Category Archives: News & Archives

A Clever New Strategy for Treating Cancer, Thanks to Darwin

The large outer leaves of the vegetables were “literally riddled with holes, more than half their substance being eaten away.” With each step he took around the ravaged cabbages, tiny swarms of little ash-gray moths rose from the ground and flitted away. This was, it appears, the first record in the United States of the diamondback…

Fossil Site Reveals Day That Meteor Hit Earth and, Maybe, Wiped Out Dinosaurs

Sixty-six million years ago, a giant meteor slammed into Earth off the coast of modern-day Mexico. Firestorms incinerated the landscape for miles around. Even creatures thousands of miles away were doomed on that fateful day, if not by fire and brimstone, then by mega-earthquakes and waves of unimaginable size. Now, scientists have unearthed a remarkable trove of fossils…

Scientists hunt down the brain circuit responsible for alcohol cravings

Scientists at Scripps Research have found that they can reverse the desire to drink in alcohol-dependent rats -- with the flip of a switch. The researchers were able to use lasers to temporarily inactivate a specific neuronal population, reversing alcohol-seeking behavior and even reducing the physical symptoms of withdrawal. "This discovery is exciting -- it…

Study on Weed Killers and Monarch Butterflies Spurs Ecological Flap

Monarch butterfly populations have been declining since the 1990s, and several studies have linked this to the proliferation of crops genetically engineered to tolerate the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. Crops are routinely doused with it, killing all but the engineered plants—and the casualties include milkweed, on which monarchs exclusively lay their eggs. Some 850 million milkweed…

Study uncovers genetic switches that control process of whole-body regeneration

When it comes to regeneration, some animals are capable of amazing feats -- if you cut the leg off a salamander, it will grow back. When threatened, some geckos drop their tails as a distraction, and regrow them later. Other animals take the process even further. Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones can actually regenerate…

With single gene insertion, blind mice regain sight

It was surprisingly simple. University of California, Berkeley, scientists inserted a gene for a green-light receptor into the eyes of blind mice and, a month later, they were navigating around obstacles as easily as mice with no vision problems. They were able to see motion, brightness changes over a thousandfold range and fine detail on…

Where have all the butterflies gone? Monarch butterflies all but vanish in Idaho and the West

Something catastrophically wrong happened in 2018 to monarch butterflies. Idaho wildlife biologist Ross Winton spent years working with monarch butterflies. With the help of volunteers, he would carefully put a tiny tag the size of a paper hole punch on about 30 to 50 of the iconic insects each summer in the Magic Valley. Then…

Reforestation Drones Can Plant 100K Trees In An Hour

Sure, it’ll be great when a drone can drop off your Amazon Prime goodies or 7-Eleven snacks just minutes after you order them… but it’ll be even better when they help regrow millions of trees. That’s what U.K.-based BioCarbon Engineering has set out to do. The company has been developing a high-tech system that uses drones…

North America’s most endangered bird faces a new threat: feuding wildlife managers

North America’s most endangered bird, the grasshopper sparrow that inhabits Central Florida’s shrinking prairie, is facing a new threat: a feud among wildlife managers and scientists. In a letter to researchers last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it planned to shut down a Palm Beach County breeding program, the larger of only…

Susceptibility to Mental Illness May Have Helped Humans Adapt over the Millennia

Nearly one in five Americans currently suffers from a mental illness, and roughly half of us will be diagnosed with one at some point in our lives. Yet, these occurrences may have nothing to do with a genetic flaw or a traumatic event. Randolph Nesse, a professor of life sciences at Arizona State University, attributes…