Life science news

Threatened by elephants? Try recruiting ants

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:58:50 +0000

On the African plains, the whistling-thorn acacia tree protects itself against elephants by recruiting ants.

Where did the oil go?

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:06:43 +0000

About 75% of the oil spilt at the Gulf of Mexico seems to have been broken down by bacteria.

The genetic side to chimpanzee culture

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:08:41 +0000

At least some of what were thought to be cultural traditions among chimpanzees appear to correlate with genes.

Human ancestors carved meat with stone tools almost a million years earlier than expected

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:28:51 +0000

Marks on fossil bones may push back the earliest estimates of tool use among human ancestors by 800,000 years than previously known.

Pakasuchus – the crocodile that’s trying to be a mammal

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:54:57 +0000

A crocodile that was very mammal-like lived 105 million years ago.

Researchers create 'lesbian' mice by deleting a single gene

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:54:44 +0000

Deleting the FucM gene, which encodes an enzyme called fucose mutarotase, causes masculinization of the mouse brain, so that female mice lacking the gene avoid the advances of males and try to mate with other females instead.

Robins can literally see magnetic fields, but only if their vision is sharp

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:11:39 +0000

Some birds can literally see magnetic fields with their eyes.

Chimpanzees murder for land

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:39:33 +0000

Groups of chimps will beat other chimps to death for their land.

Earliest traces of complex life?

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:56:43 +0000

Cookie-shaped fossils from 2.1 billion years ago may be the oldest fossils of multicellular life discovered to date.

What does that MRI signal MEAN, anyway?

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:22:55 +0000

Using light-activated cells appear to confirm that fMRI scans really do tell us what happens in the brain.