Tag: "steep" at biology news

Researcher to study astronaut bone loss for space biology agency

... by researchers to be ineffective. The result is a steep drop in the creation of new bone cells, leading to bone loss. To investigate the hypothesis, Long will take a two-pronged research approach. In the first part, he will study a model of skeletal loading and unloading in human bone cell culture. In ...

Uncovering DNA's 'sweet' secret

... which can and must pair with each other. Also the steep angle, or inclination, between the sugar backbone and the bases of homo-DNA requires that the pairing strands align strictly in an antiparallel fashion - unlike DNA which can adopt a parallel orientation. Finally,the irregular spaces between the "run...

Protowings may have helped bird ancestors cover rough terrain

...improve hindlimb traction and thus better navigate steep slopes and obstructions. By using their protowings...ile running, which improves their ability to climb steep slopes and even vertical surfaces. Dial and colleagues have named this form of locomotion "wing-assi...

Where have all the butterflies gone?

...gh the Central Valley. But other species have seen steep declines in recent years and could disappear from the region altogether. "It has been the worst spring for butterflies of my 35 in California," Shapiro said. "There will probably be long-term repercussions, especially for species already in serious ...

Deep-water discovery

...revealed what appears to be an extensive system of steep walls and mounds as high as 350 feet, all of which are likely to harbor a wide array of sponges, corals, fish and other animals. A camera that Dr. Grasmueck developed allowed the researchers to get an enticing glimpse of the bottom but until researc...

Drug discovery team to explore newly discovered deep-sea reefs

...revealed what appears to be an extensive system of steep slopes and mounds as high as 350 feet, all of which are likely to harbor a wide array of sponges, corals, fish, and other animals. A camera developed at the University of Miami allowed researchers to get an enticing glimpse of the bottom, but until ...

Some like it hot: Worms at deep-sea vents favor a fiery 45-55°C

...e surrounding seawater is barely above freezing, a steep and variable temperature gradient exists around the thermal vents, making it difficult to measure precisely the deep-sea temperatures survived by Alvinellid worms. Rather than taking submarine-borne thermometers to the worms' remote habitat, Girguis...

Displaced songbirds navigate in the high Arctic

...high Arctic, where the geomagnetic field lines are steep and the midnight sun makes star navigation impossible for much of the summer. White-crowned sparrows are nocturnally migrating birds that breed in northern Canada and perform long migrations covering a few thousand kilometers to winter in the south...

Picky female frogs drive evolution of new species in less than 8,000 years

...son is complex topography with lots of valleys and steep slopes, where you have species meeting in lots of little pockets, so that you get all these independent evolutionary experiments going on. Perhaps that helps explain why places like the Andes are so extraordinarily diverse." Moritz; lead author Conr...

Census of Marine Life explorers surprised by diversity, density of Arctic creatures

...t Seas and the Canada Basin, a vast bowl walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice. "The Canada Basin is one of the world's most isolated ocean areas," says Dr. Rolf Gradinger, head of the Arctic CoML, based at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), and chief scientist on the voyage. "Several creatur...

Searching the depths of the straits of Florida for disease cures

...tically along its length. Prior to that cruise the steep rocky walls had only been seen from submersibles b...Harbor Branch scientists are attracted most to its steep topography between about 300 and 3,000 feet, which suggests that they will find the rocky walls that...

Falling ants glide back to trunk to avoid dangers of forest floor

...d (12 feet per second), and approach the tree at a steep angle. This means they frequently bounce off the trunk, though, as Yanoviak initially noted, they just make a 180 degree turn and try again ?usually with success. What allows the ants to change direction so quickly is still a mystery. They have long...

Introduced foxes transformed vegetation on Aleutian Islands from lush grasslands to tundra

...sters such as murres and kittiwakes, which nest on steep cliff faces, were less affected by the foxes, he said. "Wherever the puffins and gulls have come back after the removal of the foxes, the vegetation has started to become lusher again," Byrd said. "The terrestrial ecosystem was probably modified in ...

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