Unearthing how a carnivorous fungus traps and digests worms
A new analysis sheds light on the molecular processes involved when a carnivorous species of fungus known as Arthrobotrys oligospora senses, traps and consumes a worm. Hung-Che Lin of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues present these fi.....»»
Europe"s ancient languages shed light on a great migration and weather vocabulary
Painstaking archaeological exploration is a familiar, often widely admired, method of unearthing history. Less celebrated, but also invaluable, is the piecing together of fragments of ancient languages and analyzing how they changed over thousands of.....»»
Novel research could provide better analysis of the role of extracellular vesicles and particles in diseases, cancer
Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, is leading innovative research that more effectively traps nanosized extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) to analyze their roles in cancer, a.....»»
New study: Even treated wastewater affects our rivers
Effluents from wastewater treatment plants have a dual effect: Some species disappear, while others benefit. Especially certain insect orders, such as stonefly and caddisfly larvae, are decimated. Certain worms and crustaceans, by contrast, can incre.....»»
Baldur’s Gate 3 includes a poignant Undertale Easter egg and more RPG nods
Baldur's Gate 3 players are already unearthing its best Easter eggs, but this thematically poignant Undertale reference stands out above the rest......»»
War-damaged urban environment in Kharkiv is fatal for bats: Loss of roosts and lethal traps in destroyed buildings
Russia's war in the Ukraine has severe consequences not only for humans, it also has detrimental effects on populations of urban and semi-urban wildlife in the attacked cities and regions......»»
Fast electrical signals mapped in plants with new bioelectronic technology
What happens inside the carnivorous plant Venus Flytrap when it catches an insect? New technology has led to discoveries about the electrical signaling that causes the trap to snap shut. Bioelectronic technology enables advanced research into how pla.....»»
Pro1 protein malfunction allows rice blast fungus to thrive, new study shows
The 'paradox of sex' refers to the puzzle of why the sexual mode of reproduction is more common among living beings than the asexual mode......»»
"Mind controlling" parasitic worms are missing genes found in every other animal, researchers find
In a world full of bizarre animals, hairworms are some of the strangest. Hairworms are parasitic worms that manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what's sometimes called "mind control.".....»»
Unusual fossil shows rare evidence of a mammal attacking a dinosaur
Canadian and Chinese scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur......»»
Research shows shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane
As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published in Nature Geoscience......»»
Biting flies are attracted to blue traps—researchers use AI to work out why
Flies which feast on blood—such as tsetse and horse flies—inflict painful bites and spread debilitating diseases among people and animals alike. So a lot of work has gone into designing the most efficient traps to control the populations of these.....»»
The tiniest hitchhikers: Nematodes leap onto bumblebees via electric fields
Worms lept at an average speed of 0.86 meters per second, close to human walking speed. A nematode (C. elegans) jumps onto a bumblebee along an electrical field to hitch a ride. Credit: Chiba et al., 2023.....»»
Study reveals how leaf-cutting ants gauge leaf portion size
They might not be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but leaf-cutting ants are insect superheroes, capable of carrying leaf pieces up to six times their body mass to cultivate fungus in their borrows. But how do the charismatic creature.....»»
Drug-resistant fungi are thriving in even the most remote regions on Earth, finds new study
New research has found that a disease-causing fungus—collected from one of the most remote regions in the world—is resistant to a common antifungal medicine used to treat infections......»»
Researchers discover that worms use electricity to jump
In nature, smaller animals often attach themselves to larger ones to "hitch a ride" and save energy migrating large distances. In paper published on June 21 in the journal Current Biology, researchers show how microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans worms.....»»
Deadly fungal meningitis cases nearly double as CDC rushes to find exposed
The source and fungus are both elusive; officials are aggressively treating exposed. Enlarge / One of the medical clinics suspended by Mexican health authorities, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on May 19, 2023. (credit: Getty.....»»
Research hints at how fungus farming ants keep their gardens healthy
"Weed early and often" is the key to a productive garden. Interestingly, certain species of ants are also avid gardeners, a practice they've refined over 50 million years. They too weed their underground fungus gardens, but how they know what to weed.....»»
Deep sea dive from a desk uncovers three new species
Queensland Museum Network Sessile Marine Invertebrate Researcher, Dr. Merrick Ekins has described three new species of carnivorous sponges collected two kilometers below the surface on the Great Barrier Reef. The study is published in the journal Zoo.....»»
Ants have a specialized communication processing center that has not been found in other social insects
Have you ever noticed an ant in your home, only to find that a week later the whole colony has moved in? The traps you set up catch only a few of these ants, but soon, the rest of the colony has mysteriously disappeared. Now, a study published in the.....»»
Vaccine against deadly chytrid fungus primes frog microbiome for future exposure
A human or animal's microbiome—the collection of often beneficial microorganisms, including as bacteria and fungi, that live on or within a host organism—can play an important role in the host's overall immune response, but it is unclear how vacc.....»»