Video footage of a deep sea octopus Japanese scientists were able to observe and film the live deep-sea octopus Taningia danae for the first time. The recordings show an amazingly agile behavior of the animals, which are up to 2.3 meters long and weigh 61 kilograms.
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Unexpected Attack Nimble hawks and fanatical hunters, crossing the sea and crossing the desert - the annual bird migration from Europe to Africa and back is a risky undertaking that thousands of animals do not survive. Now researchers have discovered another unexpected deadly threat:
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False fruits for renaturation of rainforests Using baits disguised as fruit, researchers have lured leaf-nosed bats into cleared areas. The animals should excrete digested seeds there and thus promote recolonization by native rainforest plants.
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Fish clean battered coral reefs Herbivorous fish help keep algae and other plants off the reef after coral bleaching, helping corals survive, discovered a research team led by Terry Hughes of Australia's James Cook University. In their study, the scientists examined several coral banks in which so-called coral bleaching had occurred.
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One-two punch against Parkinson's disease A team of scientists led by Robert Malenka from Stanford University found a new treatment approach when studying mice with Parkinson's symptoms. The researchers tested a substance that increases the amount of endogenous cannabinoids in the brain, in addition to already known effective drugs that increase the animals' levels of dopamine.
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Multifunctional Antennas A strong gust of wind can throw even an adult off the path for a short time. So how do lightweight flying insects, which should be thrown off course by the slightest breeze, manage to fly stably? Life at dizzy heights is a constant challenge to insects' flying skills - even the slightest draft threatens to send these lightweights into a spin.
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Action games improve visual acuity As researchers at the University of Rochester have shown, visually challenging computer action games can significantly improve visual acuity after just one month of training. For their study, Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green only chose students as test subjects who had had little or no contact with video games in the past year.
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Early greenhouse Once it belonged to the good guys: carbon dioxide, the currently feared greenhouse gas. Because 3.75 billion years ago, it prevented our young planet from enveloping itself in an ice sheet. There are witnesses to this. When the earth formed about 4.
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Skin bacteria are very different Up to 182 different types of bacteria romp around on human skin, according to researchers at New York University after a meticulous count. Apparently, only a few species that are particularly common and known for a long time occur always and on all people.
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No occasion makes more love The relationship between a man and a woman can be complicated without a parasite intervening. Insects have it good: Here, an outside parasite threat can weld the sexes even closer together, doubling parental efforts.
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Iron Fortification: Lots of Insight, Little Prediction Previous attempts to stimulate phytoplankton production via artificially supplied iron have brought important, albeit limited, insights into the material cycles of the oceans, say Philip Boyd from the University of Otago in New Zealand and colleagues.
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The infinite delicacy of the gaze Exactly? Swiss researchers want to know more about it, down to the last molecule. Ever since nanoengineers have been building structures from individual atoms and molecular biologists have been following the chemistry of nature down to the smallest detail, there has been a demand for technologies that make the world of tiny things visible.
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Reasons for Avian Flu Contagion Risk Revealed In the case of dangerous influenza pathogens, the virus protein haemagglutinin determines how contagious the virus is for various animals and humans. Studies by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta now confirm this previously suspected idea.
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Gene found for dimethyl sulfide production In bacteria from s alt marshes, scientists have discovered a gene that is responsible for the formation of dimethyl sulfide. The product encoded by it turned out to be a surprise: it does not belong to the expected enzyme family.
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Chimpanzees: Male violence as a weapon against promiscuity Male chimpanzees use violence and coercion to discourage females from mating with rivals. The attacks are most strongly directed against fertile animals, which show increased stress symptoms as a result.
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Enlightening Insight The next IPCC report on the subject of climate change is just around the corner - but the forecasts will still be subject to great uncertainty: Despite intensive research, much of the mechanism of the atmosphere, oceans and continents, including their living environment, is still in the dark.
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Legacy of the Toad In fact, feasting on poisoned food is considered unhe althy. For the Japanese tiger snake, however, it cannot be poisonous enough - the toxins in its prey make it more of a threat. Basically, the tiger snake is a peaceful fellow:
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Non-smoker due to damaged brain region Damage to the insula – an area of the lateral cerebral cortex – may protect against nicotine addiction. Scientists from the University of Iowa in Iowa City made this accidental discovery in a patient who had previously smoked about 40 cigarettes a day.
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FAO: H5N1 virus still active The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns of a renewed flare-up of bird flu caused by the dangerous H5N1 strain: there are currently active and known sources of infection in eight countries.
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Uninhibited Helper Just looking at the end suggests that the body is completely helpless against cancer - tumors have to overcome a quite impressive cellular defense bulwark before the worst can happen. And even then, it might still be worth lending a helping hand to the seemingly defeated organizer of the defense.
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Put in the right light Distinctive striped look, every hair in its place, large, round, dark eyes - a bewitching sight, this Cosmophasis umbratica. Admittedly, some bipeds see it differently. The most important thing remains invisible to them:
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Gene duplication promoted evolution of bony fish A gene duplication allowed the freshwater bony fish to conquer the sea. Two biologists from the University of Bergen have discovered that the mutation changed the composition of the yolk in fish eggs so that they could survive in s alt water.
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Unusual rodent spotted in Peru Researchers have discovered a new species of spiny rat in the cloud forests of Peru's Manu National Park. Isothrix barbarabrownae, as it is called, could also shed light on the family tree of this group of animals.
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Blood pressure medication for muscle disorders The drug losartan, which lowers blood pressure, could also be used to treat muscle diseases. Animal studies at Johns Hopkins University in B altimore showed muscle improvement in various diseases such as Marfan Syndrome and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
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Mysteries of Navigation Green turtles spend most of their lives in the sea. But when the time comes to lay eggs, the females travel unerringly to specific beaches to bury their future offspring in the sand - presumably using geomagnetic fields as a guide.
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Australia's megafauna survived droughts In the discussion about the fate of Australia's megafauna – now extinct, large marsupials, reptiles and birds – evidence now suggests that it was not climate change but overhunting by humans that spelled their end.
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Secret eye-catcher "Do I dare challenge him - or not? Maybe I should do some observation first and see which opponent gives me the best chance of winning." - Too calculating for a fish? No way! The black-throated mouthbrooder Astatotilapia burtoni is under a lot of pressure.
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Rather in the country with the chickens Is the world still okay at six in the morning? Many people consider this to be a rumor, who then have to be awake and approachable. Depending on the inner clock setting, six is even felt to be five for some - only the inexorable clock doesn't believe them.
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Leaves Reveal Fossil Fuel Emissions By chemically analyzing corn leaves, scientists in the US were able to deduce how much carbon dioxide from fossil fuels was in the air. This might be a simple and inexpensive way to track how and where such emissions are distributed in the atmosphere.
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Clear division of tasks for air conditioning in the bumblebee nest As researchers from the University of Washington and Puget Sound have found in experiments with bumblebees, these insects also appear to operate as living boilers and cooling fans when rearing their brood - but with a strict division of labour.
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Helpful transfer During pregnancy, mother and child not only share the body, but the mother also donates cells to her offspring. But is that useful, or are these foreign bodies actually causing autoimmune diseases there? The bond between mother and child is closer than one might think.
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Rural tranquility with a difference "It was the nightingale and not the lark," is Shakespeare's famous quote. Today he would have difficulties with that, at least in England, because the lark is disappearing there - and with it many other birds.
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When two people fight… Black plumage, raspy voice, songbird chicks and carrion in the prey spectrum: no wonder that ravens and crows have a rather bad reputation. They maintain an extremely complex social system - including mediators. Now in winter they are once again looking for Germany's liveable cities:
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Brain regions responsible for daydreaming identified Brain studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have identified a network of different cortical regions that indicate mental wandering when solving a simple task. A team led by Malia Mason of Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts has now also been able to show that the corresponding areas were most active in subjects who reported that they were more prone to daydreaming.
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Exceptional white Applying a varnish that thinly would be pointless - the scales on Cyphochilus' shell are only microns thick, but still shine as white as paper. The finest nanostructures are the solution to the riddle. Recreating it once might be worthwhile.
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Fingernail sized centrifuge for blood plasma Scientists led by Leslie Yeo from Monash University in Clayton, Australia, have developed a miniature centrifuge for separating blood plasma and blood cells. Using an electrode, they blew a weak ionic wind over a liquid in such a way that it began to rotate like a whirlpool.
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Replica virus solves deadly Spanish flu mystery The 1918 flu pandemic was so fatal because of an overreaction of the immune system. A group of scientists from Canada, Japan and the USA, who had infected monkeys with a genetically reconstructed virus strain, were able to confirm this assumption.
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Useful Parasites Unwanted lodgers in the gut can be disgusting. But their presence is also useful in the case of certain diseases: Because the little parasites influence their host's immune system in a very selfish way - with beneficial side effects.
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Statistics influence study results Two studies assess the impact that pre-publication statistical analysis of data can have on published results. On the one hand, the results could be very different if different possible statistical methods are applied to the same raw data, as Canadian scientists led by Thérèse Stukel [
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Child Abuse Affects Long-Term Physical He alth Adults who were abused as children are more likely to develop inflammatory diseases later in life. Researchers led by Andrea Danese from King's College in London found that they had increased levels of the inflammation marker C-reactive protein.
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