Stickleback fish are able to adapt their vision to new environments in less than 10,000 years, a blink of the eye in evolutionary terms, according to new research by University of British Columbia biodiversity experts.
"This is a very short time scale for large changes in colour vision to evolve," says Diana Rennison, lead researcher on the study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "We'd typically expect species to adapt their vision over timespans in the millions of years."
Online information on pancreatic cancer overestimates the reading ability of the overall population and lacks accurate information about alternative therapy, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery.
By switching from four wheels to two, bicyclists help reduce traffic and air pollution -- all while getting much-needed exercise. But that health benefit could be costly, due to exposure to potentially harmful compounds in motor vehicle exhaust. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers analyzed breath samples to find out how much of these compounds are absorbed by the body. They report their findings in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.
A novel way of synthesising a promising new antibiotic has been identified by scientists at the University of Bristol. By expressing the genes involved in the production of pleuromutilin in a different type of fungus, the researchers were able to increase production by more than 2,000 per cent.
Marine and terrestrial species inhabit vastly different ecosystems, but they share one of the primary patterns of biodiversity on the planet. The numbers of species of both groups increase toward the equator, with fewer species in temperate, higher latitudes and more in the tropics.
An unusual new study led by researchers from the University of Chicago shows that while terrestrial birds and marine bivalves--animals such as scallops, mussels, cockles, and oysters--share this pattern of species richness across latitudes as well, they arrive there quite differently.
The oldest surviving species of vertebrates, such as the cane toad and the California sea lion, which have endured past extreme environmental events, will be more likely to adapt to future climate changes than younger species, such as the European hamster, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. These species include those with various color morphs; those which give birth to live young; and/or which live at low latitudes.
New research has shown that patients undergoing emergency surgery in lower income countries have a three times greater chance of dying than in higher income countries.
The study, published in the British Journal of Surgery, monitored post-surgery death rates and mapped them against the Human Development Index (HDI) of each country.
10,745 patients were monitored up to 30 days after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery, at hospitals in 58 participating countries.
London, UK (May 04, 2016). Leaving work at the office and home at the door may not always be the best strategy for employee well-being and performance, finds a new study published in the journal Human Relations by SAGE in partnership with The Tavistock Institute.
Most frogs use acoustic signals - or croaks - to communicate during mating season, but some species have also developed a wave, called a foot flag, as a signal to deter the competition.
They fully extend their back leg over their head, rotating it backwards in an arc to expose white-colored foot webbing, and then retract it to the body. New research from Wake Forest University studies the role testosterone plays in the evolutionary process of these waving displays.
The changes that the Amazon River promotes in the tropical North Atlantic ocean water make an unfavorable environment for reef development. Every second, 175 million liters of water mixed with sediments are brought to the ocean. The result is low sunlight penetration, variability in nutrient concentration, salinity and pH, extensive moody bottoms and significant changes in temperature and oxygenation levels towards the bottom - conditions not associated with reefs.
It's a weekday morning, and senior Reuben Brough is running around a gym at King Street Youth Center waving his hands in the air and screeching like a cheetah. A stream of children is in hot pursuit of him and four other UVM students who implore the preschoolers to "catch the cheetah."
Newly discovered genetic switches that increase lifespan and boost fitness in worms are also linked to increased lifespan in mammals, offering hope that drugs to flip these switches could improve human metabolic function and increase longevity.
These so-called epigenetic switches, discovered by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, are enzymes that are ramped up after mild stress during early development and continue to affect the expression of genes throughout the animal's life.
Significant improvement in health-related quality of life was reported by patients 12-14 years after undergoing an uncommon form of bariatric surgery at one U.S. medical center. Follow-up of the 27 patients who underwent biliary pancreatic diversion surgery with duodenal switch (BPD-DS) by the same surgeon is described in an article in Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care.
Severe spring thunderstorms frequently spawned tornadoes from the Gulf Coast north and eastward during the past seven days. NASA's IMERG data were used to estimate the amount of rain that fell from April 25 to May 2, 2016.