bite in Biological News

A recipe for dog bite injuries: Kids, dogs and warm weather

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- If you and your child are romping in the park or enjoying a stroll on a warm spring day and a dog approaches, be ultra vigilant. Children, warm weather, and dogs, even family dogs, don't mix well, according to a study conducted by pediatric otolaryngologists from the Universit...

Great white's mighty bite revealed

Using sophisticated computer modelling techniques they have also calculated that the bite force of the great white's extinct relative, the gigantic fossil species Carcharodon megalodon (also known as Big Tooth) is the highest of all time, making it arguably the most formidable carnivore ever to ...

Insects take a bigger bite out of plants in a higher CO2 world

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as CO2 goes up. Elevated CO2 impairs a key component of the plants defenses against leaf-eating insects, according to the report. The University of Illinois study app...

Researchers put the bite on mosquitoes

Few things sting like a mosquito's bite--especially if that bite carries a disease such as malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever or West Nile virus. But if researchers from The University of Arizona in Tucson have their way, one day mosquito bites may prove deadly to the mosquitoes as well. "Our ...

Ancient amphibians evolved a bite before migrating to dry land

Ancient aquatic amphibians developed the ability to feed on land before completing the transition to terrestrial life, researchers from Harvard University report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their work is based on analysis of the skulls of the first amphibians...

P(acman) takes a bite out of deciphering Drosophila DNA

P(acman) ?a new method of introducing DNA into the genome of fruit flies or Drosophila ?promises to transform the ability of scientists to study the structure and function of virtually all the fly’s genes, and the method may be applicable to other frequently studied organisms such as mice, said its...

Taking a bite out of a fellow worker helps wasps recruit new foragers

If you think you've got a bad boss, one who loves to chew people out, or if you work with backstabbing co-workers, be thankful you are not a wasp. If you were, chances are your nestmates might bite you to communicate that it is time to leave the nest and forage for the colony, according to resear...

A combined tooth-venom arsenal revealed as key to Komodo dragon's hunting strategy

... shown that the effectiveness of the Komodo Dragon bite is a combination of highly specialized serrated te... "These large carnivorous reptiles are known to bite prey and release them, leaving the prey to bleed t...Melbourne. "The combination of this specialized bite and venom seem to minimise the Dragon's contact wi...

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

... The carnivorous reptiles ( Varanus komodoensis ) are known to bite prey and release them, leaving them to bleed to death from their wounds: th...ss." The researchers used computer modeling to analyse the Komodo dragon bite and found that dragons have much weaker bites than crocodiles of a similar ...

Penn State entomologists seek fungus to blunt mosquitoes' sense of smell

...ing their ability to find human hosts and transmit malaria," said Thomas. Mosquitoes transfer malaria parasites to humans when the female mosquitoes bite humans for blood meals to allow them to lay eggs. Male mosquitoes and non-reproducing females sip nectar or other sources of sugar for energy. Mosquit...

Field Museum paleontologist leads study on two new dinosaurs from China

...d. Many of these features represent structural modifications for increasing bite forces and presage the specialized skulls of larger tyrannosaurs. Norell... to mid-sized predators, but a number of the traits related to the enormous bite forces of T. rex were already evident at this relatively early stage of ty...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 1, 2009

... contains substances that mute the human body's natural defenses. This chemical cocktail makes the body more vulnerable to disease when infected flies bite into the skin. Until now, however, nobody had identified the specific chemicals involved in this devious action. The scientists collected salivar...

Study unravels why certain fishes went extinct 65 million years ago

... Large size and a fast bite spelled doom for bony fishes during the last mass extinction 65 million yea...yway you sliced it, the data showed that if you were a big fish with a fast bite you were toast," he said. Ironically, today's large fishes with fast bit...

Novel veterinary procedure detecting life-threatening injuries touted

...ro, a specialist in veterinary emergency and critical care, evaluated 145 dogs within 24 hours of their injury which included automobile accidents and bite and gunshot wounds. High accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity was found when comparing TFAST to chest X-ray findings. TFAST was used to successf...

Shark attacks decline worldwide in midst of economic recession

...rida, Volusia County continued its dubious distinction as the world's shark bite capital with 22 incidents, its highest yearly total since 2001, Burgess sai...et to find a surfer who says he or she won't go back into the water after a bite or a nip," he said. 'Some of them may be looking over their shoulders a lit...

Mass media often failing in its coverage of global warming, says climate researcher

...erstating the case," he said. "Then you have websites and backup articles and books where you can give the full story, but you have to have your sound bite and your op ed piece." Environmental justice equals environmental effectiveness Schneider will also present a talk titled "A Scientific Perspec...

Toothsome research: Deducing the diet of a prehistoric hominid

... that the fracture properties are also very important because theres a limit to the force that you can apply. Wear is important, but when you start to bite on harder, larger objects, fracture becomes more important, Lawn said. This is a neat example of how really basic materials sciencefracture mechani...

Early humans had 'jaws of steel'

...right. Human skulls have small faces and teeth and are not well-equipped to bite down forcefully on hard objects. Not so of our earliest ancestors, say scie...kull that illustrates forces absorbed by the cranial structure in simulated bite scenarios and how their unusual facial features were ideally suited to supp...

Moving in for the winter toxic brown recluse spiders pose danger

...der feels trapped against a person's skin, it will bite in self-defense." If bitten, there are some imp...try to capture and take the spider with you so the bite can be confirmed as a brown recluse bite. "The... leaving a permanent scar. In very rare cases, the bite may lead to fever, rash, vomiting, coma, and death...

LIAI launches new division to look at novel approaches to heart disease and inflammation

... heart disease and heart attacks," said Klaus Ley, M.D., director of the Institute's recently launched Inflammation Biology Division. "We hope we can bite off another chunk by controlling the impact of inflammation-causing immune cells on the artery wall." Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., LIAI president ...

Francisella tularensis: Stopping a biological weapon

...ease. Infection with F. tularensis can result in a variety of symptoms, depending on the route of infection. For example, infection via an insect bite can lead to a swollen ulcer or fever, chills, malaise, headaches and a sore throat. When infection occurs by eating contaminated food, symptoms can ra...

Milkweed's evolutionary approach to caterpillars: Counter appetite with fast repair

...irs on their leaves, heart poisons called cardenolides in their tissues and milky-white toxic latex that pours from the plants' tubes. A caterpillar's bite into a milkweed leaf leads to a flood of latex that is "like getting a gallon of sticky paint thrown into your face," said Agrawal. Some caterpilla...

High hormone levels in seabird chicks prepare them to kill their siblings

...he surviving chicks to behave like bullies after they grow up. They frequently seek out nestlings in their colony, and during those visits they often bite and push around the defenseless youngsters. Blood samples were taken from Nazca booby chicks within 24 hours of hatching. In 15 nests with two eggs...

Scientists demonstrate feasibility of preventing malaria parasite from becoming sexually mature

... cells. These sexual forms of the parasite do not contribute to malaria symptoms, but are essential for transmission of malaria between humans via the bite of a mosquito. A team based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, working with a colleague from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute...

Ancient ecosystems organized much like our own

...ocaris canadensis, a large, unusual organism with no modern descendents, was a formidable predator of trilobites and other arthropods, consistent with bite marks found on some fossils. To compare the organization of Cambrian and recent ecosystems, the team used methods for studying network structure, ...

Research identifies first method for testing, assessing drug treatments for Chagas' disease

... recall how to do their job. The implications of the study could be considerable, Tarleton said. The T. cruzi parasite is passed to humans from the bite of blood-sucking assassin bugs, which go by many names, including kissing bugs. The infection can also be acquired through contaminated blood transfus...

Netting mosquitoes to prevent malaria

... recover," Walker said. "So the parasites that cause malaria shift into a different mosquito that feeds mainly on cattle. Since these mosquitoes don't bite people as often and cattle don't support the malaria infection, malaria transmission goes way down." Walker and his colleagues also will be looking a...

Human deaths from shark attacks hit 20-year low last year

...pped from 37 in 2000 to an 11-year-low of 12 in 2004, he said. Within Florida, Volusia County continued its dubious distinction as the worlds shark bite capital with 17 incidents, its highest yearly total since 2002, Burgess said. Attractive waves off New Smyrna Beach on the central Atlantic coast are ...

Slow-motion video study shows shrews are highly sophisticated predators

...ning-fast reflexes: It can launch an attack in under a 50th of a second of detecting the presence of prey and opens its mouth in preparation to take a bite in a 20th of a second. To determine how the shrews hunt in the dark, the scientists also had to monitor their behavior in the infrared portion of the ...

Marsupial lion tops African lion in fight to death

...ican lions and similar big cats of today use their bite force to suffocate prey, using a clamp and hold te..., but not for delivering the prolonged suffocating bite of living big cats. The marsupial lion also had...ng cats. Wroe, who has published findings about bite force in other hypercarnivores, such as great whit...

Living with lions

...scene just outside of the village, only about a kilometre from where the interview was taking place, and found three dead sheep and a calf, with clear bite marks in their necks. One of the herdsmen explained: We tried to chase away the lions, but they werent impressed and only moved a bit further away fr...

Grub's passion for plastic causes water loss

...d weevil. Dr Nicholas says experiments using glass observation chambers show that the Whitefringed weevil larvae, which are 13mm long and 4mm wide, bite or chew through the pipe using two dark brown pincers. Sub-surface drip irrigation has been an important advance for growers because it improves pr...

Rare albino ratfish has eerie, silvery sheen

...werful jaws and grinding teeth able to crack the shells of crabs and clams require caution by researchers and fishermen who handle them. Ratfish don't bite divers or swimmers in the water, Reum says, but they get snappish when brought on board. And then there's that venomous spine. Located on their ba...

Tassie tiger no match for dingo

...ite being armed with a more powerful and efficient bite and having larger energy needs than the dingo, the...ed on sophisticated computer simulations revealing bite forces and stress patterns applying to dingo and t...ative differences. The thylacine has a greater bite force than the dingo but its skull becomes more st...

Largest synthetic gene ever built offers insights into anti-malarial drug resistance

...rtment of Chemistry. Any animal with red blood cells can develop malaria, which is caused by a single-cell protozoan parasite transmitted by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. There are about 160 different species of malaria parasites, according to Roepe. Five infect humans, but P. falciparu...

Potent possibilities for parasite attack

... in 88 countries on four continents are at risk of Leishmaniasis and its incidence has risen sharply over the past ten years. It is transmitted by the bite of various species of sandfly: wild and domesticated animals - as well as humans - act as a reservoir for the disease. ...

Researchers develop way to calculate speed of bacterial sex

..., Timothy Ginn and Arash Massoudieh, donor bacteria cells act like vampires, latching onto nearby unsuspecting non-related bacteria cells. Just as the bite from a vampire leads a victim to be transformed into a vampire, the donor bacteria’s "bite" injects genetic material into the recipient, causing the r...

Rare soft-shell turtle, nesting ground found in Cambodia

...percent of its life hidden in sand or mud with only its eyes and nose showing. It possesses long claws and can extend its neck with lightning speed to bite with jaws powerful enough to crush bone. “It has the fastest strike of any animal I’ve ever seen, including cobras,?Emmett said. The resear...

Fused nasal bones helped tyrannosaurids dismember prey

...nsion of jaw muscles and the consequent ability to bite deeply in the bone. Snively's team found tha...down on other animals. "With tyrannosaurs, all the bite force was delivered to the prey," he said. "The T....'s features came together to give it the strongest bite of any land animal. The T. rex just blows everyone...

Resistance and genetic sensitivity to sleeping sickness

... Human African trypanosomiasis, more commonly called sleeping sickness, is induced by a parasite, the trypanosome, transmitted to humans by the bite of an insect, the glossinid tse-tse fly. There has been a resurgence of this disease over the past 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Or...