preservation strategies. That is one of the conclusions of a large-scale Smithsonian study of a lowland rainforest in New Guinea, published in the Aug. 9 issue of the journal Nature.
Evolution Is Driven By Gene Regulation:
It is not just what's in your genes, it's how you turn them on that accounts for the difference between species -- at least in yeast -- according to a report by Yale researchers in this week's issue of Science.
Gene Regulation, Not Just Genes, Is What Sets Humans Apart:
The striking differences between humans and chimps aren't so much in the genes we have, which are 99 percent the same, but in the way those genes are used, according to new research from a Duke University team. It's rather like the same set of notes being played in very different ways.
Which Came First, The Moth Or The Cactus?:
It's not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket... unless you're a senita moth. Found in the parched Sonoran desert of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, the senita moth depends on a single plant species -- the senita cactus -- both for its food and for a place to lay eggs. The senita cactus is equally dependent upon the moth, the only species that pollinates its flowers. Senita cacti and senita moths have a rare, mutually dependent relationship, one of only three known dependencies in which an insect actively pollinates flowers for the purpose of assuring a food resource for its offspring.
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