By studying the genome of a kind of octopus not known for its friendliness toward its peers, then testing its behavioral reaction to a popular mood-altering drug called MDMA or "ecstasy," scientists say they have found preliminary evidence of...
Mosquito larvae have been observed ingesting microplastics that can be passed up the food chain, researchers said Wednesday, potentially uncovering a new way that the polluting particles could damage the environment.
Microplastics—tiny plastic shards broken down from man-made products such...
Intestinal bacteria can create an electric current, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden. The results are valuable for the development of drugs, but also for the production of bioenergy, for example.
It is already known that...
Scientists have discovered that moths may play a much broader role as plant pollinators than previously suspected.
A joint study from the Universities of York, Newcastle and Hull suggests moths have an important but overlooked ecological role—dispensing pollen over large...
In one video, you can see a hungry caterpillar, first working around a leaf's edges, approaching the base of the leaf and, with one last bite, severing it from the rest of the plant. Within seconds, a blaze of...
A geologist, a microscopist and a doctor walk into a lab and, with their colleagues from across the nation, make a discovery that overturns centuries of thought about the nature and composition of kidney stones. The team's key insight,...
While bacteria that produce electricity have been found in exotic environments like mines and the bottoms of lakes, scientists have missed a source closer to home: the human gut.
University of California, Berkeley, scientists discovered that a common diarrhea-causing bacterium,...
Two to three million years ago, the functional loss of a single gene triggered a series of significant changes in what would eventually become the modern human species, altering everything from fertility rates to increasing cancer risk from eating...
MRSA staphylococcus is an example of a superbug. These bacterial strains are resistant to most antibiotics and can cause serious infections.
"In the case of MRSA, these bacteria have also spread in hospitals almost worldwide," says Jukka Corander, professor at...
One of the great puzzles of evolutionary biology is what induced certain living creatures to abandon solitary existence in favor of living in collaborative societies, as seen in the case of ants and other social, colony-forming insects. A major...
The leatherback sea turtle is the largest living turtle and a critically endangered species. Saving leatherback turtles from extinction in the Pacific Ocean will require a lot of international cooperation, however, because the massive turtles may visit more than...
