Often studied in sterile laboratory conditions far removed from the natural habitats of rivers, lakes and seas, the cognitive abilities of fish have long been underestimated. Now, researchers at Wageningen University & Research have developed a simple

A dangerous hospital superbug has been found to digest plastic—specifically the kind used in some sutures, stents and implants inside the human body. Microbiologists at Brunel University of London show the bacteria can feed on plastic to survive, potentia

Agriculture's impact on insect diversity is more severe than previously thought, according to a new study from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.

It's spring, the birds are migrating and bird flu (H5N1) is rapidly evolving into the possibility of a human pandemic. Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health have published a comprehensive review documenting research on bird

A new study suggests that, in the case of global catastrophe, urban agriculture alone could sustain only about one fifth of the population of a temperate, median-sized city, but the whole city could be fed by also farming land within a short distance of t

Passive acoustic monitoring of biodiversity involves capturing the sounds of animals emitted intentionally or unintentionally in a wide variety of ecosystems, using acoustic recorders. It is used to monitor cetaceans, numerous insects and crustaceans, bat

What if you could both improve biodiversity and win over consumers with bread? Researchers from Wageningen University & Research found that bread produced with wheat from strip cropping scores surprisingly well with consumers—provided it is safe and o

Sorghum millet is seen as the crop plant of the future: It builds up a particularly high amount of biomass and thrives in harsh conditions. Certain varieties even produce more sugar on salty soils.

A team of plant biologists, geneticists and ecologists from the University of Georgia, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, the University of California and Davidson College has found via a nine-year study of Drummond's rockcress plants that many mounta

A recent study shows that marine oxygen levels were crucial to the evolution of early Paleozoic trilobite body size, suggesting that oxygen may have influenced the evolution of other animals' body size as well.

Dynamic remodeling of the endomembrane system is a core biological process essential for maintaining cellular compartmentalization and homeostasis. Proteins enriched in intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) can drive membrane curvature formation in arti

USask researchers recently published a paper in Scientific Reports that identified a promising alternative for controlling infectious diseases such as swine dysentery. Porcine β-defensin 5, or pBD-5, is a host defense peptide (HDP) that may help to reduce