Global Warming Link To Amphibian Declines In Doubt:
Evidence that global warming is causing the worldwide declines of amphibians may not be as conclusive as previously thought, according to biologists. The findings, which contradict two widely held views, could help reveal what is killing the frogs and toads and aid in their conservation.
Drought Tolerant Plants? New Technique Enables Assessment Of Drought Performance:
Measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence is an effective way of determining how well plants can cope with low-water conditions. The technique allows a quantitative and precise determination of viability in intact, drought-stressed plants.
Only One In Eight Educational Television Programs For Children Is Of High Quality, Study Shows:
Dale Kunkel, communication professor at The University of Arizona, was one of the lead researchers in a new study by Children Now, which shows that only 1 in 8 children's education TV programs meet high quality standards.
U.S. Gets A 'D' As March Of Dimes Releases Premature Birth Report Card:
The United States is failing hundreds of thousands of its youngest citizens on the day they are born, according to the March of Dimes.
Text Messaging May Help Children Fight Off Obesity:
Many children love sending and receiving text messages through their cell phones - sometimes to the great annoyance of their parents. But now a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests this technology could be used to reduce children's chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life, by helping them monitor and modify their own behaviors now.
Light Triggers New Code For Brain Cells:
Brain cells can adopt a new chemical code in response to cues from the outside world, scientists working with tadpoles at the University of California, San Diego report in the journal Nature. The discovery opens the possibility that brain chemistry could be selectively altered by stimulating specific circuits to remedy low levels of neural chemicals that underlie some human ailments.
Potential Sexual Partner? Brains Of Ovulating Women Respond Strongly To Male Masculine Faces:
Scientists have long known that women's preferences for masculine men change throughout their menstrual cycles. A new study from Indiana University's Kinsey Institute is the first to demonstrate differences in brain activity as women considered masculinized and feminized male faces and whether the person was a potential sexual partner.
Octopus Family Tree Traced Using New Molecular Evidence:
Octopuses started migrating to new ocean basins more than 30 million years ago as Antarctica cooled and large ice-sheets grew. These huge climatic events created a 'thermohaline expressway' - a northbound flow of deep cold water, providing new habitat for the animals previously confined to the sea floor around Antarctica, according to new research led by Dr Louise Allcock at Queen's School of Biological Sciences and colleagues from Cambridge University and British Antarctic Survey.
Networks Of Small Habitat Patches Can Preserve Urban Biodiversity:
Sets of small and seemingly insignificant habitat patches that are within reach for mobile species may under certain circumstances, as a group, provide an acceptable alternative to larger and contiguous habitats. This finding can make preservation of important ecological functions possible even in urban and other heavily exploited areas.
Pond Snail Programmed To Be Left Or Right 'Handed':
A third-year undergraduate student at The University of Nottingham has had her research into the sex life of the pond snail published in a peer-reviewed journal. The study by Hayley Frend, who is a student in the School of Biology, was published November 11 in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters. The young researcher has shown that just like humans the pond snail is genetically programmed to use the left or right handed side of its brain to perform different tasks. In the past it was naively presumed that only humans use different sides of their brains to carry out different tasks. Research has since shown that some vertebrates, such as fish, can use their brains in this way. And recently it has been shown that behavioural handedness is not just confined to vertebrates.
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