Natural in Biological News

Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting

... our agricultural practices can take lessons from natural environments. Perennial plants produce more, ... kill crop-eating insects. But these insects have natural enemies, too, and new research is investigating ... at the ESA meeting, shows that increasing the natural habitat in and around farms can boost populations ...

Animal and plant communication at the ESA Annual Meeting

... placed painted tubes mimicking pitcher plants' natural color spectrum of redness into the plants' ... a surge in generalist density compared to natural areas. The number of specialists, however, only ... ecological specialization and diversity in natural ecosystems," he says. ...

Restoring a natural root signal helps to fight a major corn pest

... surviving rootworms. Further fine-tuning of this natural defense strategy will allow for an ... "Instead of using insecticides, the use of natural enemies of the corn rootworm could be much more ... "Our study showed that the re-established natural EβC signal greatly enhanced the ...

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... to and from these ancient Maya cities. natural and anthropogenic sources of East Asian dust ... strontium. They collected samples of loess -- a natural eolian deposit of East Asia dust that has ... composition of the samples and found that the natural background of East Asia dust is dominated by ...

Biologists rediscover endangered frog population

... frogs and scientists from the San Diego natural History Museum retracing a 1908 natural history expedition both rediscovered the rare ... frogs in the wild. USGS and San Diego natural History Museum biologists found the endangered ...

After dinosaurs, mammals rise but their genomes get smaller

... their genomes. "Larger population sizes make natural selection more efficient," said IU Bloomington ... accident and sometimes, perhaps, as the result of natural selection against excess DNA. An LTR is far more ... possibility is an increase in the efficiency of natural selection that accompanies population growth. ...

Key OSU water research receives national funding

... Division of Agricultural Sciences and natural Resources will receive $226,890 in grant funding ... assistant professor with the OSU department of natural resource ecology and management and principal ... nature, is a highly interconnected and integrated natural system." The study also is expected to pay ...

International conference on CO2 sequestration processes

... and make related field trips to spectacular natural sites. The CarbFix project, which uses a ... Reykjavik, into a massive basalt formation below. natural chemical reactions within this common volcanic ... A optional Sept. 9-11 field trip will explore natural sites related to carbon and climate, including ...

New advance in revolutionary 'bullet fingerprinting' technique

... Researcher Alex Goddard has uncovered a natural technique that he believes is so simple, which ... can identify optimum conditions to promote the natural enhancement of the fingerprint, vastly improving ... is very low; less than 1 percent. This uses a natural process and even if it only leads to small ...

Academy Library accepted to prestigious Biodiversity Heritage Library

... PHILADELPHIAThe Academy of natural Sciences announced today that its Ewell Sale ... Heritage Library. The BHL is a group of 12 natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries and ... books and two maps. The Academy is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the ...

Investing wisely to save the Great Barrier Reef

... it allocates more than $50 million between reef natural resource management regions. The funds are ... via surveys and workshops held with regional natural resource management agencies, agricultural ... governments and companies prioritise their natural resource management investment choices to obtain ...

Size did matter

... of scientists, studying specimens from the London natural History Museum's collections. Their research has ... collected, investigated and then donated to the natural History Museum in 2000 by Robin Smith. Now at ... Giles Miller, Micropalaeontology Curator at the natural History Museum. A human sperm would have to ...

Rainforest rehab in every sense

... the microclimatic conditions favourable for rapid natural regeneration of degraded rainforest environments. ... the complex, interlinked variables found in natural environments. "In the rainforest, there is ... to provide reliable, long-term monitoring of the natural environment which in the case of Springbrook - ...

Isolated forest patches lose species, diversity

... unseen toll on the sustainability of these natural ecosystems. The long generation times of ... remain, even when these are protected as parks or natural areas. "These forest patches are not just ... extinct for lots of different reasons," including natural cycles of turnover, Waller says. "But typically ...

Work of Field Museum scientist addresses question of chance in evolution

... As Darwin observed, natural selection leading to adaptation of individuals ... 10 heads or tails in a row) that was visible to natural selection, most likely driven by predation. ... particular genetic and developmental channel, and natural selection opened the way for an adaptive ....

Natural seed treatment could drastically cut pesticide use

... pests. The chemical seems to prime some plants' natural protective responses. Early trials at Lancaster ... jasmonic acid so exciting is that it is a more natural way to protect plants. In addition to cutting ... of jasmonic acid on seeds was funded by the natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) and the ...

Fossil bone bed helps reconstruct life along California's ancient coastline

... a small portion of it was added to the National natural Landmark registry in 1976. "This deposit, if ... bed was mounted and displayed for decades at the natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), which ... in the California Academy of Sciences, San Diego natural History Museum, Buena Vista Museum ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

... months in wine packaged in boxes and bottles with natural cork, synthetic cork, or screw caps. Boxed wine ... cork and screw caps performed best, with natural corks associated with the highest levels of MPs. ... weapon in poison frogs' arsenal Journal of natural Products New research documents a ...

Geography and history shape genetic differences in humans

... New research indicates that natural selection may shape the human genome much more ... it can take at least 50,000-100,000 years for natural selection to spread favorable traits through a ... frequency of a particular variant resulted from natural selection, Pritchard and his colleagues compared ...

Afghanistan releases its first-ever list of protected species

... Agency (NEPA), in an effort to safeguard its natural heritage, has released the country's first-ever ... showing a continued commitment to conserving its natural heritage even during these challenging times," ... series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit. ...

Small molecules mimic natural gene regulators

... function of a much larger and more complicated natural regulator of gene expression. The research, by ... programmed to perform the same function as their natural counterparts. These molecules can help scientists ... weren't sure it was using the same mechanism that natural activators use. ...

Next-generation software system for flood warning and risk analysis to be developed

... . Flooding is a wide spread and devastating natural disaster across the globe. It is the worst natural disaster in the UK, causing annual damage of ... in China. These tests were supported by the natural Environment Research Council and a Partnership ...

Springer Series editor John Smol receives two prestigious biology awards

... to transform a largely descriptive study of natural and human impacts on lakes into a recognized ... the extent to which human activities affect the natural environment, and prompted key public policy and ... in health sciences, engineering, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences, the $100,000 prizes ...

Yale study: Most polluted ecosystems recoverable

... recover from human-induced disturbances than from natural events, such as hurricanes. "The damages to ... the interactions of those disturbances. Major natural disturbances, including hurricanes and cyclones, ... pollution, are far removed from their historical, natural pristine state. Thus ecologists measured recovery ...

Study finds genetic links to age of first menstrual period and menopause

... four chromosomal regions associated with age at natural menopause. The paper, "Genome-wide association ... loci associated with age at menarche and at natural menopause," will publish online in Nature ... ). Menarche and natural menopause are two important physiological events ...

MIT reels in RNA surprise with microbial ocean catch

... microbe samples while preserving the microbes' natural gene expression has yielded an unexpected boon: ... the discovery of its presence in a natural setting may make it possible finally to learn on ... a data set of sequences of transcripts from a natural microbial community as opposed to a single ...

DOE funds bio-inspired solar fuel center at Arizona State

... of the energy we use today from oil, coal and natural gas - originally was solar energy that was ... will be designed using principles borrowed from natural processes. Making a fuel requires not only ... such as carbohydrates and oils. Following the natural design principles of photosynthesis, scientists ...

New method developed by UC San Diego bioengineers gives regenerative medicine a boost

... new method to compare the use of artificial and natural stem cells. "Different cells manifest as ... artificial stem cells can 100 percent mimic natural stem cells. This method helps you determine if, ... trick, you can generate a stem cell similar to a natural stem cell. If it is not similar there may be ...

Caltech scientists show why anti-HIV antibodies are ineffective at blocking infection

... at least partly due to the fact that our body's natural HIV antibodies simply don't have a long enough ... like influenza. In other words, the body's natural anti-HIV antibodies are much less effective at ... limitation on the effectiveness of almost any natural anti-HIV antibodies." In addition to Bjorkman ...

Afghanistan declares its first national park

... will protect one of Afghanistan's best-known natural areas: the spectacular series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit. ... that protected areas are a key way to preserve natural resources while also improving local ...

Premier issue of Ecopsychology launched by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. publishers

... multidimensional links between humankind and its natural environment is at the core of the evolving ... based on published research on the role of the natural world and humankind's relationship to nature in ... issues, and responsibility for protecting natural places and other species. It provides a forum for ...

Indigenous peoples at world summit to share climate change observations, coping techniques

... already threatened by such trends as accelerating natural resource development stimulated by trade ... the soil and reduce the loss of crops during natural disasters. East Cameroon and Congo: The Baka ... in terms of access to food, fresh water and natural resources needed for the survival of themselves, ...

Red pandas reveal an unexpected (artificial) sweet tooth

... in the Journal of Heredity , preferences for six natural sugars and six artificial sweeteners were tested ... receptors contain binding sites for a variety of natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. However, ... remaining species preferred at least some of the natural sugars. Consistent with having a functional ...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 1, 2009

... contains substances that mute the human body's natural defenses. This chemical cocktail makes the body ... and pressure range for maximizing production of natural gas from the icy hydrate material. Their study ... known as "ice that burns," are a frozen form of natural gas (methane). This material exists in vast ...

Humans may be losers if technological nature replaces the real thing

... about the real deal: observing animals in their natural habitat, hiking the John Muir Trail or a playing ... is encroaching into human connections with the natural world and University of Washington psychologists ... of amnesia proposes that people believe the natural environment they encounter during childhood is ...

AGU journal highlights -- March 25, 2009

... Atlantic New tool differentiates man-made from natural nitrogen-oxide pollution Anyone may read the ... experiments, they use measurements made on natural coral reef located in the Red Sea to develop ... 6. New tool differentiates man-made from natural nitrogen-oxide pollution Nitrogen oxides in ...

Wild bees can be effective pollinators

... University), John S. Ascher (American Museum of natural History), and Rufus Isaacs (Michigan State ... management practices in order to help conserve natural populations of bees," said Dr. Julianna Tuell. ... or reeds are good materials because they provide natural variation in hole diameter to attract the ...

Stanford researchers develop biodegradable substitutes for wood, plastic bottles and other materials

... serve a societal need and respect and protect the natural environment," said lead researcher Sarah ... "biocomposites"-glue-like resins reinforced with natural fibers that are made from plants and recyclable ... of promising materials. The best turned out to be natural hemp fibers fused with a biodegradable plastic ...

A natural approach for HIV vaccine

... fighting solo. By showcasing the dynamic, natural immune response in these exceptional patients, ... from a shotgun approach using of a wide range of natural antibodies rather than an engineered magic ... as any single antibody studied to date. These natural antibodies were also able to recognize a range of ...

Texas-sized tract of single-celled clones

... tests revealed the first-ever report of a large, natural colony of amoebae clones -- a Texas-sized expanse ... the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor in natural Sciences and chair of Rice's Department of ... colonies often appear at the edge of a species' natural range. "People had seen this in studies of sea ...