Humans lost in the desert are well known for going around in circles, prompting scientists to ask how desert creatures find their way around without landmarks for guidance. Now new research shows that Desert Ants input both local smells and visual cues into their navigation systems to guide them home.
The argument over whether an outcrop of rock in South West Greenland contains the earliest known traces of life on Earth has been reignited, in a study published in the Journal of the Geological Society. The research, led by Martin J. Whitehouse at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, argues that the controversial rocks “cannot host evidence of Earth’s oldest life,” reopening the debate over where the oldest traces of life are located.
A new study involving iPods and teenagers by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Children’s Hospital Boston indicates teenagers who receive pressure from their peers or others to turn down the volume of their iPods instead turn them up higher.
Species are adapting slowly to climate change and ‘assisted colonisation’ can play a vital role in helping wildlife to survive in a warming world. A team of researchers, led by biologists at Durham and York Universities, has shown that translocation to climatically-suitable areas can work and that butterflies can survive beyond their northern ranges if they’re given a ‘helping hand’ to get to suitable new habitats.
In comparison to many other living creatures, flies tend to be small and their brains, despite their complexity, are quite manageable. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now ascertained that these insects can make up for their low number of nerve cells by means of sophisticated network interactions.
To measure anxiety in a mouse and suggest it’s similar to anxiety in a person may seem like a stretch, but the metrics sound uncannily familiar. Paralyzed by fear, afraid to leave the house or socialize with others, scared of new places, preferring the dark to the light of day.