Ants visually track the motion of objects as they move through their environment in order to determine the distance they have traveled, a new study reports. Such tracking, called optic flow, has been observed in a number of insects but was thought to be used only minimally by ants. Now, results by Sarah Elisabeth Pfeffer and Matthias Wittlinger suggest that certain ants can rely solely on optic flow to find their way back to their nest when lost. Here, they studied Cataglyphis bicolor desert ants, which exhibit unique behaviors; namely, experienced forager ants carry interior nest workers, who are much less familiar with the outdoor environment, between different nest sites.

Scientists have shown that a two-pronged antibody can counteract the unique immune-evasion mechanism that filoviruses like Ebola have evolved. This is a critical step on the road to developing treatments that protect broadly against ebolaviruses, for which there remains an urgent need. Filoviruses including Ebola have an unusual route into the host cell; they access the inside of cells through tiny transport vesicles, or endosomes, where they interact with a specific host-cell receptor called NPC1, and then become unmasked. In effect, this two-step pathway acts as a shield -- hiding the virus from the immune system and hindering the potency of anti-viral therapies.

Researchers have developed a large culturing device to track the evolution of bacteria as they mutate in the presence of antibiotics, revealing that, surprisingly, the fittest mutants were not those most likely to infiltrate higher antibiotic concentrations. Instead, bacteria "behind" the very fittest on the growth plate became capable of surviving at highest antibiotic concentrations. The results provide important insights into the evolutionary patterns and mechanisms that drive bacteria's success in overcoming antibiotics, a phenomenon that threatens human health worldwide.

The human microbiota -- the entirety of bacteria which live e.g. on the skin or in the intestinal tract -- has an unknown influence on health. A team led by Prof. Tilo Biedermann, the director of the Clinic for Dermatology and Allergology at Rechts der Isar Hospital, examined the role microbiota plays in the digestive system in the case of food allergies and found that they may also play a role in determining the strength of anaphylactic reactions to food allergens. 

New Orleans, LA - Dr. Robert Zura, the Robert D'Ambrosia Professor and Head of Orthopaedic Surgery at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, was part of a research team that identified risk factors which may help orthopaedic surgeons better predict a serious complication of bone fractures. Fracture nonunion may be increasing as more patients survive serious fractures. The paper was published September 7, 2016, in the Online First section of JAMA Surgery, available at http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2547685.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Released on Sept. 4, 1957, Ford dubbed its Edsel "the car of the future." It was designed to stand out, but most people didn't like the way it looked. Add "ugly" to a laundry list of problems from poor performance to a high price tag and the car tanked--its only lasting legacy being a lesson in how not to develop a product.

But what does the ideal car look like?

University of California, Riverside professor Subramanian "Bala" Balachander and his collaborators explored that question in a study that is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing. Balachander is the Albert O. Steffey Chair and Professor of Marketing at UCR's School of Business.