Bird Brains Suggest How Vocal Learning Evolved:
Though they perch far apart on the avian family tree, birds with the ability to learn songs use similar brain structures to sing their tunes. Neurobiologists at Duke University Medical Center now have an explanation for this puzzling likeness.
Alligators' Muscles Move Lungs Around For Sneaky Maneuvers In Water:
Without a ripple in the water, alligators dive, surface or roll sideways, even though they lack flippers or fins. University of Utah biologists discovered gators maneuver silently by using their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal and rib muscles to shift their lungs like internal floatation devices: toward the tail when they dive, toward the head when they surface and sideways when they roll.
Amphibians Respond Behaviorally To Impact Of Clear Cutting:
The number of amphibians drastically decreases in forest areas that are clearcut, according to previous studies. A University of Missouri researcher, however, has found that some animals may not be dying. Instead, the Mizzou biologist said some animals may be moving away (possibly to return later) or retreating underground. The finding could have major implications for both the timber industry and the survival of amphibians.
Chemicals Like DEET In Bug Spray Work By Masking Human Odors:
Fifty years have passed since the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army invented DEET to protect soldiers from disease-transmitting insects (and, in the process, made camping trips and barbecues more pleasant for the rest of us civilians). But despite decades of research, scientists still didn't know precisely how it worked. Now, by pinpointing DEET's molecular target in insects, researchers at Rockefeller University have definitively shown that the widely used bug repellent acts like a chemical cloak, masking human odors that blood-feeding insects find attractive.
Royal Corruption Is Rife In The Ant World:
Far from being a model of social co-operation, the ant world is riddled with cheating and corruption -- and it goes all the way to the top, according to scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Copenhagen.
Majestic Lesser Flamingos Survive In Contaminated Indian Waters:
A University of Leicester ecologist is setting out to discover why flamingos are so in the pink of health - in the poo!
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