An international team of biologists, chemists, and physicists has produced new evidence supporting the hypothesis that migratory birds can navigate at night using the varying quantum state of electrons in their retinas.
Sometimes increased evolutionary fitness can be achieved when mistakes are made in the commonly assumed mutational pathways of adaptive DNA mutation. How this occurs is important in understanding what influences evolution and how predictable evolution is.
Viewing high-quality images with optimal colors, even when looking at a tablet or smart phone in direct sunlight, may be possible when new research results are commercialized.
A small study of young adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), found that graphic warning labels affected their motivation to quit smoking more than text-only warning message labels.
Twice as much carbon is stored in the soil as it is in vegetation on land, but how it is accumulated and processed by microorganisms is not known. This is an important element for modeling carbon in climate science and soil fertility management.
Physical bioenergetics, a new field of study, examines how much energy cells are using and how they apportion that energy.
The aging process of humans and other organisms can be hijacked by another species, like a virus, for the reproductive or survival advantage of the hijacker, while distorting the age of the host organism, according to a new study.
An international team of scientists has proposed a cross-disciplinary approach to biosecurity that may benefit both invasion biologists, who study the spread of non-native species, and epidemiologists, who study human infectious pathogens.
Surface-associated multicellular organisms are found throughout the biosphere and include common land plants, corals, lichens, bacterial biofilms and slime molds. Yet despite their prevalence, little is known about how they evolved.
Corals are colonies of tiny, genetically identical animals known as polyps that form their characteristic skeletons by combining the mineral calcium carbonate with fibers of living matter, in a process known as biomineralization. But how the skeletons of stony corals arrange scores of different proteins in the process of biomineralization has been largely unknown.
A nearly complete fossil skeleton 3.67 million years old provides new insight into how the hominin ancestors of man used their arms.
The current prevailing view in biological science is that the DNA of mitochondria, the structures that convert nutrients into cellular energy, is passed on only through maternal inheritance. How this idea came to be, and why it's wrong, is the subject of a review paper by physical anthropologist, Jeffrey H. Schwartz.
An international team of researchers has reconstructed the oldest modern human genome from a human skull found in the modern Czech Republic that is thought to be at least 45,000 years old.
The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, is a costly menace to agricultural crops worldwide, and now researchers have found a possible reason for the whitefly's success: It has found a way to protect itself from the usual plant toxin defense.
Archaea are one of three domains of life, along with bacteria and the more complex eukaryotes. Now, new research has confirmed that archaea microbes package their DNA in tight coils that bend like a slinky, which may be the precursor for the more elaborate DNA system of eukaryotes.
Constructive Neutral Evolution (CNE) is a useful concept in the study of evolution that should be better known among molecular and evolutionary biologists, state the authors of a review article on the subject in the Journal of Molecular Evolution, Feb. 19.
An exotic microbe, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator (CDA), found very deep in the earth on three continents has developed almost identically in each location, with minimal evolution over millions of years.
Scientists have developed a new, more efficient method for converting one type of human cell into another type of human cell for use in disease modeling, cell transplants, and gene therapies.
Researchers have demonstrated an easy way to transfer ultrathin organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to temporary tattoo paper that can be applied to any kind of surface. The result is a light-emitting tattoo.
A group of Italian medical researchers has issued a "call for action" to the medical community to protect frontline healthcare workers from heavy psychological stress in dealing with COVID-19 patients.