SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Animals that evolved in environments subject to large-scale habitat-altering events like fires and storms are better equipped to handle forest fragmentation caused by human development than species in low-disturbance environments, new research shows. Oregon State University scientists led an international collaboration whose work provides an important road map as conservation managers consider the effects of … Read more
Pioneering experiments using heated field plots to test the responses of crops to temperature have revealed an unexpected plus side of climate change for farmers. The field trial experiment – the first of its kind – was set up to investigate the link between warmer Octobers in the United Kingdom and higher yields of oilseed … Read more
More than 100 years ago, a zoologist by the name of Herbert Spencer Jennings described surprisingly complex and varied avoidance behaviors in a single-celled freshwater protist known as Stentor roeseli. When later experiments in a related organism failed to reproduce what he’d seen, his claims were discredited and pushed aside. But now, a report publishing in … Read more
Wildfire is a natural process in the forests of the western US, and many species have evolved to tolerate, if not benefit from it. But wildfire is changing. Research in the journal Biological Conservation, published by Elsevier, suggests fire, as it becomes more frequent and severe, poses a substantial risk to goshawks in the Sierra Nevada region. How … Read more
Sexually transmitted diseases are widespread among animals and humans. Humans, however, know a multitude of protective and hygienic measures to protect themselves from infection. An international research team led by scientists at the German Primate Center (DPZ) – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research has investigated whether our closest relatives, the primates, change their sexual behavior … Read more
Long considered pests by forest managers, deer and elk can help Douglas-fir seedlings thrive under certain vegetation management conditions, a five-year study by Oregon State University shows. The research, published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, is important because global demand for forest products continues to rise and because wildlife conservation is often viewed as … Read more
North American migratory birds have been getting smaller over the past four decades, and their wings have gotten a bit longer. Both changes appear to be responses to a warming climate. Those are the main findings from a new University of Michigan-led analysis of a dataset of some 70,000 North American migratory birds from 52 … Read more
Fish will mate with a species outside their own if the male’s colouring is attractive enough or if the female can’t see him properly, according to new research. Such ‘mistakes’ in mate choice can lead to the evolution of new species, an international team of scientists found. The group studied 2000 fish and analysed the … Read more
Humans are now closer to seeing through the eyes of animals, thanks to an innovative software framework developed by researchers from the University of Queensland and the University of Exeter. PhD candidate Cedric van den Berg from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences said that, until now, it has been difficult to understand how animals really … Read more
Harbour porpoise calves around the UK are carrying a more neurotoxic cocktail of PCBs than their mothers, as females unknowingly detoxify themselves by transferring the chemicals while feeding their young, new research reveals today. Published in the Science of the Total Environment today (Tuesday 3 December 2019) and led by Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) scientists from … Read more