University of Exeter said: "Relationships between crickets are rather different from what we'd all assumed. Rather than being bullied by their mates, it seems that females are in fact being protected. We could even describe males as 'chivalrous'.
"Males and females on their own have similar predation rates, but when they are in pairs, males are killed much more frequently and females always survive to predator attacks.
Some male crickets will apparently put the lives of their mating partners ahead of their own. When a mated pair is out together, a male will allow a female priority access to the safety of a burrow, even though it means a dramatic increase in his own risk of being eaten. That's according to infrared video observations of a wild population of field crickets (Gryllus campestris) reported online on October 6 the Cell Press journal Current Biology.
HOUSTON -- (Oct. 7, 2011) – In children with genomic disorders, often a gamete – egg or sperm – has gone disastrously awry with either a duplication or deletion of genetic material that results in physical and neurological problems for the subsequent child.
Previous studies have identified a procedure called nonallelic homologous recombination, which occurs during meiosis or sexual cell division, as the event that most commonly occurs and results in this mistake in DNA.
PHILADELPHIA—Growing up just got more complicated. Thomas Jefferson University biochemistry researchers have shown for the first time that the receptor for a major insect molting hormone doesn't activate and repress genes as once thought. In fact, it only activates genes, and it is out-competed by a heme-binding receptor to repress the same genes during the larval to pupal transition in the fruit fly.
A chemical component of the marijuana plant could prevent the onset of pain associated with drugs used in chemo therapy, particularly in breast cancer patients, according to researchers at Temple University's School of Pharmacy.
The researchers published their findings, "Cannabidiol Prevents the Development of Cold andMechanical Allodynia in Paclitaxel-Treated Female C57Bl6 Mice," in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist has developed a partnership with colleagues in South Africa that is improving prospects for cattle breeders in that African nation--and could improve them for breeders around the world.
A research alliance of Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), jointly with colleagues of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, have discovered a new metabolic pathway which makes malignant brain tumors (gliomas) more aggressive and weakens patients' immune systems. Using drugs to inhibit this metabolic pathway is a new approach in cancer treatment. The group's results have been published in the prestigious specialist journal Nature.
AUSTIN, Texas—Chagas disease, a tropical parasitic disease that can lead to life-threatening heart and digestive disorders, may be more widespread in Texas than previously thought, according to research from The University of Texas at Austin.
"We've been studying this for four years now, and this year the number of disease-causing insects is quite amazing," says Sahotra Sarkar, professor of integrative biology and philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a paper on the disease published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Diese Pressemitteilung ist verfügbar auf Englisch.
Zivilisiertes menschliches Zusammenleben setzt voraus, dass wir uns an elementare soziale Normen halten. Die Einhaltung dieser Normen stellen wir unter anderem dadurch sicher, dass wir bereit sind, Normverletzungen zu sanktionieren. Häufig geschieht eine solche Bestrafung sogar auf eigene Kosten. Dieses Verhalten widerspricht dem ökonomischen Eigennutz des Bestrafenden und verlangt die Kontrolle egoistischer Impulse.
Innovative Methodenkombination
The fossil beetle discovered in the 16-23 million years old sediments of the Irtysh River in southern Siberia belongs to the modern species Helophorus sibiricus, a member of the water scavenger beetles (Hydrophiloidea), which is at present widely distributed in Eurasia and reaches even North America. The species was originally described in 1860 by the Russian entomologist Victor Motschulsky based on specimens collected at Lake Baikal. It is aquatic and inhabits various kinds of standing waters, predominantly the grassy temporary pools.
Australian scientists studying the reliability of species distribution models for revealing the response of animals to climate change have focused their research on the endangered marsupial, the Northern Bettong. The research, published in Ecography demonstrates that studying weather events, rather than the gradual changes of the climate, offers a clearer insight into the Bettong's movements, range boundaries and likely contact with competitors.
Scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITG) have developed a molecular technique to easily and dependably identify the biting midges that spread bluetongue disease. Until know this identification was a problem. The technology helps to understand how the disease spreads, and how to control it. They report in the journal Medical and Veterinary Entomology.
It is widely believed that being born is about the most stressful thing that can happen to anybody. But being weaned cannot be too far behind it in the list of traumatic experiences. Most humans come to terms with it eventually and the situation in animals is probably no different. How weaning takes place, however, can have a dramatic effect on the length of time required to overcome the shock. That this is so, at least for horses, comes from the latest work of the team of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.
TORONTO, Ont., Oct, 5, 2011—A new oral drug has been shown in a large international clinical trial to significantly reduce the relapse rate of people with multiple sclerosis and to slow the progression of the disease.
The results of the Phase 3 trial of the drug teriflunomide were published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.
The latest results from an expedition to Mount Everest that looked at the body's response to low oxygen levels suggest that drugs or procedures that promote the body's production of a chemical compound called nitric oxide (NO) could improve the recovery of critically ill patients in intensive care.