Drought is the most devastating environmental stress that farmers face worldwide. With the added pressures of climate change, drought years have become less predictable, more frequent and more severe.

The new measure, termed "evolutionary heritage," highlights the importance of unique species traits—which include physiological adaptations, like beak variations in different birds—when assessing the richness and complexity of life.

Packrats, also known as woodrats, are the original hoarders, collecting materials from their environment to make their nests, called middens. In deserts throughout western North America, for instance, packrat middens can preserve plants, insects, bones an

Stem cells play a vital role in repairing damaged tissue, whether it's a scraped knee or a scarred uterus following pregnancy. New stem cell research has identified the molecules that the cells produce to promote the healing process.

Consider the sea urchin. Specifically, the painted urchin: Lytechinus pictus, a prickly Ping-Pong ball from the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The single-cell parasite Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of deadly diarrheal disease in young children, and a recent outbreak in the United Kingdom highlights how vulnerable the water supply is to this pathogen.

For centuries, civilizations have used naturally occurring, inorganic materials for their perceived healing properties. Egyptians thought green copper ore helped eye inflammation, the Chinese used cinnabar for heartburn, and Native Americans used clay to

New research by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) proposes using soil bacteria to cut greenhouse gas emissions from food production. The research is published in the journal N

A new study has used drone technology and cutting-edge analytical methods for the first time to map the intertidal coral reefs of the Rowley Shoals off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia.

Mauricio González-Forero, an evolutionary biologist at the University of St Andrews, in the U.K., is proposing a new theory to explain the massive growth of the human brain over its evolutionary history.

Climate change, such as warming and changes in precipitation patterns, affects the frequency and severity of harmful algal blooms (HABs) globally, including those of toxin-producing cyanobacteria that can contaminate drinking water.

Zebrafish in the pet trade are asymptomatic carriers of previously undescribed microbes, including a novel virus that causes hemorrhaging in infected laboratory fish, Marlen Rice from the University of Utah, US, and colleagues report in the open-access jo