biology
Whiff of testosterone helps prenatal female Alpine marmots
Alpine marmots (Marmota marmota) live in extended family groups of up to 20 individuals. The groups consist of a dominant territorial pair and a number of subordinate individuals, typically descendants of the dominant pair. Over a 14-year period, Kla…
Inbreeding bed bugs key to massive infestations
New research on the bed bug’s ability to withstand the genetic bottleneck of inbreeding, announced today at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) annual meeting, provides new clues …
Global warming worms dooming fish?
Parasitic worms that infect fish, and have a devastating effect on fish reproduction, grow four times faster at higher temperatures — providing some of the first evidence that global warming affects the interactions between parasites and their hosts…
Powerful mathematical model greatly improves predictions for species facing climate change
UCLA life scientists and colleagues have produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change.
The research, federally funded by the National Science Foundation, is publis…
Inflammatory cues modulate goblet cell products important for intestinal barrier function
In a paper published in the December 2011 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, a team of scientists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign led by Rex Gaskins, PhD have demonstrated that both microbial and host inflammatory factors modul…
Aggression prevents the better part of valor … in fig wasps
Published online in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the study confirms that placid male pollinator fig wasps work together to chew an escape tunnel for their females, before crawling back into the fig to die — the non-pollinating variety …
