Category archives: Biology

Bio-mining pyrite with no oxygen

Bio-mining pyrite with no oxygen

BiochemistryBiologyChemistryGeosciences

By César Tomé

Pyrite, also known as “fool’s gold,” is an abundant iron sulphide mineral in the Earth’s crust. All organisms need iron and sulphur to grow. Because pyrite does not dissolve in oxygen-free conditions, scientists previously thought that organisms could not use pyrite in the absence of oxygen. Research shows that certain single-celled microorganisms can dissolve pyrite […]

Losing genes can be good, hummingbirds are a nice example

Losing genes can be good, hummingbirds are a nice example

BiologyGenetics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Ramón Muñoz-Chápuli has been Professor of Animal Biology in the University of Málaga until his retirement. He has investigated for forty years in the fields of developmental biology and animal evolution. Hummingbirds are fascinating animals. They are the only birds able to true hovering and backward flight. This ability allows them to collect nectar […]

Toxoplasma induces behavioural changes in intermediate hosts and promotes social rise in wolves

Toxoplasma induces behavioural changes in intermediate hosts and promotes social rise in wolves

BiologyEthologyMicrobiologyPhysiology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Ramón Muñoz-Chápuli has been Professor of Animal Biology in the University of Málaga until his retirement. He has investigated for forty years in the fields of developmental biology and animal evolution. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite of warm-blooded animals, including humans. After the acute phase of the infection, the parasite remains latent in […]

Synchrony with chaos

Synchrony with chaos

BiologyMathematics

By Invited Researcher

Imagine an old-growth forest in the fading light of a summer evening. As the last of the sun’s rays disappear beneath the horizon, a tiny flash catches your eye. You turn around, hold your breath; it blinks again, hovering 2 feet above the leaf litter. Across the dusky glade, a fleeting response. Then another one […]

Earth’s oxygen has varied dramatically over time – here’s how new data could help us spot alien life

Earth’s oxygen has varied dramatically over time – here’s how new data could help us spot alien life

AstronomyBiologyEvolutionGeosciences

By Invited Researcher

Are we alone in the universe? This is a question that has intrigued humans for centuries and inspired countless studies and works of fiction. But are we getting closer to finding this out? Now that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is in operation, we might have taken one giant leap in being able to […]

First synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart independently produced twice  

First synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart independently produced twice  

BiologyBiomedicine

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Mostly, people think that an embryo can only (except in the case of parthenogenesis) result from the sum of sperm and an egg. However, two research teams, one in Israel and another multinational collaboration have recently reported producing a synthetic mouse embryo from stem cells which lasted enough to have a brain and a beating […]

Evolution, faster than anybody thought

Evolution, faster than anybody thought

BiologyEvolution

By Invited Researcher

How fast is evolution? In adaptive evolution, natural selection causes genetic changes in traits that favour the survival and reproduction of individual organisms. Although Charles Darwin thought the process occurred over geological timescales, we have seen examples of dramatic adaptive evolution over only a handful of generations. The peppered moth changed colour in response to […]

Wait, fish make sounds?

Wait, fish make sounds?

Biology

By Invited Researcher

While they may lack some of the melodic qualities of birds or whales, there are almost 1,000 species of fish that use sounds to communicate, and possibly many more. Yet, despite nearly 150 years of contemporary scientific research into fish sound production, there was no global inventory of fish species known to make sounds. Until […]