Could the division of labor in an anthill be driven by the same social dynamics governing the gap between liberals and conservatives? That was the surprising question tackled by Princeton biologists Chris Tokita and Corina Tarnita.
"Our findings suggest that...
While cuttlefish wearing glasses is an unexpected sight, a University of Minnesota-led research team built an underwater theater and equipped the cephalopods with specialized 3-D glasses to investigate how cuttlefish determine the best distance to strike moving prey. Their...
Sometimes it helps to check the facts. You may be surprised what you find.
Over the last decade, several high-profile scientific studies have reported that tropical fish living in coral reefs are adversely affected by ocean acidification caused by climate change—that is, they behave oddly and...
At a time when kombucha is commonplace on cafe menus and "probiotic-fortified" has become the newest health buzzword, our guts have never been more relevant. With good reason, humans have begun paying more attention to the bacteria living in...
The common cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. var. lycopersicum; or (SLL)) is among the world's most widely grown vegetable crops, from big agricultural farms to heirloom grown varieties.
In 2012, the domesticated 'Heinz 1706' tomato, an SLL, became the very...
The American coot is a somewhat drab water bird with gray and black feathers and a white beak, common in wetlands throughout North America. Coot chicks, however, sport outrageously bright orange and red feathers, skin, and beaks. A new...
Research on fossilized fish from the late Devonian period, roughly 375 million years ago, details the evolution of fins as they began to transition into limbs fit for walking on land.
The new study by paleontologists from the University of...
Domesticated rice has fatter seed grains with higher starch content than its wild rice relatives -- the result of many generations of preferential seed sorting and sowing. But even though rice was the first crop to be fully sequenced,...
Ever since humans domesticated the dog, the faithful, obedient and protective animal has provided its owner with companionship and emotional well-being. Now, a study from Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that being around "man's best friend" from an early age...
By introducing a chemical cocktail to granulosa cells, researchers in China induced the cells to transform into functional oocytes in mice. Once fertilized, these oocytes were then successfully able to produce healthy offspring, showing no differences from naturally bred...
Teach a chimpanzee to fish for insects to eat, and you feed her for a lifetime. Teach her a better way to use tools in gathering prey, and you may change the course of evolution.
For most wild chimpanzees, tool use is...
