Search

Looks at some of the favorite spots of professional divers including New Hanover Island in Papua New Guinea, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of California at Marisula Seamount. Shows and describes some of the sea life found in the spots.

Offers a look at Africa's marabou stork, an ugly bird that feeds on carrion and garbage, and moos like a cow. Habitat; Chicks; Physical description.

Covers the discovery, after more than 100 years of searching by ornithologists, of a marbled murrelet nest in British Columbia. The discovery has sparked controversy between birders and loggers in the economically faltering Carmanah Valley.

Covers the efforts of botanist Calvin Sperling and others to collect seeds and specimens of the world's dwindling plant specimens to keep them from becoming extinct. Plant hunts; Dangers; Experts in field; Costs.

Presents a photo essay with text explaining how the Endangered Species Act has helped a number of plants and animals, including the bald eagle, the San Joaquin kit fox, the red wolf, and the gray whale and the Mauna Kea silversword. Statistics on`declining' populations; Lack of conflict between Endangered Species Act and projects around the country.

The article reports on beetle larva imitating the chemical scent of female bees. The larvae release compounds similar to the sex pheromone of the female bee, says ecologist Leslie S. Saul-Gershenz of the Center for Ecosystem Survival in San Francisco. The report is in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The article states that male hissing-roaches of the species Elliptorhina chopardi court females by emitting complex whistles. To make the sounds, the hissing roaches squirt air out of specialized holes in their abdomens. The sounds vibrate through the ground and air. Males that did not whistle were spurned by female roaches.

The article discusses the spread of tuberculosis by badgers. European badgers can catch and spread the form of tuberculosis that strikes mainly cattle, but farmers and animal enthusiasts have debated whether killing badgers would protect herds. Two studies now reconcile earlier contradictory findings. New results from a study in Britain suggest that the boundaries of a study area make a difference, says Christl A. Donnelly of Imperial College London. A second new analysis suggests how killing badgers can boost TB around a culling area. Cutting the population upsets badger society, says Rosie Woodroffe of the University of California, Davis.

This article reports that a video has caught an underwater animal, which looks like a flower, practically jogging along the ocean bottom. The stalked crinoid spends most of its time sitting and catching food with the flowerlike wheel of feathery arms that have earned it and its relatives the nickname sea lilies. Now, however, a video from a submersible dive off Grand Bahama Island reveals a speed demon, says Tomasz Baumiller of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Baumiller and Charles Messing of Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, Fla., measured its pace at 140 m per hour. Baumiller presented the video in Salt Lake City on Oct. 16 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

The article discusses how birds that forage at sea pick up mercury and pesticide residues, which end up accumulating near nesting colonies, suggests a study in Arctic Canada. Some 10,000 pairs of medium-size seabirds called northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) nest in a widespread colony on Devon Island 640 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Ponds on the island closer to the colony, where more of the fulmars' guano and debris falls, had higher concentrations of pollutants than did ponds situated farther from the colony, says Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa in Ontario. In the July 15 Science, he and his colleagues report that three of these ponds had so much mercury that they neared or passed Canada's limit for wildlife safety.

This article reports that according to researchers, bottlenose dolphins that carry sea sponges on their beaks probably learned the trick from their moms rather than inheriting a sponge-shuttling gene. The sponges appear to protect the dolphins' beaks during foraging along rugged ocean bottoms, explains Michael Krützen of the University of Zurich in Switzerland. In search of the behavior's origin, he and an international team of collaborators studied the genetics of the sponging dolphins, known only in Australia's Shark Bay. The researchers say that the spongers belong almost exclusively to a single maternal lineage, although sponging doesn't follow any of the patterns that would be expected if it were genetically based. Therefore, Krützen and his colleagues argue, dolphins' sponge use is a case of cultural transmission--the passing along of a learned behavior.

The article reports on the visual ability of jellyfish. Eight of the eyes on a box jellyfish have surprisingly good lenses, yet the structure of the eyes keeps them from focusing sharply, according to a new optics study. Sharp focus may be what people and most other vertebrates want out of their lenses, but box jellyfish thrive with fine lenses and a blurry, wide picture, say Dan E. Nilsson of Lund University in Sweden and his colleagues in the May 12 Nature. The researchers took apart the eyes and tracked the path of light through their spherical, sand-grain-size lenses. Calculations indicate that the lenses could form almost distortion-free images.Yet the researchers found that the animal's retinas rest in front of the plane at which this sharp focus would occur.

The article examines how the fruit fly relies on a different group of cells to tick out the rhythm to perk up in the morning than it does to boost evening activity after daytime doldrums, according to two research teams. Both teams performed experiments that altered the functions of cell clusters in each fly-brain hemisphere. Although the investigators, one team in France and the other in the United States, took different approaches, both groups pinpointed the same clusters of neurons for the morning and the evening-activity increases."This is the first assignment of morning-ness and evening-ness to specific cells," comments clock researcher William J. Schwartz of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. The basic notion of dual control has been around for years, he says. Fruit flies, mice, and plenty of other organisms bustle about in the morning and then slow down until a second peak of activity in the evening. In each hemisphere of the fly brain, clock genes are active in six clusters of neurons.

The article examines how, for species flagged for special concern in U.S. waters, sportfishing accounts for 23 percent of the harvest, according Felicia Coleman of Florida State University in Tallahassee. In the Gulf of Mexico, recreation takes 64 percent of the catch for troubled fish stocks, Coleman and her colleagues report. Coleman dates her concern about the topic to her years on the federal council that regulates fishing off the Gulf Coast. The data may suggest a need for new limits on recreational fishing for some species, say Coleman and her colleagues. Often, anglers are permitted to catch only a limited number of fish of a given species, but regulators rarely limit the number of people who may fish.

The article announces that a Caribbean coral that fluoresces orange appears to be the first ever found to contain a symbiotic microbe that converts elemental nitrogen into a biologically usable form, as bacteria in the roots of bean plants do. The glow of Montastraea cavernosa doesn't come from the coral tissue itself but from cyanobacteria that take up residence there. The wavelength of the orange glow suggested to the researchers that the tissues contain a pigment called phycoerythrin, which many cyanobacteria produce to capture extra energy for their chlorophyll. Because many cyanobacteria capture elemental nitrogen dissolved in water, the researchers looked for evidence that the glowing microbes also do so. Researchers noted that measurements of the rates of the nitrogenase reaction would have made the findings stronger.

This article announces that deep-sea researchers have discovered an oddball worm that uses a previously unknown type of symbiosis to feed on whale skeletons, even though the worms have no mouth or gut. Some other worms from the deep have no digestive systems but depend on live-in bacteria for nourishment, explains Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California. The whale bone-raiding worms, in the newly named genus Osedax, likewise rely on symbiotic bacteria. The microbes, from the order Oceanospirillales, reside in green, rootlike growths at a female worm's base. However, the symbionts in female Osedax target an unusual food source--lipids from whale bones that have fallen to the ocean floor. Even though the animals don't have mouths, their bacteria-bearing projections penetrate the whale bones.

Whale-watcher boats may be making so much noise that killer whales off the coast of Washington have to change their calls to communicate over the racket. Recordings made during the past 3 years, after a boom in whale watching in Washington State, show that killer whales lengthen a characteristic call by about 15 percent when boats cluster around them, reports Andrew D. Foote of the University of Durham in England. Recordings from earlier eras, when there were fewer whale watchers, showed no link between call length and the presence of boats, say Foote and his colleagues. They suggest that boats following the whales may not interfere with animal communication until some critical number of churning engines makes the noise just too loud. People naturally adjust their voices to make themselves understood over background noise, and research suggests that animals do the same.

Deals with a study that examined the flexibility of a hummingbird's bill for nectar sipping and bug catching. Comment from Gregor M. Yanega of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, on the bill adaptation of birds for eating; Views from Ethan Temeles of Amherst College in Massachusetts, on the result of a study conducted by Yanega; Implications of the study.

Presents a study that examined variations in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) among foxes native to a California island. Role of MHC in helping the immune system recognize intruders to the body; Percentage of the foxes that have inherited mismatched versions of the gene from their parents; Results of previous studies of diversity among the foxes in the area.

Discusses research done on the risk that birds eating less of waste fish posed to seabird communities. Reference to the study by Stephen C. Votier in the February 2004 issue of "Nature"; Methodology; Key findings.

Deals with a study conducted by Fernando Noll of the University of São Paulo and colleague Sidnei Mateus on the stingless bee Trigona hypogea. Number of meat eating bee species; Description of bees' foraging behavior; Strategy of Trigona on its live prey.

Reports on the link between the deaths of three species of vultures in Pakistan and India and the consumption of a veterinary drug called diclofenac, based on a study by an international research team. Expectation on the extinction of the species; Role of vultures in curbing ominous diseases; Cultural change resulting from the vulture decline.

Discusses research being done on the Y chromosome present in the papaya plant. Reference to a study by Ray Ming et al., published in the January 22, 2004 issue of the journal "Nature"; Comparison of the papaya chromosome carrying the gene for maleness to the plant's other chromosomes; Incidence of separate sex chromosomes in plants.

Reports on the discovery of a nursing and feeding spot for blue whales in the Gulf of Corcovado in Chile. Statistics on blue whale population; Details of blue whale sightings; Hazards to blue whales.

Discusses research being done on the influence of genetic changes on species reproduction in Euhadra snails. Reference to a study by Ueshima and Takahiro Asami, published in the October 16, 2003 issue of the journal "Nature"; Notions about the effects of coil reversal in shells on snail speciation; Genetic aspects of speciation.

Reports that a team led by John W. Daly of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has found that Dendrobates frogs can modify an alkaloid to create a toxin which ends up as a protective agent in its skin. Comments from chemical ecologist Jerrold Meinwald of Cornell University; Origin of the team's research work; Results of analysis made on the skin of the frogs.

Discusses the main gene that separates the girls from the boys among honeybees. Discussion on the csd gene; Details on the attempts to inbreed honeybees; Action taken to confirm that the gene's protein products are involved in gender determination.

Discusses research on oceanic hot spots of predator diversity. Description of the underwater hot spot; Implications for aquatic animal conservation and for illuminating how big predators survive; Information on peak diversity observed.

In a rare demonstration of secret messaging in animals, a swordtail fish uses ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths as a private courtship channel, biologists now report. Molly E. Cummings of the University of Texas at Austin and her colleagues also found that the fish's main predator does not see this UV finery. Cummings and her colleagues discovered that male Xiphophorus nigrensis swordtails sport sexy, UV-reflecting stripes. Cummings says this probably explains why some 14 years of earlier experiments by her Austin collaborator Michael J. Ryan and his associates had not yielded clear indications of female preferences for swords. The old setups inadvertently blocked UV signals, she says.

A sample of mysterious ooze has shed new light on the use of biological weapons in 1993 by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo. The cult achieved worldwide notoriety in March 1995 for releasing sarin, a deadly nerve gas, in the Tokyo subway system. It killed 12 people and sickened some 5,000 more. Evidence now shows that 2 years before that, the cult released anthrax in Tokyo, says Paul Keim of the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. At the time, however, nobody noticed anything more serious than an annoying smell. In February 2003 in Denver, Colorado at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Keim and his colleagues expanded on the drama behind their previously published technical account of how the anthrax release proved to be a life-sparing dud. The cult owned an eight-story building in the section of the Tokyo metropolitan area called Kameido. During 4 days in mid-1993, public health officials logged some 160 complaints about how bad the place smelled. The officials never gained access to the building, Keim said, but the government did take photographs of a structure on the roof that was puffing out a white mist. Workers also collected samples of what Keim describes as "slime" dripping down the side of the building. Keim and his colleagues determined that the cult had released a harmless anthrax strain called Sterne, which is used in both the United States and Japan for making anthrax vaccines.

In an extreme case of sex fakery, an orchid produces oddball chemicals that mimic a female wasp's allure so well that males prefer the floral scents to the real thing, scientists say. The flower misleads male wasps into mating attempts that benefit the plant by spreading pollen, explains Manfred Ayasse of the University of Ulm in Germany. The orchids produce them more abundantly than female wasps do, and males prefer the stronger bouquet, the researchers say in an upcoming Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. Last year, however, scientists found that an Australian orchid releases a scent that attracts inexperienced male bees as well as the actual female scent does. Several hundred orchids have been identified worldwide that use sexual deception to attract pollinators, says coauthor Florian P. Schiestl of the Geobotanical Institute ETH in Zurich.

Focuses on research which suggests that domestic dogs emanated from East Asia. Evidence that the first people to came to the Americas brought their dogs with them; Discussion of a report by Peter Savolainen and colleagues in the November 22, 2002 issue of 'Science'; The genetic information that may lead to new conclusions about the origin of domesticated dogs; Mention of another study by Jennifer Leonard and her colleagues.

Discusses research being done on the behavior of Dinoponera quadriceps alpha ants. Reference to a study by Thibaud Monnin and colleagues which appeared in the September 5, 2002 issue of 'Nature' journal; Way in which female ants stay in power within the colony; Explanation on the gang concept within ant colonies.

Discusses the findings of a research reported by Moore et al in the July 11, 2002 issue of 'Nature' which illustrated the cooperation among the sperms of the European wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus. Sexual behavior of the wood mouse; Overview of the methodology; Formation of thick trains of sperm in the female rats' reproductive tract.

Reports that carbon dating of Chinese fossils supports the idea that at least one of the groups of mammal species that appeared in North America came from Asia. Analysis of carbon and magnetic characteristics of rocks in the Lingcha Formation in Hunan, China; Evidence that a family of predatory mammals called hyaenodontids originated in Asia before appearing in North America.

Reports on the discovery that the Algerian cypress tree can release pollen that can develop without fertilization. Ability of the trees to use the female organs of other species of trees; Study of the trees by Christian Pichot; Idea that the tree is an endangered species.

Discusses the results of a study of the effects of pollen from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn plants on black swallowtail butterflies. Details of the findings of University of Illinois researchers, which show that pollen from the Pioneer 34R07 variety of Bt corn does not affect caterpillars on nearby wild plants; Susceptibility of black swallowtails to toxins in other Bt corn varieties; Potential of the soil bacterium Bt as the basis for a low-risk pesticide.

Examines research on the bdelloid rotifers and the hopes of proving them the first example of ancient asexual organisms. Differences in the bdelloid genome and its indications; Evolution and species of bdelloids; Molecular testing that focused on four bdelloid genes by Matthew Meselson and David Mark Welch of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; What the experiment will accomplish.

Reports that the possibility of genes from genetically modified crops escaping and creating a superweed that could take over the world is highly unlikely. Research by Susan E. Scott and Mike J. Wilkinson of the University of Reading in England; Details; Report published in the April 1999 issue of `Nature Biotechnology.'

Describes research studying the courtship behavior of spotted bowerbirds. Behavior of males and females; Research by Borgia and Presgraves in the November, 1998, `Animal Behavior'; Study of species Chlamydera maculata; Intensity of mating behavior; Aggression in bird courtship.

The article discusses findings that the Asian snake, Rhabdophis tigrinus, stores toxins in glands behind its head that are collected from poisonous toads that it eats. The snake does not use the toxins when it attacks another, the poison actually acts as a defense mechanism when the snake is attacked in the neck and the attacker bursts the gland. Further, the snake's ability to store the toxins and its defense reaction depends on whether poison toads are part of its diet.

The article states that researchers have shown that contact with saliva, blood, or brain tissue can transmit chronic wasting disease from one deer to another, validating worries that deer social habits can spread the disease. The disease, caused by misshapen prion proteins, strikes mule deer, white-tailed deer, Rocky Mountain elk, and occasionally moose.

The article looks at research related to parasitic plant known as the "dodder." Scientists are reporting that the wiry orange plant finds plants to raid for nutrients by growing towards their smell. The plant responds to volatile compounds wafting off nearby plants and shows preferences for certain species, says Consuelo De Moraes of Pennsylvania State University in University Park. They say that their work marks the first time that anyone has shown that a plant will grow toward airborne chemicals from other plants.

The article reports on an extreme example of natural selection, in which chirping behavior has nearly died out among a population of Teleogryllus oceanicus crickets on Hawaiian island Kauai, due to an invasion by Ormia ochracea flies. Female flies follow the cricket chirps to deposit larvae on a male, which then dig in and eat the cricket from the inside. Male crickets have developed a mutation to remain silent so that the deadly flies will not find them.

The article presents the editor's response to a letter to the editor regarding the article "Leggiest Animal: Champ millipede located after 79-year gap," in the June 10, 2006 issue.

The article reports on the damselfish, Stegastes nigricans, which cultivates patches of Polysiphonia, red alga. These damselfish graze in territories of red alga, bite off a piece of this brown-looking algal carpet on the reefs, and spit it out at another location, practicing proto-farming. The red alga depends on fish farmers to cultivate it. Hiroki Hata of Kyoto University in Japan has studied the red alga and states it could be the fishy version of people's domesticated crops.

A response to a letter to the editor regarding the article "Hummingbirds can clock flower refills," found in the April 15, 2006 issue of "Science News," is presented.

This article presents a letter to the editor in response to the article "Can you hear me now? Frogs in roaring streams use ultrasonic calls," in the March 18, 2006 issue of "Science News."