Researchers have found that nearly one fifth of all spider families are associated with saltwater or freshwater aquatic habitats. Their findings address the common misconception that all spiders dwell on land, and reveal surprising evolutionary pathways of this group from a land-based existence back to a water-based existence. «This study shines a light on what…

Humans aren’t the only mammals that form long-term bonds with a single, special mate — some lemurs and other animals do, too. Researchers are mapping the hormone receptors that underlie these primates’ ability to pair up for the long haul. Their findings suggest the brain circuitry that makes love last in some species may not…

Researchers have found that when fruit bats forage in the city (Tel Aviv), they are much more exploratory and enjoy the diversity of urban life, visiting a variety of fruit trees every night and tasting as wide a variety of foods as possible. In contrast, rural bats living in Beit Guvrin focus on only one…

CRISPR is widely used to target specific cell types, but only one at a time. Researchers have now developed methods to edit genes in multiple organisms within a diverse community of microbes simultaneously, a first step toward editing microbiomes such as those in the gut or on plants. One method assesses which microbes are editable;…

For the first time, scientists have created pigs, goats and cattle that can serve as viable ‘surrogate sires,’ male animals that produce sperm carrying only the genetic traits of donor animals. The advance could speed the spread of desirable characteristics in livestock and improve food production for a growing global population. The advance, published in…

Researchers have discovered the genetic basis for a quirk of the animal kingdom — how ant queens produce broods that are entirely male or female. «It’s weird to have any parent that’s only producing one sex or the other,» said UC Riverside entomologist and study author Jessica Purcell. Scientists have known for some time that…

Dinosaurs were generally huge, but a new study of the unusual alvarezsaurs show that they reduced in size about 100 million years ago when they became specialized ant-eaters. The new work is led by Zichuan Qin, a PhD student at the University of Bristol and Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. He measured…

Scientists have developed the first cells that can construct artificial polymers from building blocks that are not found in nature, by following instructions the researchers encoded in their genes. The study also found the synthetic genome made the bacteria entirely resistant to infection by viruses. The study, led by scientists from the Medical Research Council…

Researchers have shown that there is a genetic component underlying the amazing spatial memories of Mountain Chickadees. Although the genetic basis for spatial memory has been shown for humans and other mammals, direct evidence of that connection has never before been identified in birds. These findings were just published in the journal Current Biology. The…

The meristem of the gerbera is patterned on the molecular level already at a stage where no primordia or other changes are discernible by even an electron microscope. «Actually, that structure is the flower head, or the capitulum, which may be composed of hundreds of flowers, also known as florets. The surrounding ‘petals’ are florets…