A confrontation between stalk-eyed flies. Image by Gerald Wilkinson. Credit: Gerald Wilkinson In stalk-eyed flies, longer eyestalks attract the ladies. Females prefer males with longer eyestalks, and other males are less likely to fight them for access to females. But some males have a copy of the X chromosome which always causes short eyestalks. Scientists […]
Scientists have demonstrated a new humanoid robot that can run at a top speed of just over 8 miles per hour (mph) — or 3.6 meters per second (m/s) to be exact. This makes it the speediest machine of its kind built so far, albeit these speeds were only achieved with the help of added […]
Planting Abies religiosa (Sacred fir) seedlings under the shade of pre-existing shrubs (Senecio cinerarioides, narrow green-grayish foliage) as protective “nurse plants”. Large trees on background are adult Pinus hartwegii, the pine that reaches the timberline. Abies religiosa is completely absent in this site at 3800 m of elevation, northeaster slope of Nevado de Toluca volcano, […]
Monarch butterflies are among the planet’s power migrators. Every autumn, a new generation of the orange and black insects are born in the northern United States and southern Canada. They then take to the skies and fly to the mountains of Central Mexico, between 2,485 and 2,982 miles away. In an effort to help this […]
Credit: Dr. James Guest A new study has shown that selective breeding can lead to a modest rise in coral heat tolerance. Led by experts at Newcastle University’s Coralassist Lab, the study documents the world’s first effort to selectively breed adult corals for enhanced heat tolerance, i.e. the ability of adult corals to survive intense […]
Endometriosis is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Now, scientists have devised a new way to spot the condition — by looking for a unique collection of metabolites in poop that could potentially be detected with a simple test. These metabolites are made by microbes in the gut as by-products of their metabolism when the bacteria digest […]
Our planet is choking on plastics. Some of the worst offenders, which can take decades to degrade in landfills, are polypropylene—which is used for things such as food packaging and bumpers—and polyethylene, found in plastic bags, bottles, toys, and even mulch. Polypropylene and polyethylene can be recycled, but the process can be difficult and often […]
This fossil palm leaf (Sabalites sp.) found in Alaska can be seen in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Sixty million years ago, dense, wet forests covered North America, and many plants, including palms, grew in places such as Alaska where temperatures are too frigid for them today. A new study published in Science […]
