Category Archives: News & Archives

Could a super snake emerge from Everglades pythons? New DNA study raises possibility

What started out as a straightforward genetic study of Florida’s invasive python population has turned up a surprising plot twist: a small number of crossbred Burmese and Indian pythons with the potential to become a kind of Everglades super snake. For the study, published Sunday in the journal Ecology and Evolution, U.S. Geological Survey researchers examined the tail…

Tracking the evolution and transmission of yellow fever

A pioneering Oxford University research collaboration into yellow fever virus (YFV) has shed new light on the exceptional recent outbreak in Brazil and how the virus spreads. The findings have implications for monitoring viral transmission and could potentially contribute to a strategy for eliminating YFV worldwide. Published in Science, the international collaboration coordinated by scientists from…

What is red tide? Why is it killing fish? And can it make humans sick?

We’re answering some of your biggest questions about red tide and its impact on Manatee County and Anna Maria Island. What is red tide? According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: “A red tide, or harmful algal bloom, is a higher-than-normal concentration of a microscopic algae (plantlike organism). In Florida and the Gulf of…

Death toll from Hurricane Maria estimated to be larger than previously thought

The number of people who died as a result of Hurricane Maria -- which hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 -- may be as high as 1,139, surpassing the official death count of 64, according to researchers. The researchers used official government records to calculate the number, which took into account not just those…

How to make the gene-editing tool CRISPR work even better

Among the most significant scientific advances in recent years are the discovery and development of new ways to genetically modify living things using a fast and affordable technology called CRISPR. Now scientists at The University of Texas at Austin say they've identified an easy upgrade for the technology that would lead to more accurate gene…

First North American co-occurrence of Hadrosaur and Therizinosaur tracks found in Alaska

An international team of paleontologists and other geoscientists has discovered the first North American co-occurrence of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks in the lower Cantwell Formation within Denali National Park, suggesting that an aspect of the continental ecosystem of central Asia was also present in this part of Alaska during the Late Cretaceous. This comprehensive cross-disciplinary…

The Trump administration wants to roll back the Endangered Species Act. These 10 animals might not be here today without it.

Since it was passed 45 years ago, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has protected thousands of plants and animals that humans have pushed from their habitats and driven close to extinction. Today, there are more than 2,300 plants and animals with protected status in the US and abroad, with the Louisiana pine snake becoming the…

Underground Lake of Liquid Water Detected on Mars

Just a mile or so beneath the surface, near the south pole of Mars, there is a reservoir of briny water sloshing and churning below layers of ice and rock. This subglacial lake, discovered by a ground-penetrating radar on the Mars Express spacecraft, is about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) wide and perhaps no more than…

Scientists reverse aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss in a mouse model

Wrinkled skin and hair loss are hallmarks of aging. What if they could be reversed? Keshav Singh, Ph.D., and colleagues have done just that, in a mouse model developed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. When a mutation leading to mitochondrial dysfunction is induced, the mouse develops wrinkled skin and extensive, visible hair loss…

Discovery of kidney cancer driver could lead to new treatment strategy

University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have uncovered a potential therapeutic target for kidney cancers that have a common genetic change. Scientists have known this genetic change can lead to an overabundance of blood vessels, which help feed nutrients to the tumors. Their latest finding shows a potential new cancer-driving pathway. More…