Ecology & Zoology

Why is biodiversity is higher in the tropics than in colder regions? It's one of ecology’s unsolved puzzles and has been since the European explorers and naturalists of the 17th and 18th centuries…

Credit: Wing-Chi Poon, CC BY-SA By Sana Suri, University of Oxford The 2014 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine was awarded to three neuroscientists for their pioneering work on the brain’s “…

A research team has discovered that a snail long confused with a far more common snail is actually distinct - and so they named it Aegista diversifamilia. 'Diverse family' being in honor of the…

Credit: Ed Bierman, CC BY By Clive Trueman, University of Southampton Fish are acutely aware of sea temperature; it’s one of the key reasons particular species of fish live where they do. As the…

What could the natural diversity and beauty of plant leaves have in common with the violin, one of mankind's greatest musical inventions? More than you think. Dan Chitwood, Ph.D., assistant member,…

In last month’s review of Preparing the Ghost, I mentioned that you can actually learn facts from some fiction. Below is one such novel, crammed with science. As author Ryan Lockwood wrote in an…

You're not getting any pudding. Credit: Steve Parsons/PA By Robert Young, University of Salford I run 50 kilometers per week on my treadmill and eat a calorie-restricted diet; this is something our…

Researchers recently used audio and video recording tools to record larval orientation behavior in the pelagic environment.  In their field experiment, the scientists put the recording…

Going, going, gone: wildlife like the loris are disappearing. Credit: N. A. Naseer, CC BY-NC-ND By Paul Jepson, University of Oxford Full marks to colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund and the…

Some sharks are more 'gregarious' than others and have strong social connections while others are solitary and prefer to remain inconspicuous. That's not an exception, according to a new study, these…