Ecology & Zoology

Corals: Not So Passive, They Are Nature's Tiny Engineers

Corals, whose calcium-carbonate skeletons form the foundation of coral reefs, are passive organisms that rely entirely on ocean currents to deliver dissolved substances, such as nutrients and oxygen. Or so it seemed. Scientists at MIT and the Weizmann Inst ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2014 - 8:02am

Bamboo Could Turn The World's Construction Trade On Its Head

Bamboo can also be a tasty snack. Credit: Chris Ison/PA By Dirk Hebel, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Bamboo, a common grass which can be harder to pull apart than steel, has the potential to revolutionize building construction throughout th ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 2 2014 - 1:01pm

Invasive Plants In Galapagos A Global Warning

Parts of the iconic Galapagos Islands have been overrun by invasive plants from other parts of the world, according to  results published in Neobiota which confirm that in the humid highland part of Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos National Park, nearly ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2014 - 7:00am

Dendrogrammatidae: New Deep Sea Mushroom-Shaped Organisms Discovered

Two new species of sea-dwelling, mushroom-shaped organisms have been discovered.  Scientists classify organisms based on shared characteristics using a taxonomic rank, including kingdom, phylum, and species. In 1986, the authors of this study collected or ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2014 - 8:00am

California Blue Whales Rebound

The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels- and they would be even higher if they didn't run into or get hit by commercial shipping. Blue whales, nearly 100 feet in length and weighing 190 tons as adults, are the lar ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 7 2014 - 1:30pm

Spasskia Brevicarinata: New Parasitoid Wasp Species Found In China

Wasps in the genus Spasskia (family: Braconidae) have been found for the first time in China, including a species in that genus which is totally new to science.    The new species, Spasskia brevicarinata, is very small — male and female adults are less th ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2014 - 10:28am

Cat Eats Dog: Not A Wacky Journalistic Aphorism

What do leopards in India do when prowling at night? Like with smaller domestic cats in America, evidence from a GoPro video around their necks would probably horrify pet owners, but scat samples for leopards in India's Ahmednagar's district in ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2014 - 9:19am

Virtually Every Animal Uses The Same Science Of Swimming

At nearly 100 feet long and weighing as much as 170 tons, the blue whale is the largest creature on the planet, and by far the heaviest living thing ever seen on Earth. So there's no way it could have anything in common with the tiniest fish larvae, ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2014 - 11:00am

Wild Mushrooms: You May Eat Something Even Science Doesn't Know About

For lovers of wild foods, autumn means things like mushrooms and fungi of dizzying variety. Intrepid treasure hunters scour the woods in search of delectable wild mushrooms and their not-quite-meat, not-quite-vegetable qualities. A bonus: If you find some ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2014 - 10:41am

The Chicxulub Meteorite Killed The Dinosaurs But Made Forests Great

66 million years ago, a 10 km diameter meteorite hit the Yucatan peninsula with the force of 100 teratons of TNT. It left a crater more than 150 km across and the resulting mega tsunami, wildfires, global earthquakes and volcanism are believed to have wip ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2014 - 4:07pm