DNA (stock illustration). Credit: © frenta / Fotolia A neutral genetic mutation -- a fluke in the evolutionary process that had no apparent biological purpose -- that appeared over 700 million years ago in biological evolution could help explain the origin...
The key to the willow warblers' differing migration patterns probably lies in their genes. Credit: Max Lundberg The genetic make-up of a willow warbler determines where it will migrate when winter comes. Studies of willow warblers in Sweden, Finland and the...
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Field trips of the future?

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Will virtual reality rob future students of the awe and wonder naturalists experience when exploring nature? Virtual reality has nothing on nature. Just ask the UC Santa Barbara students who one recent day trekked to a forest before dawn to...
Of the more than 1,000 verified planets found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, eight are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone. Credit: NASA Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone -- a sweet...
Black mouse ready to fight. Fighting behaviors and the neurons that represent them are not as fixed as previously believed. Credit: © lllorrri / Fotolia Adult male mice have a simple repertoire of innate, or instinctive, social behaviors: When encountering a...
Adams Flat, one of the two sites in Antarctica where microbes were collected. Credit: Phil O'Brien UNSW-Sydney led scientists have discovered that microbes in Antarctica have a previously unknown ability to scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the air...
The flexible tissue scaffold, shown here emerging from a glass pipette with a tip one millimetre wide, unfolds itself after injection into the body. This could enable surgeons to use minimally invasive techniques, which reduce recovery time, scarring and...
Water (stock image). Researchers have used cobalt oxide nanoparticles to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Credit: © gertrudda / Fotolia Researchers from the University of Houston have found a catalyst that can quickly generate hydrogen from water using sunlight, potentially...
Treatment with a genome editing agent can preserve sound-detecting bristles in the inner ear of mice with genetic deafness (white box, left). Without the treatment, these bristles disappear (white box, right). Credit: Gao et al. /Nature 2017 Using molecular scissors wrapped...
Spacecraft Cassini with an instrument from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics on board (in red circle) passed through Saturn’s atmosphere. Credit: Artist’s impression: NASA A Langmuir probe, developed in Sweden and flown to Saturn on the Cassini spacecraft, has made...
Using fluorescent lights, Kerry Sieh and Charles Rubin of the Earth Observatory of Singapore look for charcoal and shells for radiocarbon dating. Credit: Earth Observatory of Singapore An international team of scientists digging in a sea cave in Indonesia has discovered...