lure in Biological News

NAU discovery could help feed millions

... a product called ContraPest that incorporates the chemical sterilization treatment into bait. The bait is put into strategically placed stations that lure rodents into cages too small to attract or affect other animals. "No rat or mice I know can resist a little hole," she said. ContraPest is being t...

The sunlight solution for better health

...cing the behavior patterns that have caused a shift indoors. She notes that it was common decades ago for children to spend hours playing outside. The lure of video games and computers has changed all that. Adults also live and work in the perpetual twilight of electric lighting. Though we feel comfortabl...

Researchers find link between nicotine addiction and autism

...located in brain cells and assists in connecting neurons as part of the brain's chemical communication system. The neurexin-1 beta protein's job is to lure another protein, a specific type of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, to the synapses, where the receptor then has a role in helping neurons communica...

New Study Reveals the Emotional Impact and Effectiveness of Negative Campaigning

...ents and ad campaigns. This finding is fascinating considering the recent public debate over negative campaign tactics. While both candidates cannot lure undecided voters by using negative campaign tactics, McCain can reinforce his existing supporters' choice by using elements that raise negative emotio...

Risk and reward compete in brain

...," said Antoine Bechara, professor of psychology at USC. "There is always a lure of reward. There's always a fear of failure. These are the two forces that ...e is essentially localize two separate centers for the fear of risk and the lure of reward." ...

What is wild? Odor attraction among different wildtype Drosophila

...ifferent habitats and living conditions, and therefore to different odor compositions. Insect traps that use chemical attractants or pheromones to lure insects are becoming more and more important in modern agriculture. With the help of these traps, insect pests can be controlled, e.g. in vineyards an...

Bitter-tasting nectar and floral odors optimize outcrossing for plants

...so observed that nicotine in the nectar deters flower-eating insects which have a straightforward negative impact on reproduction. Odorant attractants lure not only pollinators but also herbivores. Tobacco plants seem to solve this dilemma by using nicotine as a deterrent. ...

Fish cancer gene linked to pigment pattern that attracts mates

.... 18, 2008) Though skin cancer is deadly to male fish, it also has one perk: The black melanoma splotches arise from attractive natural markings that lure female mates. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week shows that the melanoma gene can be conserved i...

Entomologists play matchmakers for cerambycid beetles

...that many cerambycid species produce large amounts of pheromone hundreds of micrograms over a few hours per beetle. "This is critically important for lure design, because lures must release 5,000 to 25,000 micrograms of pheromone per day to be effective," Millar said. "This is in marked contrast to phero...

Caltech researchers find dual-use sexual attraction and population-control chemicals in nematodes

... the pests. One option could be to create chemical attractants derived from pheromones, similar to the pheromone-based substances that now are used to lure fruit flies and other bugs into traps. Alternatively, Sternberg says, compounds could be developed "that interfere with the chemical signaling involve...

Project succeeding to relocate Caspian terns

... more than 10 million juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating through the Columbia River estuary en route to the Pacific Ocean. OSU researchers helped lure the Caspian terns to Crump Lake, which is northeast of Lakeview, with decoys and recorded sounds of nesting terns that they had recorded in the Columb...

New fish has a face even Dale Chihuly could love

... the world over and typically have lures growing from their foreheads that they wave or cause to wiggle in order to attract prey. Get too close to the lure and you're lunch. The newly found individuals have no lures so they seek their prey differently, burrowing themselves into crevices and cracks of co...

Scat sniffing dogs detecting rare California carnivores

...ing a species at a site include using remotely-triggered cameras and barbed wire snares that snag hair. Both methods require the use of bait that can lure animals away from their typical range. Scientists involved in the Vermont study, led by Robert A. Long, found detection dogs were three and a half ...

Gene in male fish lures females into sex

... A gene has been found in male cichlid fish that evolved to lure female fish so that male cichlids can deposit sperm in the females mouths. A study in the online open access journal BMC Biology reveals that the gene...

Yale biologists 'trick' viruses into extinction

...for new treatments against human viruses," said Turner. "A similar idea already exists in agriculture, where farmers use non-harvested 'trap crops' to lure insect pests. Because the pests prefer the taste of the trap crops, only these plants need to be sprayed, reducing the amount of pesticide use." ...

How taste response is hard-wired into the brain

... Instantly reacting to the sweet lure of chocolate or the bitter taste of strychnine would seem to demand that such behavioral responses be so innate as to be hard-wired into the brain. In...

Fighting malaria by manipulating mosquitoes' sense of smell

...es on powerful chemical repellents and attractants deployed in ways that can both interfere with malaria mosquitoes' ability to find human targets and lure the insects to their death. Malaria is considered to be the most prevalent life-threatening disease in the world, with estimates of the number of n...

Cerebral navigation: How do nerve fibers know what direction to grow in?

...s, are responsible for steering axons in the right direction, guided by a complex set of signals from cells they encounter along the way. Some signals lure the axons to extend and grow in a particular direction; others are inhibitory, making the axon turn away or stop growing. In two papers in the April...