Ecology & Zoology

Escape! Last night, while Tony and Bobby were beating the bejesus out of each other over a game of Monopoly gone very bad, we faced a situation also fraught with violence, or at least potential violence: the escape of a mouse from Mousefarm. I say "p ...

Article - Greg Critser - Apr 9 2007 - 12:35pm

Marine Scientists Monitor Longest Mammal Migration

Marine scientists recently published a research paper in the science journal, biology letters, that found humpback whales migrate over 5,100 miles from Central America to their feeding grounds off Antarctica; a record distance undertaken by any mammal. Kr ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 10 2007 - 12:34pm

NASA Predicts Color Of Plants On Other Planets- And It's Not Green

NASA scientists believe they have found a way to predict the color of plants on planets in other solar systems. Green, yellow or even red-dominant plants may live on extra-solar planets, according to scientists whose two scientific papers appear in the Ma ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 11 2007 - 12:08pm

Mystery Of Fossilized Trees Is Solved

An international research team has found evidence of the Earth's earliest forest trees, dating back 385 million years. Upright stumps of fossilised trees were uncovered after a flash flood in Gilboa, upstate New York, more than a century ago. However ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2007 - 1:16am

New Life Form Discovered In Medusa Hydrotherma Vent

A few days ago we told you about the new hydrothermal vent named Medusa. They chose that name because that name because they also found a unique pink form of the jellyfish order stauromedusae. The bell-shaped jellyfish sighted near the vents may be of a n ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2007 - 11:56am

Study Reveals What Makes Plants Flower

The study reveals the likely mechanism by which the Arabidopsis plant flowers in response to changes in day length. Earlier research had shown that plants' leaves perceived seasonal changes in day length, which triggers a long-distance signal to trav ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2007 - 2:45pm

First Pic Of New Frogmouth Bird Genus

Your bird field guide may be out of date now that University of Florida scientists discovered a new genus of frogmouth bird on a South Pacific island. New genera of living birds are rare discoveries — fewer than one per year is announced globally. David S ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2007 - 4:10pm

Earth's First Rainforest

A spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earth’s first rainforests. It is 300 million years old. The forest is composed of a bizarre mixture of extinct plants: abundant club mosses, more than 40 metres high, ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2007 - 11:54pm

Genes That Turn A Plant's Ability To Self-pollinate On And Off

Some plants need a partner to reproduce. Pollen from one plant pollinates the stigma of another, and a seed is formed. But other plants can self-pollinate, a handy survival mechanism for a lonely plant. The ability to self-pollinate turns up in cultivated ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2007 - 1:15am

The Great Escape, II

What is it about keeping lab mice that continually seems to conjure images of World War II? Is it the obvious:that, in the case of lab mice, we are all Col. Klink, the hapless commandante of Stalag 17, doomed to dominance ohne respect? Or is it domething ...

Article - Greg Critser - Jul 25 2007 - 10:21am