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.
Natural genetic engineering allowed plants to move from water to land, according to a new study by an international group of scientists from Canada, China, France, Germany, and Russia. “This is one of the most important events in the evolution of life on this planet–without which we as a species would not exist,” said Gane … Read more
These days it’s easy to resolve questions about paternity with over-the-counter test kits. Now, researchers have put DNA evidence together with long-term genealogical data to explore similar questions of biological fatherhood on a broad scale among people living in parts of Western Europe over the last 500 years. The findings reported in Current Biology on November 14 … Read more
An international team of scientists working with Heliconius butterflies at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama was faced with a mystery: How do pairs of unrelated butterflies from Peru to Costa Rica evolve nearly the same wing-color patterns over and over again? The answer, published in Current Biology, forever changes the way evolution is understood. “Our … Read more
A new study, Resource use of great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran) off eastern Australia, which is the first of its kind to determine the role of large adult great hammerhead sharks in coastal food chains, has found that they are apex predators (top of the food chain) in the coastal ecosystem because they specialise in … Read more
For the past decade the outlook has been gloomy for European ash trees devastated by Ash dieback and facing the threat of more invasive pests. Now the latest scientific research brings better news. It reveals that European ash has moderately good resistance to the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) a beetle which has severely affected ash … Read more
The generation of species-specific singing in songbirds is associated with species-specific patterns of gene activity in brain regions called song nuclei, according to a study published November 12 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Kazuhiro Wada of Hokkaido University in Japan, and colleagues. According to the authors, the findings could be a promising step toward a … Read more
An ant the size of a lion isn’t as far-fetched as you would think. From as small as a sesame seed to the size of a big cat, ants come in all sizes – in augmented reality, at least. Augmented reality provides an interactive experience of the ‘real world’ with the help of computer-generated images … Read more
New research shows that many larval fish species from different ocean habitats are ingesting plastics in their preferred nursery habitat. Many of the world’s marine fish spend their first days to weeks feeding and developing at the ocean surface. Larval fish are the next generation of adult fish that will supply protein and essential nutrients … Read more
Researchers who set out to test the widespread theory that the UK is experiencing an alarming plunge in insect numbers have found no evidence for ‘Insect Armageddon’. Instead, the researchers from the University of York found peaks and troughs in moth populations over a period of 50 years. They suggest changing weather patterns and climate … Read more
Global Wildlife Conservation and partners Southern Institute of Ecology and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research have rediscovered a wildlife species lost to science since 1990 called a silver-backed chevrotain—a deer-like species that is the size of a rabbit, has a silver sheen, and has been hanging on in a region of Vietnam ravaged … Read more