The biological term "symbiosis" refers to what economists and politicians usually call a win-win situation: a relationship between two partners which is beneficial to both. The mutualistic association between acacia plants and the ants that live on them is an excellent example: The plants provide food and accommodation in the form of food bodies and nectar as well as hollow thorns which can be used as nests. The ants return this favor by protecting the plants against herbivores. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now found that ants also keep harmful leaf pathogens in check. The presence of ants greatly reduces bacterial abundance on surfaces of leaves and has a visibly positive effect on plant health.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In a finding that overturns the conventional view that large old trees are unproductive, scientists have determined that for most species, the biggest trees increase their growth rates and sequester more carbon as they age.

In a letter published today in the journal Nature, an international research group reports that 97 percent of 403 tropical and temperate species grow more quickly the older they get. The study was led by Nate L. Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center. Three Oregon State University researchers are co-authors: Mark Harmon and Rob Pabst of the College of Forestry and Duncan Thomas of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

The break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana about 130 Million years ago could have led to a completely different shape of the African and South American continent - with an ocean south of today's Sahara desert.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences used plate tectonic and three-dimensional numerical modeling to highlight the importance of rift orientation relative to extension direction as key factor deciding whether an ocean basin opens or an aborted rift basin forms in the continental interior.

Many men have been a little overexcited on the dance floor and showed off moves that have never been seen before. Blame alcohol. 

Testosterone has a similar effect. A little too much and the frequency of overzealous wooing behavior may increase, but the quality won't go up with it.

For the male canary, the ability to sing a pitch-perfect song is critical to wooing female canaries and as the seasons change, so does song quality and frequency. 

A previous study of European Caucasian patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis demonstrated that a polymorphism in the microtubule-associated protein Tau (MAPT) gene was significantly associated with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pathogenesis. To examine this in a different population, Daojun Hong and colleagues from Nanchang University further investigated the association of the MAPT gene with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the Chinese Han population. Researchers detected two genetic variations in MAPT (105788 A > G in intron 9 and 123972 T > A in intron 11) in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients but not controls.

This news release is available in Spanish.

A study begun in Mexico with the collaboration of university students analysed the effect of weekend alcohol consumption on the lipids comprising cell membrane and its genetic material, i.e. DNA. Until now, the damage to the packaging of nuclear material in the early stages of alcohol abuse has never been documented, perhaps because most of the studies are done at later stages with people who have been consuming alcohol in an addictive way for many years. The results have been published in the journal Alcohol.

When you think of crocodiles, you usually envision them climbing trees.

Probably not. Most people imagine them in water or waddling on the ground, but a study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as far as the crowns. 

Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, says he is the first to thoroughly study the tree-climbing and basking behavior. 

A recent analysis found that DietBet, a web-based commercial weight loss program that pairs financial incentives with social influence, delivers significant weight loss to participants.

On Dietbet.com, players join a game to lose weight while betting money on themselves. Players all have four weeks to lose four percent of their starting weight. At the end of week four, all players who have lost at least 4 percent of their initial body weight are deemed "winners" and split the pool of money collected at the start of the game.

To verify weight losses, players submit photo-based evidence of their weigh-ins to DietBet's referees at the start and end of each game.