As an embryo grows, there is a continuous stream of communication between cells to form tissues and organs. Cells need to read numerous cues from their environment, and these may be chemical or mechanical in nature. However, these alone cannot explain col

An article published in the journal Scientific Reports describes how researchers analyzed biofilm produced by bacteria found in the El Medano hot springs, located in Chile in the central Andes, and concluded that one of its key ingredients can be used to

Michigan State University researchers—along with colleagues at the University of Florida, citizen scientists and their "truffle dogs"—have discovered two new species of truffle. The research was published in the journal Mycologia and featured on

Our genes contain all the instructions our body needs to function, but their expression must be finely regulated to guarantee that each cell performs its role optimally. This is where DNA and RNA epigenetics come in: a series of mechanisms that act as &qu

A team of climate geochemists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand and Princeton University has found evidence that early hominins living in South Africa ate a mostly vegetarian diet. In their study, published in the

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Berkeley Laboratory, have published a study in Science Advances that evaluates the current state of microbial genomic biodive

Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have developed a new sorghum variant that can outperform soybeans in oil production, with great potential as a clean source of renewable fuel.

An international team of environmentalists, zoologists and land use specialists has developed an extinction probability metric for land that is converted to agriculture. Their paper is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Socie

Life isn't always a beach for Phillip Island's beloved penguins, who have been found to divorce their partners and find a new mate if they aren't satisfied with the number of young filling the nest—but it's a risky decision that can lower success in t

We see color because photoreceptor cones in our eyes detect light waves corresponding to red, green, and blue, while dimness or brightness is detected by photoreceptor rods. Many non-mammalian vertebrates like fish, however, are known to detect color and

A team from the University of Barcelona is leading a study that improves the technology available to identify the geographical origin and variety of hazelnuts, and thus avoid commercial fraud and food safety problems linked to the consumption of these nut

Researchers have used dung records to create high-resolution maps of herbivore distribution around the world. Their study, published in Nature Food, reveals a strong positive relationship between dung presence and grazing pressure, meaning the amount of d