Beer Or Sugar Water? For Flies, The Choice Is Pale Ale
Scientists in California think they’ve figure out why flies like beer. That may sound a bit trivial, but in fact it could lead to new ways of combating plant and animal pests. That flies like beer is well known. “The attraction of flies to beer was first reported in the early 1920s,” says Anupama Dahanukar. [...]
Scientists Bag Small Game In Bathroom Germ Safari
Turns out Howard Hughes was right. The world is a very germy place, especially public restrooms. The reclusive billionaire, who had the world’s most notorious case of so-called germophobia, would go to just about any length to avoid contamination. He wore tissue boxes on his feet. He burned his clothing if someone near him got [...]
Photographer Captures Plight Of The Tiger
Showcasing the perils that tigers face today was a challenging assignment for photographer Steve Winter — but not for the reason you might think. Sure, it’s scary walking into the world of killer carnivores, but the seasoned photog has been in many dangerous situations before. Actually, Winter was preoccupied with how he was going to [...]
Bush Meat: When Conservation And Child Nutrition Collide
With its big, round eyes and bushy tail, the aye-aye lemur looks like a a cross between a monkey and a squirrel. To many people in Madagascar, it’s a tasty, traditional meal, and an excellent source of protein and iron. But with as few as 1,000 to 10,000 lemurs left on the island, conservationists say [...]
Arson Forensics Sets Old Fire Myths Ablaze
In 1990, a fire broke out in a house in Jacksonville, Fla., killing two women and four children. The husband of one of the women became the prime suspect, and that’s when a fire investigator named John Lentini was called in. At the time, Lentini says, the initial evidence pointed to a fire that was [...]
Perhaps Scientists Like Lab Mice TOO Much
The lab mouse is the most ubiquitous animal in biomedical research, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the best subject for researching disease. In a series of articles for Slate magazine, Daniel Engber looked into why the mouse is such a mainstay of science — and whether that’s a good thing. “All of this is [...]
Climate Panel: More Extreme Weather On The Way
Brace yourself for more extreme weather. A group of more than 200 scientists convened by the United Nations says in a new report that climate change will bring more heat waves, more intense rainfall and more expensive natural disasters. These conclusions are from the latest effort of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a [...]
First Watch: Hubble Soundtracks Hubble Telescope Images
It’s probably been 20 years since I’ve shifted uncomfortably in a reclining seat and beheld the galaxies in a planetarium. From the age of five to ten, my life was consumed first by dinosaurs, then space — both wonders limited to museums and illustrated books. (And then the Civil War, but maybe that’s a Georgia [...]
Bird Flu Research Rattles Bioterrorism Field
Scientists and security specialists are in the midst of a fierce debate over recent experiments on a strain of bird flu virus that made it more contagious. The big question: Should the results be made public? Critics say doing so could potentially reveal how to make powerful new bioweapons. The H5N1 virus has been circulating [...]
Why Brain Injuries Are More Common In Preemies
Scientists say they are beginning to understand why brain injuries are so common in very premature infants — and they are coming up with strategies to prevent or repair these injuries. The advances could eventually help reduce the number of premature babies who develop cerebral palsy, epilepsy or behavioral disorders such as ADHD, researchers told [...]
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