Ecology & Zoology

Saltwater Crocodiles Return To Darwin

Crocodiles and humans are natural competitors. In all our history they have been there, silently waiting in the waters of our shared world, and only in our most recent history have we had the wisdom to see their worth, magnificence and need for protection ...

Blog Post - Bill Boesenberg - Jul 5 2012 - 11:41pm

Nematode Worm C. Elegans Muscles Improve During Spaceflight

Spaceflight is tough on humans, due to weightlessness and radiation exposure. But if it bothers the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, they aren't talking. Researchers writing in Nature Scientific Reports say they were interested in seeing how C. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2012 - 2:00pm

Dairy Cows Stressed Out By Global Warming

'Got less milk?" is unlikely to resonate with consumers in the heartland, but it may be so, says a new projection. The group behind the model found that a possible decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2012 - 2:30pm

Antioxidants: In Wild Boars, Redheads Are Bad But Gray Hair Is Good

Redheads are dangerous to human men but in wild boars, red hair means a danger to themselves.  New research has found that boars with more reddish hair tend to have higher levels of oxidative stress; damage that occurs as toxins from cell respiration buil ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2012 - 7:30pm

Dumpling Squid Prove Sex Ain't Free

Southern dumpling squid are tuckered out by sex. So say Australian researchers Franklin et al. in the journal  Biology Letters. Sure, it's salacious science, but so what? Dumpling squid: they are frisky. Photo by Mark Norman, published in Biology Let ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jul 19 2012 - 8:17pm

Global Warming Upside; Better Produce

Temperatures above 100 degrees and drought-like conditions have taken a toll on corn and soybeans in the upper Midwest for weeks but it has brought a benefit to peppers and other crops: Their flavors have become unusually concentrated, producing some of th ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 23 2012 - 3:11pm

The Insulin-Dependent Rules Of Beetle Attraction

The horns of creatures as different as elk and rhinoceros beetles- along with other decorative, mate-attracting structures-  are sensitive to changes in nutrition. They aren’t diabetic, but they are insulin-dependent; if they want to grow big horns and the ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2012 - 3:00am

Do Cuttlefish Dream Of Aquatic Sheep?

Last night I had a sappy mama dream about holding and nursing my baby. Half-waking from it, I found myself wondering if the baby--scheduled to remain comfortably ensconced in my womb for another four months--might have had the same dream. ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jul 28 2012 - 11:25am

...and this is why I once saw an iguana outside my classroom.

Invasive species have been something of a pet peeve of mind ever since I found about them several years ago.  Who knew that the honeysuckle I enjoyed as a child actually belonged in Japan?  While some invasive species have proven more harmful than others ( ...

Blog Post - Mrs. H. - Aug 13 2012 - 12:56pm

Trogloraptor: Citizen Scientists Find Mt. Doom Spider In Pacific Northwest Cave

The forests of the coastal regions from California to British Columbia are known for unique and ancient animals and plants, like redwoods, tailed frogs, mountain beavers and even folk tales of the legendary Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch). Now it has som ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2012 - 3:37pm