Pollinating insects such as bumblebees often repeatedly visit the same type of flower, even when a variety of flowers bloom nearby. This behavior is known as "flower constancy." Darwin speculated that flower constancy was a passive response to a

Malaria, responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year worldwide, is caused by a parasite transmitted through the salivary glands of female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Coconut trees are iconic plants found across the world's tropical regions. They're called "nature's supermarket" or the "tree of life" in several cultures because every part of the coconut tree is used. Its leaves can be used to tha

Unlike animals, plants do not possess an adaptive immune system with antibodies or T cells to fight viral infections. Instead, they rely on the RNA silencing system, which serves as their innate immune defense by recognizing and degrading viral RNA. In tu

Screen-printed, biodegradable soil sensors that can be composted at the end of their lifecycle could enable farmers to improve crop yields while reducing electronic waste, researchers say.

A team of environmental scientists at the University of Sydney, working with a pair of colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, are pondering possible ways to save the extremely endangered orange-bellied parrot. In their paper published in the journa

About 100 cells divide every second in our body. A key protein in cell division is a protein kinase termed Plk1, because it activates other proteins involved in this process. Plk1 is also overexpressed in many types of cancer. This makes it a promising ta

AI systems already work their magic in many areas of biomedical science, helping to solve protein structure, discover hidden patterns in the genome and process massive amounts of biological data. Now, an AI-assisted technology developed at the Weizmann In

Some creatures defend territories extending over several kilometers, but when Jayne Yack (Carleton University, Canada) encountered miniature newborn warty birch caterpillars (Falcaria bilineata), she wondered if she might have discovered one of the world

Under the right conditions, duckweed essentially farms itself. Wastewater, ponds, puddles, swamps—you name it. If there's enough sunlight and carbon dioxide, the aquatic plant can grow freely. But that's not all that makes it intriguing. Packed inside d

North America's smallest falcon, the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), has declined across the continent since the 1970s, yet the causes continue to stump raptor biologists. A new study published in the Journal of Raptor Research adds a piece to the p

An international research group led by the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) has discovered a promising new drug candidate against severe lung infections caused by the hospital germ Staphylococcus aureus. The study, which has just been publish