ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- Fear of predators drives honey bees away from good food sources
- Tears for fears: Juvenile mice secrete a protective pheromone in their tears, blocking adult mating
- Insect repellent: Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEET
- Recruiting E. coli to combat hard-to-treat bacterial infections
- Discovery of charged droplets could lead to more efficient power plants
- Early mammal varieties declined as evolution of flowering plants radiated
- Like father, not like son: Brain and song structure in zebra finches are strongly influenced by the environment
| Fear of predators drives honey bees away from good food sources Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT Honey bees live in a world filled with danger in which predators seize them from the sky and wait to ambush them on flowers. Such fear drives bees to avoid food sources closely associated with predators and, interestingly, makes colonies of bees less risk-tolerant than individual bees, according to a new study.  |
| Tears for fears: Juvenile mice secrete a protective pheromone in their tears, blocking adult mating Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT While looking for novel pheromones that can control different instinctive mouse behaviors, researchers have discovered a pheromone found only in the tears of young mice. Their experiments showed that this molecule protects prepubescent mice from mating activity by adult male mice. The research provides the first step toward a detailed understanding of how a sensory system can regulate social behavior.  |
| Insect repellent: Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEET Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT Researchers have identified DEET-detecting olfactory receptors in insects that cause repellency and three safe compounds that mimic DEET and could one day be used to prevent the transmission of deadly vector-borne diseases. Until now, no one had a clue about which olfactory receptor insects used to avoid DEET. Without the receptors, it was impossible to apply modern technology to design new repellents to improve upon DEET.  |
| Recruiting E. coli to combat hard-to-treat bacterial infections Posted: 02 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT The notorious bacteria E. coli is best known for making people sick, but scientists have reprogrammed the microbe -- which also comes in harmless varieties -- to make it seek out and fight other disease-causing pathogens. This new type of E. coli can even kill off slimy groups of bacteria called biofilms that are responsible for many hard-to-treat infections.  |
| Discovery of charged droplets could lead to more efficient power plants Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:33 AM PDT In a completely unexpected finding, researchers have discovered that tiny water droplets that form on a superhydrophobic surface, and then "jump" away from that surface, carry an electric charge. The finding could lead to more efficient power plants and a new way of drawing power from the atmosphere, they say.  |
| Early mammal varieties declined as evolution of flowering plants radiated Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:29 AM PDT The dramatic explosion of flowering plant species that occurred about 100 million years ago was thought to have been good news for evolving mammals. But new research suggests that wasn't necessarily the case.  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:21 AM PDT A central topic in behavioral biology is the question, which aspects of a behavior are learned or expressed due to genetic predisposition. Today it is known that our personality and behavior are far less determined by the genetic background. Especially during development environmental factors can shape brain and behavior via so-called epigenetic effects. Thereby hormones play an important role. netic predisposition. However, it is relatively hard to discriminate the effects of the environment from that of the genes.  |
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