Ants employ a few simple and flexible rules to ensure that moving a colony to a new nest does not end in chaos, especially if this is done over some distance. So says Thomas O'Shea-Wheller of the University of Bristol in the UK, lead author of an article in Springer's journal The Science of Nature. His study indicates that when it comes to giving directions, ants have it down to a fine art.
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Patients suffering from liver cirrhosis often die of life-threatening bacterial infections. In these patients the immune cells are unable to eliminate the bacterial infections. Scientist at the University of Bonn and TU Munich have now discovered that type I IFN released by immune cells due to increased migration of gut bacteria into the cirrhotic liver incapacitate the immune system. Based on their findings, such life-threatening infections can be contained by strengthening the immune response alone -- without antibiotics. The results have now appeared in the journal Gut.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new study of nearly 22,000 fossils finds that ancient plankton communities began changing in important ways as much as 400,000 years before massive die-offs ensued during the first of Earth's five great extinctions.
The research, published July 18 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on large zooplankton called graptolites. It suggests that the effects of environmental degradation can be subtle until they reach a tipping point, at which dramatic declines in population begin.
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2016 -- For those striving to build muscle, protein is essential. While this is obvious to many athletes and gym-goers, the biological and chemical processes between drinking a protein shake and getting "swole" may not be so clear. Reactions has you covered -- find out how much protein is recommended for athletes and what makes muscles grow in our latest video: https://youtu.be/L5-tKciXEG8.
Hamilton, ON July 19, 2016 -- The first steps towards developing a vaccine against an insidious sexual transmitted infection (STI) have been accomplished by researchers at McMaster University.
Researchers at the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster have developed the first widely protective vaccine against chlamydia, a common STI that is mostly asymptomatic but impacts 113 million people around the world each year and can result in infertility.
It's a problem veterinarians see all the time, but there are few treatments. Feline herpes virus 1 (FHV-1) is a frequent cause of eye infections in cats, but the drugs available to treat these infections must be applied multiple times a day and there is scant scientific evidence to support their use.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Look into any nutrient-rich pond almost anywhere in the world and you will find Daphnia pulex, a tiny crustacean (also called a water flea) that is a source of food for fish and fascination for scientists. A new study, reported in the journal Molecular Ecology, offers insights into this creature's ability to disperse and its remarkable success in the wild.
The ability to predict when toads come out of hibernation in southern Canada could provide valuable insights into the future effects of climate change on a range of animals and plants.
A national research collaboration funded by the National Institutes of Health has found significant racial and ethnic disparities in breastfeeding outcomes, according to a study published online this week in Pediatrics.
A new study by researchers at Princeton University suggests that sporadic bursts of gene activity may be important features of genetic regulation rather than just occasional mishaps. The researchers found that snippets of DNA called enhancers can boost the frequency of bursts, suggesting that these bursts play a role in gene control.
A new study of fossil fishes from Middle Triassic sediments on the shores of Lake Lugano provides new insights into the recovery of biodiversity following the great mass extinction event at the Permo-Triassic boundary 240 million years ago.
Toronto - As tedious as waiting in a government services line-up can be, that's what most people do, despite having the option of getting their business done online.
In Ontario, only about 10 per cent of vehicle owners do their annual licence plate sticker renewals via the Internet. Maintaining the overhead to serve everyone else in person costs Canada's most populous province nearly $36 million a year.
Why do we feel good about giving to charity when there is no direct benefit to ourselves, and feel bad about cheating the system? Mathematicians may have found an answer to the longstanding puzzle as to why we have evolved to cooperate.
An international team of researchers, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that altruism is favoured by random fluctuations in nature, offering an explanation to the mystery as to why this seemingly disadvantageous trait has evolved.
Johns Hopkins University biologists have found that a protein that plays a key role in the lives of stem cells can bolster the growth of damaged muscle tissue, a step that could potentially contribute to treatments for muscle degeneration caused by old age and diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Disease ecologists working in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru, have quantified for the first time how a fever affects human mobility during the outbreak of a mosquito-borne pathogen. The findings were published by Proceedings of the Royal Society B.