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Threatened coral get fishy rescue

By Stephen Ornes / December 6, 2012

When toxic seaweed (green at right) gets too close to a type of coral (yellow structure), this fish, a broad-barred goby (Gobiodon histrio), responds to a distress signal sent by the coral and nibbles the seaweed away. Credit: Danielle Dixson

When toxic seaweed gets too close to this coral, gobies fight and bite back

Posted in Animals | Tagged Acropora nasuta, Adaptation, algae, algal poison, Chlorodesmis fastigiata, climate change, cooperation, coral, Danielle Dixson, ecology, getinvolved, goby, marine ecology, Mark Hay Georgia Institute of Technology, mucus, mutualism, Nancy Knowlton, predators, seaweed, Smithsonian Institution, topstories, toxin

Bird malaria moves north

By Stephen Ornes / October 10, 2012

Black-capped chickadees, like the one shown here, stay in Fairbanks, Alaska, year-round. Scientists report that some of the birds have been found with avian malaria, suggesting that the germ that causes the disease has established itself in the far North. Credit: Mdf/wikipedia

Germs that cause a so-called tropical disease make themselves at home in frosty Alaska

Posted in Animals | Tagged Adaptation, avian malaria, birds, blood, climate change, disease, disease ecology, ecology, epidemiology, evolution, getinvolved, global warming, malaria, microbes, microbiology, mosquito, parasite, protozoa, Ravinder Sehgal, Robert Fleischer, San Francisco State University, Smithsonian Institution, tropical disease

Cool Jobs: Scents of science

By Pippa Wysong / September 12, 2012

Humpback whales sometimes breach, or leap into the air. Some scientists believe the behavior allows the marine mammals to smell scents wafting over the water.
Credit: NOAA

Better understanding of the sense of smell inspires research into everything from whales to electronic ‘noses’

Posted in Animals, Brain & Behavior, STEM Careers | Tagged acetone, Alzheimer’s, blood sugar, brain scan, breach, cool jobs, diabetes, electronic nose, electronic sniffer, feature, humpback, Institute of Arctic Biology, insulin, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, Jan Straley, Julie Hagelin, odors, olfaction, olfactory bulb, Parkinson’s disease, Perena Gouma, Richard Doty, Rush University Medical Center, smell, Stony Brook, SUNY, the State University of New York, topstories, toxic chemicals, type 1, University of Alaska, University of Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center, University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test, UPSIT, whale, World Trade Center collapse

By a whisker

By Sharon Pochron / September 2, 2012

Ten times more nerve endings surround a seal whisker than a rat whisker. Scientists believe whiskers help seals make smart choices when hunting in the wild. Credit: Fastily/Wikimedia Commons

Hardly a fad: Some facial hair serves important functions, scientists find

Posted in Animals | Tagged Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Charlie Sullivan, dormice, dormouse, Etruscan shrew, feature, harbor seal, mechanoreceptor, Michael Brecht, Robyn Grant, The BIOmimetic Technology for vibrissal ACtive Touch, topstories, vibrissae, whiskers, Wolfe Hanke

Monkeys’ mistake detector

By Roberta Kwok / August 26, 2012

A small part of a macaque’s brain is activated when it sees another monkey making a mistake. Credit: Elisabeth Aardema/iStockphoto

Specific brain cells in macaques respond to fellow animal’s error

Posted in Animals | Tagged animal behavior, anthropology, brain, Ellen de Bruijn, error detection, getinvolved, macaques, Masaki Isoda, Matthew Shane, mistakes, monkeys, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, psychology, topstories, University of Leiden

Python-palooza!

By Janet Raloff / August 22, 2012

Monster-sized Burmese python bearing record-number of eggs retrieved in the Florida Everglades

Posted in Animals | Tagged accelerometer, adaptations, Burmese python, Davidson College, DNA, ecology, environmental science, Everglades, feature, Florida Keys, Florida Museum of Natural History, giant snakes, GPS, Kenneth Krysko, Kristen Hart, mercury, Michael Dorcas, national park, P-52, P51, radio tracking, salt water, Skip Snow, topstories, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS

A trout’s nose-y magnets

By Stephen Ornes / July 26, 2012

Cells in a fish’s snout respond to magnets

Posted in Animals | Tagged Cell, cell membrane, David Keays, fish, getinvolved, magnet, magnetic field, Magnetic Fields, magnetite, magnetosensation, Michael Winklhofer, physics, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, trout, University of Munich

Chimp’s gift for numbers

By Stephen Ornes / July 5, 2012

yumu the chimpanzee plays a number memory game faster and more accurately than any human player. Credit: T. Matsuzawa, Primate Research Institute

Translating numbers into colors may explain an animal’s apparent memory trick

Posted in Animals | Tagged Ayumu, chimpanzee, getinvolved, memory, Nicholas Humphrey, primate, psychology, synesthesia, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, topstories, zoology

Bye-bye, George

By Janet Raloff / June 27, 2012

Gone but not forgotten: Lonesome George died on June 24 at an estimated age of 100. Credit: Ecuador’s Ministry of the Environment

Ambassador of endangered species everywhere dies from old age

Posted in Animals | Tagged captive breeding, Chelonoidis, Edwin Naula, Española Island, Galápagos, getinvolved, Lonesome George, Pinta Island, Santa Cruz, tortoise, Volcan Wolf Galápagos tortoise

Skeeters ride the rain

By Stephen Ornes / June 25, 2012

To a mosquito, being struck by a raindrop is like a midair collision with a bus. But scientists recently discovered that skeeters fare well when they hitch a ride on the raindrop. Credit: Courtesy Tim Nowack, Andrew Dickerson and David Hu/Georgia Tech

Mosquitoes survive collisions with raindrops by going with the flow

Posted in Animals | Tagged biology, David Hu, engineering, flight, getinvolved, insects, mosquitoes, Nathan Burkett-Cadena, physics, topstories

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