Earth
Many of the European mammals whose habitat is being destroyed by climate change are not able to find new places to live elsewhere.
30 of the 62 mammal species in the University of Exeter study will have their habitat substantially affected by climate change, but don't have the traits that could allow them to colonise a new habitat somewhere else in Europe.
These included at-risk species such as the wolverine (classified as "vulnerable" in Europe), and others not classified as under threat, such as the Eurasian elk, the Iberian wild goat and the Pyrenean chamois.
A team of researchers believe that, paradoxically, climate change may result in Quebec's national and provincial parks becoming biodiversity refuges of continental importance as the variety of species present there increases. They used ecological niche modeling to calculate potential changes in the presence of 529 species in about 1/3 of the protected areas in southern Quebec almost all of which were under 50 km2 in size.
BOSTON (May 17, 2018) Airborne marine biologists were dazzled by the diversity and abundance of large, unusual and sometimes endangered marine wildlife on a recent trip to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument, about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod. Scientists with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium observed dozens of dolphins mixing with schools of pilot whales plus more than a dozen of the very rarely seen and mysterious Sowerby's beaked whales.
New research identifying climate vulnerability hotspots has found that the number of people affected by multiple climate change risks could double if the global temperature rises by 2°C, compared to a rise of 1.5°C.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Brown University researchers studying the biology of aging have demonstrated a new strategy for stimulating autophagy, the process by which cells rebuild themselves by recycling their own worn-out parts.
In a study published in the journal Cell Reports, the researchers show that the approach increased the lifespans of worms and flies, and experiments in human cells hint that the strategy could be useful in future treatments for Alzheimer's disease, ALS and other age-related neurodegenerative conditions.
The average hippo weighs more than 3,000 pounds and consumes about 100 pounds of vegetation daily. This naturally results in large quantities of dung being deposited into the rivers and lakes where hippos spend their days.
In general, the nutrients delivered via hippo dung to such aquatic ecosystems are perceived to be beneficial. For millennia, they provided a natural source of fertilizer that appears to fuel life in aquatic food webs. That may be changing.
A new study has found that there is an average of 239,000 excess deaths per year of girls under the age of five in India, or 2.4 million in a decade, and excess female child mortality is found in 90% of districts in the country.
The average level of excess mortality in girls aged 0-4 in the study period of 2000-2005 was 18.5 per 1000 live births, compared to the expected mortality of girl children aged under five in areas of the world without known gender discrimination. Around 22% of the overall mortality burden of females under five is therefore due to gender bias.
Healthy octogenarians have high cholesterol efflux capacity
A new Canadian guideline for impaired vision in older adults recommends against primary care screening of older adults not reporting concerns about their vision. The guideline, published in English and French in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC), is aimed at primary care practitioners.
A new study in the Journal of Urban Ecology, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that the number of wild animals killed by motor vehicles may be much higher than is generally reported or understood.
JUPITER, FL - May 14, 2018 - Cancer is a disease often driven by mutations in genes. As researchers learn more about these genes, and the proteins they code for, they are seeking smarter drugs to target them. The ultimate goal is to find ways to stop cancer cells from multiplying out of control, thereby blocking the growth and spread of tumors.
The research team at the Visual Perception and Cognition Laboratory of the Toyohashi University of Technology has revealed that face-likeness is judged by early visual processing at around 100ms after viewing an object. The present study focuses on the relation between face-likeness recognition and brain activity to suggest for the first time that face-likeness recognition is influenced by early visual processing. The results of the present study were published in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The group led by ICREA Research Professor Cayetano Gonzalez at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with Giuliano Callaini's team at the University of Siena in Italy, has published a study in The Journal of Cell Biology that identifies the critical role played by a protein called CENTROBIN in sperm tail development.
Cancer researchers at the University of Bath have measured systematically how efficient molecules are at suppressing the activity of a protein associated with prostate and other cancers. The molecules could eventually be developed into new anti-cancer drugs.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Boy or girl? For those who want to influence their baby's sex, superstition and folk wisdom offer no shortage of advice whose effectiveness is questionable at best -- from what to eat to when to make love. But some animals have a technique backed by scientific proof: In turtles and other reptiles, whether an egg hatches male or female depends on the temperature of its nest.
The phenomenon was first discovered in reptiles more than 50 years ago, but until now the molecular details were a mystery.