Orangutans Learn Tool Use Through Social Observation
A new study concludes that even very young Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) start forming ideas about their world, and how and when to use certain…
Biology News
Periodical Cicadas Manipulate the Populations of Predatory Birds
Periodical cicadas emerge in North America every 13 or 17 years. Scientists think that the cicadas’ cycles are timed to “engineer” the number of predatory…
FDA Approves AquaBounty Transgenic Fish
The US FDA has finally approved the first genetically engineered animals for human consumption. The fast-growing salmon has been assessed as safe by the FDA….
Stem Cells Help Restore a Man’s Vision
Taylor Binns began slowly going blind because of complications with his contact lenses. However, an innovative treatment using stem cells has allowed him to regain…
Only About 1,000 Yangtze Finless Porpoises Remain
A six-week survey of the Yangtze River’s middle and lower stretches by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) in Wuhan and the…
Area of Monkey Brain Keeps Tally of Altruistic Acts
Steve Chang and his colleagues from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, have discovered that monkeys have a specific area in their brains to keep…
MALBAC Offers More Efficient Way to Sequence DNA
Sequencing DNA is nothing new, but it’s much harder to sequence the DNA of a single cell. In order to get enough DNA for sequencing,…
Origin of Ion-Pumping Proteins Could Explain How Life Began
A new study indicates how the first cells might have evolved from rocks, water and hot alkaline fluid rich in hydrogen gas spewing out of…
Pressure Can Revert and Stop the Growth of Cancer Cells
New research showed that applying physical pressure to malignant breast cancer cells guided them back to a normal growth pattern. This research could lead to…
Spider Building Spider Decoys Discovered in Peruvian Amazon
Discovered at the Tambopata Research Center in the Peruvian Amazon, a spider belonging to the genus Cyclosa is capable of producing elaborate, fake spider decoys. It…
Scorpion Protein Helps Illuminate Brain Tumors
In order to help surgeons come up with a way to distinguish brain tumors from healthy tissue, scientists are trying to use a scorpion protein….
Coffee Drinking Could Improve Your Health
The American Medical Association recommends that moderate tea or coffee drinking will likely have no ill effect on health, as long as people live a…
Nostalgia Makes Us Warm & Colder Temperatures Make Us Nostalgic
Smell, touch, and music have all proven to evoke nostalgia and researchers at the University of Southampton have discovered that nostalgia is linked to the…
Homosexual Behavior Among Fish Increases Attractiveness to Females
In many species, females are attracted to large, conspicuous males. But among animals that mate with many partners, males that manage to mate with more…
Panamanian Survey Puts Global Arthropod Species at 6 Million
For two years in the Panamanian tropics, entomologists have been laboring in cranes, gliding amongst treetops using helium-filled balloons, hiking through the jungle at night…
Fast DNA Origami Allows Molecules to be Folded in Minutes
A new study indicates that DNA strands can be coaxed to fold into shapes in a matter of minutes. This could speed up progress in…
Kayan Loris, A Newly Discovered Species of Slow Loris
The primate genus Nycticebus contains a group called slow lorises, which is closely related to lemurs, and can be found across South East Asia. Recently,…
Geneticists Grow Fish with Limbs to Duplicate Evolutionary Pressure
The fossil record gives clues about how limbs grew from fish fins in a series of stages, but scientists are still trying to fill in…
