Insects are famous for their six-legged body plan, but that wasn’t always the rule. A 324-million-year-old fossil dug up from a shale bed in West Texas had a markedly different…
Category: Life
Edith Singini | Grasses are key to building hidden carbon stores in savannas – Functional Ecologists
In this ‘Behind the Paper’ post, author Edith Singini – a plant ecophysiologist in the Department of Botany at Rhodes University, South Africa – discusses the paper “Savanna soil carbon…
U.S. badly trails China in lowering barriers to biotech innovation
America’s lead in biotechnology is eroding, and one Florida company’s three-year wait for a routine government stamp shows why, as The Hill’s David Mansdoerfer writes. China already runs more clinical…
Heat therapy for sick frogs lowers sperm levels
Bad news for frogs getting sauna therapy: The heat treatment for their fatal fungal infection may come at a cost. Exposing infected green and golden bell frogs (Ranoidea aurea) to…
Aging Brains Maintain Robust Language Networks Despite Cognitive Decline
Summary: While executive functions like memory and problem-solving naturally decline as we age, new brain imaging research reveals that the neural network responsible for language remains preserved and fully functional.…
Motor neurons don’t just move muscles. They may direct that motion too
Motor neurons, the nerve cells that control muscles, have a reputation as passive messengers. But growing evidence suggests they do more than simply relay the brain’s commands. Work in fruit…
Plants under attack leave behind a surprising call for backup
When insect pests get the munchies, some plants call in the microbes. Gnawing fly larvae provoke cowpea plants to release chemicals into the soil that nurture a helpful community of…
Julia Bebout | Competing annual plants shift traits in parallel – Functional Ecologists
In this Behind the Paper blog post, author Julia Bebout – a PhD student at UC San Diego – delves into the article “Trait responses to competition are mostly parallel…
Kindergarten vaccine exemptions hit record high as Trump’s order squeezes school mandates
American kindergartners are skipping their shots at a record pace, CNN reporter Deidre McPhillips found, and the White House just turned up the pressure. New CDC data show 4.2% of kindergartners claimed…
Fact check: COVID vaccines are not linked to miscarriages
A viral claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause an 82 percent miscarriage rate exploded across social media and Congress this month, but the number is a statistical mirage, according to NewsGuard’s…
