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.
First the sea stars wasted to nothing. Then the purple urchins took over, eating and eating until the bull kelp forests were gone. The red abalone starved. Their fishery closed. Red sea urchins starved. Their fishery collapsed. And the ocean kept warming. It sounds like an ecological horror movie, but this scenario actually happened between … Read more
Australian research could help breeders develop more drought-resilient crops that can produce more food and more profit with less water. Drought tolerance is critically important in the face of climate change, population growth and land-use pressures. Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU), ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, and CSIRO Agriculture and … Read more
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources found the virus while searching for the cause of Wisconsin River Eagle Syndrome, an enigmatic disease endemic to bald eagles near the Lower Wisconsin River. The newly identified bald eagle hepacivirus, or BeHV, may … Read more
Modern Melanesians harbor beneficial genetic variants that they inherited from archaic Neanderthal and Denisovan hominins, according to a new study. These genes are not found in many other human populations, the study adds. The results suggest that large structural variants introgressed from our archaic ancestors may have played an important role in the adaptation of … Read more
Scientists with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and collaborators surveying the birdlife of Borneo have discovered a startling surprise: an undescribed species of bird, which has been named the Spectacled Flowerpecker. While scientists and birdwatchers have previously glimpsed the small, gray bird in lowland forests around the island, the Smithsonian team is the first to … Read more
Despite their important ecological role as decomposers, termites are often overlooked in research. Evolutionary biologists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have constructed a new family tree for this unassuming insect brood, shedding unexpected light on its evolutionary history. Writing in Current Biology, the team presents a new tree showing the … Read more
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Anthony Zador has taken the next step in his quest to solve exactly how the brain is wired. Zador, a neuroscientist whose lab studies how the brain’s circuitry mediates and controls complex behaviors, set out about 10 years ago to map three pillars of brain function: connectivity, gene expression and … Read more
New research reveals conservation initiatives often spread like disease, a fact which can help scientists and policymakers design programs more likely to be taken up. The study, including University of Queensland researchers, modelled how conservation initiatives are adopted until they reach “scale” – a level where they can have real impact on conserving or improving … Read more
About 450 nonnative, plant-eating insect species live in North American forests. Most of these critters are harmless, but a handful wreak havoc on their new environment, attacking trees and each year causing more than $70 billion in damage. The problem is, scientists often don’t know which insect will emerge as the next harmful invader. A … Read more
According to Noël Coward, mad dogs and Englishmen are the only creatures that go out in the midday sun, but Harald Wolf from the University of Ulm, Germany, would add another animal: Saharan silver ants (Cataglyphis bombycina). Venturing from their nests to scavenge the corpses of less-fortunate creatures at the peak of the day – … Read more