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Created on Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:50
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Written by ScienceDaily
The biota of island archipelagos is of considerable interest to biologists. These isolated areas often act as 'evolutionary laboratories', spawning biological diversity rapidly and permitting many mechanisms to be observed and studied over relatively short periods of time. Such islands are often the places of new discoveries, including the documentation of new species. The Republic of Cape Verde c
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Created on Monday, 27 August 2012 16:42
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Written by Humayon Dar
Sitting in McDonald’s in Pakistan, one cannot help notice the halal sign on the packaging of their delectable quarter pounder. Although there is uncertainty on who issues halal certification for McDonald’s food sold in Pakistan, there is no ambiguity at all on the importance of eating halal in the life of over 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Consequently, a new and dynamic global halal indust
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Created on Monday, 27 August 2012 16:36
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Written by sciencedaily
Vaccines and antibiotics may someday join caloric restriction or bariatric surgery as a way to regulate weight gain, according to a new study focused on the interactions between diet, the bacteria that live in the bowel, and the immune system. Bacteria in the intestine play a crucial role in digestion. They provide enzymes necessary for the uptake of many nutrients, synthesize certain vitamins and
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Created on Saturday, 25 August 2012 15:44
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Written by Jeremy Cherfas
While some scientists are working hard to breed new crop varieties better adapted to the predicted impacts of climate change, others are exploring adaptation options already present in genebanks and in farmers’ fields. Carlo Fadda, a senior scientist at Bioversity International, is managing an ongoing project called Seeds for Needs in Ethiopia. The project is testing innovative methods to screen g
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Created on Saturday, 25 August 2012 15:42
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Written by Jeremy Cherfas
There’s one optimistic conclusion for agriculture under climate change: modelling the future suggests that for many places, the climate they face in 20 or 30 years is already present somewhere on Earth. Farmers and plant scientists can prepare for the future by using something like the Climate Analogues Tool to suggest places to look for crops and varieties that might to some extent be pre-adapted t
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Created on Saturday, 25 August 2012 15:37
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Written by sciencedaily
Sunbathing may be healthy -- at least for one group of North American insects that apparently uses the activity to fight off germs, Simon Fraser University scientists have found. Western Boxelder bugs (WBB), found largely in B.C. interior regions, are known to group together in sunlit patches and while there, release monoterpenes, strong-smelling chemical compounds that help protect the bugs by ki
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Created on Thursday, 23 August 2012 08:36
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Written by sciencedaily
Having healthy gut bacteria could have as much to do with a strategy that insurance companies use to uncover risk as with eating the right foods -- according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Findings published August 23 in the journal Ecology Letters show how researchers applied a strategy used by insurance companies to understand how animals and plants recruit beneficial bac
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Created on Thursday, 23 August 2012 08:34
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Written by sciencedaily
A recent study of residential landscape types and native bird communities in Phoenix, Ariz., led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst urban ecologist suggests that yards mimicking native vegetation and wildlands offer birds "mini refuges," helping to offset the loss of biodiversity in cities and supporting birds better than traditional grass lawns and non-native plantings. The study, led by Su
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Created on Thursday, 23 August 2012 08:31
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Written by sciencedaily
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have shown that the wings of insects are not as fragile as they might look. A study just published in the scientific journalPLoS ONE now shows that the characteristic network of veins found in the wings of grasshoppers helps to capture cracks, similar to watertight compartments in a ship. "The desert locusts are the marathon-flyers of the insect world," says
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