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Researchers are now one step closer to developing super strong composite materials, thanks to the mantis shrimp - a marine crustacean strong enough to cut a finger.
Researchers at University of Bern, Switzerland, found Orcinus orca (killer whales) populations have evolved distinct genetic lineages due to unique hunting strategies.
Research showed flowers, and plants in general, generate an electric field and bumblebees can sense it with their tiny hairs.
A strain of E. coli resistant to last-resort antibiotics has been identified on United States soil for the first time. Health officials say this could be the end of the road for antibiotics, leaving us virtually helpless in fighting future infections.
It's the largest any human has come across.
University of Rochester researchers developed a new evolutionary model that suggests human intelligence developed to meet the demands of our infants, in a self-reinforcing cycle: bigger brains led to shorter pregnancies, requiring parents to have even bigger brains.
Human activity has been wreaking havoc on ocean life. One group however seems to thrive where others struggle to survive: new evidence shows that cephalopods' numbers have significantly increased over the last six decades.
Every summer, turtle hatchlings have to quickly dig up the sand of their nests and start a perilous journey towards the sea. This delicate process is very energy consuming, but there's power in numbers.
All living things, from polar bears to bacteria, become more active or slow down their metabolism over a 24-hour cycle. Why should trees, which are just as alive as we are, be exempted from this rule?
Researchers have sequenced the genomes of the tallest mammal on Earth, as well as it's unlikely closest cousin, the okapi. By comparing the genomes of the two species, we now have a firmer grasp of the evolutionary timeline in which the split from a common ancestor took place.
A new discovery may place the first appearance of complex life on Earth a full billion years earlier than previously thought. The scientific community is divided on the value of the find, some hailing it as rock-solid evidence while others dismiss it as inconclusive.
Even though they're genetically identical and live in the same environment, not all bacteria are the same. When times are tough more bacteria become individualists gobbling resources in the detriment of the colony, but in doing so the individualists actually enhance the colony's survival rate.
A surprising study found that a group of ancient lizards called mosasaurs were in fact warm-blooded.
Geckos may be giving art conservationists an unexpected hand – a new way of keeping art clean. This doesn’t mean we’ll be letting hordes of geckos run rampant through the Louvre because that’s not how science works (though it could create a lovely Disney scene). Instead, researchers took inspiration from geckos, designing a material that […]
This mesmerizing jellyfish almost looks photoshopped - but it's as real as it gets.
Animals have evolved all sorts of gimmicks for either attack or defence. Some are really over the top, but that doesn't make it less effective. Take the bombardier beetle, for instance, which sprays a deadly mix of boiling chemicals from its butt. This is one insect you don't want to mess with.
A new study from the University of Toulouse found that intelligence and learning aren't limited to organisms with brains. By studying the mold P. polycephalum they found it can, over time, learn to navigate even irritating environments.
We now have shark vision.
If you don't want bed bugs biting you, then changing your sheet's colour might help. A recent study found bed bugs love red and black, but keep away from surfaces coloured in yellow or green.
North America was home to several mammoth species, but a new study suggests these weren't that genetically diverse as previously thought. As far as two species are concerned, the Wolly Mammoth and the Columbian mammoth, their genetic makeup was compatible enough to allow interbreeding without miscarriages.
It's a true "Wow!" moment.
A forest's trees capture carbon not only for themselves, but also engage in an active "trade" of sorts with their neighbors, a new study found. University of Basel botanists found that this process, conducted by symbiotic fungi in the forest's soil, takes place even among trees of different species.
About 21 million years ago, North and South America were separated by an ancient sea called the Miocene Central American Seaway, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans formed a single tropical ocean. This separation isolated species, except those who could fly or swim over long distances. Oddly enough, South American monkeys managed to cross this seaway and migrated all the way to North America by swimming. No one's really sure how exactly they did this, but the discovery is definitely baffling.
Flap your hands like a shark.
Each city has its own distinct germ cloud comprised of a unique microbial population and distribution, according to scientists at Northern Arizona University.
Electrically stimulating the frontopolar cortex can enhance creativity, a new study from Georgetown University found.
There's confidence that reproducing in space is indeed possible, based on previous research. The most recent experiment made by Chinese scientists, for instance, proved that mammalian embryos can develop in microgravity.
Hint: it's the urine.
Helicoprion is an extinct genus of shark-like, cartilaginous fish that lived from the early Permian (~290 m.y. ago) all through to the massive Permian-Triassic extinction episode (roughly 250 m.y. ago.)
Westerners are horror-struck by the prospect of an Ebola or Zika pandemic in their very own neighbourhood. Media panic aside, that's extremely unlikely thanks to modern medical science. Our close cousins, the Neanderthals, weren't so lucky tens of thousands of years ago when they first met us, humans. British researchers analyzed ancient bone DNA and sequenced pathogens and found some infectious diseases are far older than we thought. They argue that it's very likely that humans passed many diseases to Neandertals, the two species having interbred, like tapeworm, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers and types of herpes.
On the desk of Seokheun "Sean" Choi sits a 3x3 array that at first glance looks like a lemon squeezer. It is, in fact, a solar panel but not like any you've seen or heard about before. Instead of using semiconductors like silicon crystals to convert sunlight into electricity, the array employs a complex system that nurtures cyanobacteria -- beings whose metabolism create free electrons which can be harnessed.
Most of the life we see around us -- plants, animals, humans and other so-called eukaryotes -- actually comprise a tiny minority of the planet's biodiversity. The rulers of this planet are actually bacteria and Archaea. A new research which includes genome sequencing data from over 1,000 new organisms has produced a refined tree of life that better matches reality. In this expanded tree of life two-thirds of all diversity on Earth is bacterial, while nearly a third is Archaea.
A team of NASA researchers has developed the first ever method for identifying and studying underground forest fungi from outer space, providing information that will help us better understand how forests will develop. Mycorrhizal fungi (underground fungus) are more similar to a city network than to individual organisms. They are complex intertwined networks that can […]
People frequently overindulge, sometimes to the point of developing sugar addictions. There has been a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry in finding treatments that can combat this effect, with little results up to now. But, a world-first study led by QUT might change that.
Though minute, these are far from insignificant as their pray have learned the hard way. In fact, it's their small body that allowed them to become the fastest snapping spiders in the world!
The first case of white nose syndrome, a disease that has wreaked havoc on bat populations in the eastern U.S. has been identified west of the Rockies. The disease's spread threatens to drastically impact bat populations there, altering ecosystems throughout the country.
British paleontologists have identified a tiny, ancient animal that carried around its young tethered in capsules around its body, like kites.
Biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly and efficiently program and design DNA-encoded circuits, giving new functions to living cells. There are already a myriad of programming languages. Fortran and C++ allow for rapid computations, PHP is a scripting language for web development, Ruby is a popular object-oriented language – […]
NOAA has released a photograph of this year's golden retriever migration. The animals are returning to shore after their mating run, where a new generation of puppies will be born.
Takeout, instant noodles and cheap beer -- the only known organisms able to survive solely on these three items are university students. A new study examined undergraduates' dietary habits to see what powers their resilience to low-quality food, and if this trait can be grafted into human beings.
Scientists have identified a 1.5 cm creature that predates the dinosaurs by 100 million years. While not exactly a spider, the tiny beast is the closest relative to spiders, but its lineage is extinct. Spiders are basically ubiquitous. They can be found on every continent except for Antarctica and in every environment ever – except […]
Wood, one of the cheapest and most widely used construction materials humanity has ever employed, has just had its range of uses expanded; Researchers at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a method of turning wood transparent that's suitable for mass production.
Ammonite fossils are among the most common in the world, with their characteristic shape and chambered shell. But did you ever wonder what the deal is with those chambers? Ammonites are a group of cephalopod animals that lived as swimmers in the shallow parts of the ancient oceans. They were extremely successful, emerging in the early […]
We don't think about it that much, but the butthole is one of the biggest innovations in 500 million years of evolution.
Found in only eight caves on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, this eyeless fish can walk.
When researchers started raising 48 bacteria species aboard the International Space Station, they weren’t really sure what to expect. They wanted to see how the microorganisms would adapt to living in microgravity, but one species hasn’t only adapted – it’s doing better than on Earth. According to a recent study, Bacillus safensis JPL-MERTA-8-2 – a strain […]
As anyone who's moved from the countryside to the city can testify, the transition isn't easy.
If you've ever seen one up close you probably know that corals are insanely beautiful, but not exactly action packed -- these animals live at their own pace, one so slow that to a human being they might seem frozen in time. But what would coral look like if it lived in 'normal' speed?
Faced with the underwhelming speed at which the scientific community studies and describes fungi, a group of researches put together a list of the 50 "Most Wanted Fungi" -- and re-vamped the UNITE database to put the spotlight on the least-known strains.
We judge our planet's biological past by using geological evidence - fossils. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past.
