Color in Biological News

Beautiful plumage: Feather color and sex start the species revolution

Faculty of 1000, the leading scientific evaluation service, has highlighted research providing evidence for the evolution of a new species. Birds use plumage colour to recognize and select potential mates. A mutation of a single DNA base can lead to a striking colour change, as demonstrated by ...

Skin color clue to nicotine dependence

Higher concentrations of melanin -- the color pigment in skin and hair -- may be placing darker pigmented smokers at increased susceptibility to nicotine dependence and tobacco-related carcinogens than lighter skinned smokers, according to scientists. "We have found that the concentration of mel...

Feather color is more than skin deep

Carotenoids have important physiological functions, including antioxidant, immunomodulating, and photoprotectant properties. Carotenoid pigments are also used by many bird species as colorants, and are responsible for most of their red, orange and yellow coloration. In particular, carotenoid-red c...

Bird feathers produce color through structure similar to beer foam

New Haven, Conn. Some of the brightest colors in nature are created by tiny nanostructures with a structure similar to beer foam or a sponge, according to Yale University researchers. Most colors in naturefrom the color of our skin to the green of treesare produced by pigments. But the brig...

Elephant shark genome sequence leads to discovery of color perception in deep-sea fish

The elephant shark, a primitive deep-sea fish that belongs to the oldest living family of jawed vertebrates, can see color much like humans can. This discovery, published in the March 2009 issue of Genome Research , may enhance scientists' understanding of how color vision evolved in early ve...

NYU scientists set stage for understanding how color vision is processed

New York University biologists have mapped the medulla circuitry in fruit flies, setting the stage for subsequent research on how color vision is processed. The work, which appeared in the journal Current Biology, will allow future scholarship to explore how color vision is processed in the optic ...

Scientists find color vision system independent of motion detection

The vision system used to process color is separate from that used to detect motion, according to a new study by researchers at New York Universitys Center for Developmental Genetics and in the Department of Genetics and Neurobiology at Germanys University of Wrzburg. The findings, which appear in...

Forests could benefit when fall color comes late

Do those fall colors seem to show up later and laterif at all? Scientists say we can blame increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for prolonging the growing season of the trees. And that may actually be good news for forestry industries. Writing in the current issue of the jour...

Don't judge a brook by its color -- brown waters are more natural

Over the last 20 years lakes and streams in remote parts of the UK, southern Scandinavia and eastern North America have been increasingly stained brown by dissolved organic matter. In this weeks Nature journal (22 November) an international team, led by researchers from UCL (University College Lon...

Scientists discover important beauty secret for balanced skin color and tone

In the timeless quest for healthier, younger looking skin, scientists from the University of Cincinnati and Tokyo Medical University have made an important discovery toward manipulating skin tone and color. The implications of this research range from helping doctors develop more natural looking b...

Making mice with enhanced color vision

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and their colleagues have found that mice simply expressing a human light receptor in addition to their own can acquire new color vision, a sign that the brain can adapt far more rapidly to new sensory information than anticipated. This work, a...

Lizard 'third eye' sheds light on evolution of color vision

Published in the March 17 issue of Science, their lizard study describes how the "side-blotched" lizard's so-called third, or parietal, eye, distinguishes two different colors, blue and green, possibly to tell the time of day. Specialized nerve cells in that eye, which looks more like a spot on th...

Behavioral studies show UV contributes to marsupial color vision

Work reported this week provides new evidence that marsupials, like primates, have functional color vision based on three different types of color photoreceptor cones--but unlike primates, a component of marsupial color vision includes sensitivity to ultraviolet wavelengths. In the study, resear...

Multiple genes permit closely related fish species to mix and match their color vision

Vision, like other biological attributes, is shaped by evolution through environmental pressures and demands, and even closely-related species that are in other ways very similar might respond to their particular environments by interpreting the visual world slightly differently, using photorecepto...

Protein behind autumn color splendor identified

In September the chlorophyll starts to disappear from the leaves of plants. This reveals the yellow and red pigments that bring us the explosion of colors we now have in store. A research team at Ume's Plant Science Center (UPSC) has now identified a protein that helps bring out the color splendor...

Animal and plant communication at the ESA Annual Meeting

...d painted tubes mimicking pitcher plants' natural color spectrum of redness into the plants' habitat. They...nt of pitcher plants' prey are ants, which see the color red as grey. Since grey probably only weakly contrasts with the green base color of the pitcher, it's probable that the ants can't ...

What scientists know about jewel beetle shimmer

...Institute of Technology in Atlanta recently discovered jewel beetles change color because of the light-reflecting properties of the cells that make up their ...re. Car companies could use the materials to paint automobiles that change color depending on a person's angle of view. More uses could include decorative p...

A bird's eye view of art

...be from Keio University in Japan, pigeons use both color and pattern cues to judge the paintings' beauty as...sh between the paintings, indicating that they use color cues for discrimination. When the paintings were p...ixture of new and old paintings, pigeons used both color and shape cues to accurately discriminate between ...

Purple sweet potato means increased amount of anti-cancer components

...ed purple sweet potato because its dominant purple color results in an increased amount of anti-cancer comp...yanin, which is a pigment that presents the purple color in the vegetable. The pigment can produce red, blu...the grocery store, but they don't have this purple color on the skin and inside," Lim said. Three differ...

Computers aid in cracking deception in plants

... said. "To match the face, you need to know specific features about it: the color of the face, the color of the eyes, the shape of the nose, and so on. In our case, we're trying to...

Researchers observe single protein dimers wavering between two symmetrically opposed structures

...echnique, which Deniz calls a "molecular ruler," measures light emitted from two fluorescent dyes that are attached to amino acids in the protein. The color of the measured light provides information about molecular distances that reveals a protein's structure. Observing structures of individual proteins o...

Troubled waters: Low Apalachicola River flow may hurt gulf fisheries

...n over the watershed encompassing much of western Georgia and parts of eastern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The researchers used satellite ocean color data and computer models of ocean circulation to identify a region extending about 125 miles offshore of Apalachicola Bay in which the changes in ocea...

Autonomous robot detects shrapnel

...he ultrasonic waves. "The movement caused by the electromagnet on the shrapnel was not visible to the human eye," Rogers said. "However, on the 3-D color Doppler system, the moving shrapnel stood out plainly as bright red." The robot used in these experiments is a tabletop version capable of moving i...

'The Vision Revolution': Eyes are the source of human 'superpowers'

...cular vision that developed to allow our primate ancestors to see the forest through a vast clutter of leaves and trees. Our telepathy is actually our color vision, which evolved to allow us to sense the emotions on the faces of others. And our clairvoyance is actually an ages-old hack that enables our min...

American Chemical Society weekly presspac -- June 10, 2009

...le range. In laboratory studies, the scientists showed that light production from an LED using the new molecule was highly efficient and had excellent color stability and reproducibility, features that make it a practical white light source. ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "A White-Light-Emitting Mo...

American Society for Microbiology honors George Liu

...ect that causes lysis of phagocytes at a higher dose, apoptosis at an intermediate dose, and downregulation of inflammation at a low dose. The golden color imparted by carotenoid pigments of Staphylococcus aureus became the next focus of Dr. Liu's work. He demonstrated a role of this hallmark phenotype in...

Elevated water temperature and acidity boost growth of key sea star species: UBC researchers

... sea star that can be found anywhere from Alaska to Baja California. It is most commonly found in the northeastern Pacific. They can actually range in color from purple to orange to brown and have five rays that can range in length from 10 to 25 centimetres. They are considered a keystone speciesa speci...

Are you okay to kiss?

...m saliva in an artificial biofilm, showing that there are two distinct populations at work." In the biofilm the basis of the new breath test the color difference between the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria is remarkable. In the top layer of the biofilm, the bacterium take the glycoproteins i...

Predators ignore peculiar prey

...us six-day period. According to Fitzpatrick, "We believe that the different color forms represent different ways of blending in on the forest floor. Looking ...notice unstriped ones". Fitzpatrick concludes, "Thus, the maintenance of color variation in terrestrial salamanders might be explained by the oldest and m...

NOAA researchers: Blue whales re-establishing former migration patterns

...a library of nearly two thousand photographs of blue whales off the West Coast. A positive match was determined based on pigmentation patterns in skin color and shape of the dorsal fin. Blue whales were severely depleted during commercial whaling activities during the early 1900's in the north Pacific ...

Apple enthusiasts welcome WineCrisp

...ecrisp as "not too sweet or too sour". He noted that the tree is extremely productive and the fruit is firm and dark red in color. "The apples are the color of a deep red wine, so we wanted to include 'wine' in the name. They resemble an older apple variety that consumers are familiar with called Winesap. ...

Protecting fresh-cut produce

...st harpin levels had lower microbial populations than the control. The middle harpin level also had a higher OVQ than the control. Harpin improved the color and reduced browning in all locations, but decreased with time as lettuce continues to decay even in cold storage. When treated with the two highes...

Star Trek-like technology offers noninvasive monitor for patients and athletes

...lic rate, along with tissue oxygen and pH. One unique advantage of Dr. Soller's near infrared device is that its measurements are not impacted by skin color or body fat. A noninvasive system also means a reduced risk of infection due to the lack of needle pricks. Most of the system's development has oc...

Some short-term memories die suddenly, no fading

...ubjects retained temporary memories of an object's color or shape for at least four seconds. After that, th...e first test, three squares each with a different color fill flashed for a tenth of a second on a compute...was highlighted. Subjects were asked to recall the color of the highlighted square and click on the area of...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- April 22, 2009

...porting development of a new so-called "photochromic" material that changes color thousands of times faster than conventional materials when exposed to light...isible layers found in the lenses of many high-end sunglasses, which change color when exposed to sunlight. For years, researchers have explored the possibil...

MIT: Jeremy Nathans to deliver Scolnick Prize lecture

...ze lecture entitled "The Evolution of Trichromatic color Vision" at the McGovern Institute on Monday, April...rize for his contributions to the understanding of color vision, brain development, and retinal disease. ...ommittee. "His pioneering work on the mechanism of color vision has led to an extraordinary range of insigh...

Springer partners with the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

...ectronic version of the work will provide state-of-the-art functionality and navigation, including electronic supplementary material such as unlimited color images, datasets, simulations, and video and audio features. ASBMB member J. Ellis Bell from the University of Richmond in the US is Scientific Man...

Unlikely life thriving at Antarctica's Blood Falls

... snout of the glacier and speculated as to what may have caused it. Some guessed that red alga was responsible for the bright color. "In fact, the red color is a result of all that Fe(II) produced by bacteria," said Anbar. "When the Fe(II)-rich water reaches the surface, the Fe(II) reacts with oxygen in th...

Home tooth bleaching slightly reduces enamel strength

...ight, so the teeth appear whiter. Enamel, which is almost entirely inorganic and translucent, appears yellow in most teeth because it reflects the color of the dentin underneath, which is naturally yellow. "Especially nowadays, people tend to see beauty in white teeth," Azer said. "And bleaching doe...

Alzheimer cell death in Zebrafish: Demise of neurons observed live for the first time

...ening. "The translucent larvae of the zebrafish can be studied under a laser microscope over an extended period of time," reports Haass. "If you add a color dye to the water to specifically stain dying cells, you can even directly watch the neurons as they die. That way, it should also be possible to watch...