biology

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Bacteria Ate Methane in Gulf at Near-Impossible Rate

Gas from spill consumed in less than 4 months, according to study

(Newser) - Bacteria appears to have broken down all the methane that spilled out of the Deepwater Horizon well in less than four months—even though the process should have taken years, according to one team of scientists studying the spill. “This was a surprise to us,” says the chemical...

Researchers Create Mice With 2 Daddies

No one's entirely sure why

(Newser) - Scientists at the University of Texas have managed to create mice from the genetic material of two males. A female mouse was involved, of course—researchers engineered one whose eggs contained only DNA from a male, then mated her with another male—but genetically the mice have two fathers. Scientists...

Scientists Blast NASA's Arsenic-Based Life Paper

Researchers refuse to respond directly to criticism

(Newser) - Scientists are coming out of the woodwork to deride NASA’s finding of arsenic-based life as flim-flam. “I was outraged at how bad the science was,” one microbiology professor tells Slate , and she wasn’t alone; Slate tracked down dozens of experts to ask their opinion of the...

NASA Discovers New Form of Life

Arsenic-based lifeforms found on Earth are unlike any previously observed

(Newser) - NASA has discovered a totally new kind of life form, but it’s not an alien—it’s here on Earth. Astrobiologists have found a bacteria living in a poisonous California lake that’s actually partially made of arsenic, it announced in a much-hyped press conference today. Whereas every other...

World's Hardiest Creatures Survive 'Martian Soil'

Researchers seek to keep Earth stowaways away from Mars

(Newser) - A tiny but incredibly tough creature called the tardigrade has been identified as the Earth-dweller most likely to hitch a ride to Mars and survive once there—indicating that our methods for sterilizing Mars rovers may not be up to snuff. The millimeter-long creature, also known as the water bear,...

How a Giraffe-Size Dinosaur Managed to Fly

16-foot creatures could traverse continents: scientists

(Newser) - Scientists think they’ve finally figured out how a dinosaur the size of a giraffe was able to soar through the air: It used its huge wings to pole-vault, the Daily Mail reports. Researchers from the UK and US say their theory trumps longstanding claims that pterosaurs couldn’t possibly...

Why Women Live Longer Than 'Disposable' Men

Females built to last for reproductive success: scientist

(Newser) - Women have their hardworking cells to thank for the fact that they tend to live longer than men, argues a scientist. Experts believe aging is caused by tiny problems in the body, and we die when our bodies stop repairing these issues, the Daily Mail reports. Women, suggests the UK...

Scientists Discover Screaming Tadpole

Sound saves frog larvae from being cannibalized

(Newser) - Scientists studying the calls of adult Argentine horned frogs were amazed to discover that the species' larvae also make sounds—screams even, reports the Independent . The tadpole's scream is a "brief, clear and very audible metallic-like sound," say researchers. They believe the distress calls save the tadpoles from...

Avatar Speaks to Our Inner Science Geek
 Avatar Speaks to 
 Our Inner Science Geek 
OPINION
Jan 19, 2010 1:39 PM CST

Avatar Speaks to Our Inner Science Geek

Flick appeals to humans' natural wonder at the weird world

(Newser) - Excuse Carol Kaesuk Yoon if she seems “a bit breathless,” but Avatar has reinvigorated the biologist’s awe of the natural world, and she suspects that effect is what’s really driving the flick’s blockbuster success. People love to puzzle over nature, and try to order it...

Biologists: Drive to Help Others 'Innate'

Hard-wired helpfulness separates us from chimps

(Newser) - An inborn urge to be helpful may a key universal trait that makes us distinctively human, according to biologists. Experiments have found that babies just 12 months old are naturally helpful—pointing to help an adult find a lost item, for example—while chimpanzees aren't. The helpful instinct was found...

Climate Change Already Causing Evolution

(Newser) - Global warming is changing the face of the planet, and a key panel estimates that a quarter of the world's species will die out—but a few organisms are already evolving to survive in a hotter world. In the past few years Scottish sheep have become smaller, while species of...

Giant Ant Colony Spreads Across World

Insects from different continents treat each other as family

(Newser) - In what may be a first for the animal kingdom, one giant family of ants has established itself in different parts of the world, the BBC reports. Researchers studying the species known as Argentine ants in Europe, the US, and Japan found that they had a strikingly similar chemical profile,...

New England Starfish Boom Baffles Experts

Shellfish predators' population worries fishermen

(Newser) - New England beaches are swarming with starfish this spring, and nobody’s sure why, the Boston Globe reports. The spike may be connected to shellfish population; it could be due to a drop in spider crabs, which prey on starfish; it could be tied to water temperature or wind patterns....

'Biohackers' Create New, DIY Organisms

Feds try to asses threat from part-time Frankensteins

(Newser) - Katherine Aull is creating new forms of life in her closet. Armed only with jury-rigged equipment and some DNA she bought online, the 23-year-old is creating custom E. coli bacteria she thinks could help cancer research. Aull is part of a growing movement of “biohackers,” amateur biologists crafting...

'Benjamin Button' Jellyfish Are Immortal

Can revert to younger form and reproduce

(Newser) - For some aging jellyfish, their best years may still be ahead: Faced with a threat, one species can essentially turn itself younger again, National Geographic reports. Turritopsis dohrnii reverts its cells to a “younger state,” says a researcher, and becomes a blob; from there, it develops into a...

High-Calorie Diet Makes Moms Have Boys: Study

(Newser) - In news that may affect diets in China, a recent study says women who down more calories—cereal especially—are more likely to give birth to boys, NPR reports. One statistician questions the survey of 740 moms, saying "the female has nothing to do with the gender of the...

Princeton Team Adds Twist to Darwin's Theory

It's not random, they say: Organisms can control own evolution

(Newser) - Princeton scientists say they have found evidence that organisms can essentially control their own evolution, a finding that could provide a fundamental shift in our understanding of Darwin's theory, reports the university's news service. The research suggests that evolution isn't entirely random, as Darwin believed. Rather, proteins within organisms constantly...

Author Offers Creepy Look at Critters With Taste for Blood

Bats, bedbugs, leeches, and mosquitoes have a common thirst

(Newser) - With Halloween nearly upon us, the author of new book on bloodsucking creatures—vampire bats, bedbugs, leeches, and the like—leads the New York Times on a sanguivore safari. The world's bloodthirsty creatures vary enormously, as Bill Schutt details in Dark Banquet, and some are mere dabblers, but many specialists...

Docs Tout Safer, Non-Embryonic Stem Cells

Virus, used in mice, repurposes adult cells with no risk of cancer

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a safer way to turn adult cells into stem cells, the Boston Globe reports. The cells, similar to those harvested from embryos, are called induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells; Japanese researchers introduced the method 2 years ago. But the Japanese used retroviruses, which can cause cancer;...

Genome Project Is a Bust: Expert
Genome Project Is a Bust: Expert
Sep 16, 2008 11:40 AM CDT

Genome Project Is a Bust: Expert

$3B effort to pinpoint disease-causing genes too broad, Duke doc says

(Newser) - The idea behind mapping the human genome (and spending $3 billion to do so) was to uncover common gene variants that cause disease. But a Duke University geneticist says that natural selection has worked better than we thought, that there are no common variants but rather a multitude of rare...

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