The world's best brains descend on Canberra

... can occur while we sleep or while we are quietly contemplative. Wednesday at 9am Richard Berry, The Australian National University, reports on why dragonflies are one of the most accomplished fliers known and argues that it is possible that the eyes of the dragonfly may hold the key for designers of micro-ae...

Dragonfly’s metabolic disorders help explain Human Obesit

... in understanding obesity in humans.// The study has revealed that when dragonflies are infected with certain parasites they suffer from metabolic disorders. T... that metabolic diseases are common among animals as well. Surprisingly the dragonflies also seem to share the same underlying causes that trigger off similar symp...

Mushroom found to be a source of a new antibiotic: Plectasin

...eudoplectania nigrella. Plectasin has primary, secondary and tertiary structures that closely resemble those of defensins found in spiders, scorpions, dragonflies and mussels. Recombinant plectasin was produced at a very high, and commercially viable, yield and purity at the Danish biotechnology company Novozyme...

dragonflies in Biological News

Scientist uses dragonflies to better understand flight

If mastering flight is your goal, you can't do better than to emulate a dragonfly. With four wings instead of the standard two and an unusual pitching stroke that allows the bug to hover and even shift into reverse, the slender, elegant insect is a marvel of engineering. Z. Jane Wang, professor o...

At 2,500 pounds and 43 feet, prehistoric snake is the largest on record

...cal Research Institute. Evolution has produced a wide variety of gigantic animals over the last several hundred million years -- dinosaurs, ancient dragonflies and today's blue whale, to name a few. Why some species' lineages produce monsters remains a matter of debate among evolutionary biologists and ecolog...

Want to fly? Don't copy the birds and the bees

...t look like gliders, and most winged creatures, from insects to pigeons, fly so inefficiently." His research has centred on creatures as diverse as dragonflies and quails. Currently he is investigating the compromise winged creatures face between meeting aerodynamic requirements and overcoming inertia in ord...

Magnetic snakes control fluids, gravity-defying droplets, and solving a dragonfly mystery

... Russell Physical Review Letters (forthcoming) dragonflies adjust their wing motion while hovering to conserv...r conclusions after analyzing high speed images of dragonflies in action. The insects have two pairs of wings, wh...nc with the back set. The physicists found that dragonflies maximized their lift, when accelerating or taking ...

Giant insects might reign if only there was more oxygen in the air

...ago, was a time of huge and abundant plant life and rather large insects -- dragonflies had two-and-a-half-foot wing spans, for example. The air's oxygen content w...he body and the leg limit insect size in the Paleozoic era, too? After all, dragonflies and some other insects back then had the same body architecture, but they w...

Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity

... Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led ...nges in metabolism. Unable to metabolize fat, the dragonflies accumulate fat around their muscles. This finding...e. The researchers noted that the muscles of some dragonflies are able to perform at 80 watts per kg. while othe...

Dragonfly migration resembles that of birds, scientists say

...based on datagenerated by tracking 14 green darner dragonflies with radiotransmitters weighing only 300 milligram...y biology. "Additionally, groups of both birds and dragonflies did not migrate on very windy days and only moved ...d in its animals." According to fossil records, dragonflies appeared about 285 millionyears ago, predating the...

UC Berkeley researchers create a biologically-inspired artificial compound eye

... Using the eyes of insects such as dragonflies and houseflies as models, a team of bioengineers at University of California, Berkeley, has created a series of artificial compound eyes. These eyes...

Road salt affects mitigation wetlands

...tland, but so far there is no effect on the slightly salty one," says Silver. "One thing we would like to see is what happens to bullfrog tadpoles and dragonflies that overwinter in the sediment mud." The researcher would also like to sample the soil where the runoff eventually leaves the wetland to see if sa...

dragonflies in Biological Definition

Insectivore

...swallow , gambusia (also known as mosquitofish), carp , frog , lizard , bat , and spider . Insects also can be insectivores. Examples would be dragonflies , hornets , ladybugs , and praying mantises . Insectivorous plants also exist, including the Venus flytrap , several species of pitcher plants ...