Tag:biology

Feb 4, 2014

NC State Ants Boldly Go Into Space

NC State is helping to colonize space. A group of pavement ants collected by postdoc Clint Penick in Western North Carolina is now orbiting the earth on the International Space Station. Find out about the final frontier ofscience.

Jan 8, 2014

Poisonous Water Leads to Bigger, But Fewer, Fish Babies

Living in extreme environments often entails taking extreme measures to survive. Live-bearing fish mothers in toxic North and South American waters try to give their offspring the best chance at surviving the harsh environment by giving birth to big babies, according to research published in Ecology Letters. The study examining nine different live-bearing fishspecies…

Dec 17, 2013

Rainforest Life: Food Versus Fear

For a rainforest animal like the agouti, life revolves around the tension between food and fear. While foraging for seeds from the black palm tree, the rabbit-sized rodent has to avoid hungry ocelots. Living in an area where food is scarce greatly increases an agouti’s willingness to venture out of its burrow between sunset和…

Nov 8, 2013

Nothing to See Here

“Blend in” appears to be the mantra for male Bahamas mosquitofish that live near predators. After all, fish with brighter, more colorful fins or patches are more conspicuous – and standing out with predators around could be a death sentence. So these fish evolve duller colors under the threat of predation, to try andhide…

Sep 16, 2013

Finding Cellular Causes of Lung-Hardening Disease

特发性肺纤维化, or IPF, is an incurable lung disease that, over time, turns healthy lung tissue into inflexible scar tissue – hardening the lungs and eventually causing respiratory distress and death. Currently, there is no cure. Phil Sannes, a professor of cell biology, studies IPF on the cellular level. In his most recentresearch,…

Aug 15, 2013

New Carnivore in the Cloud Forest

看起来像一个介于两磅重的哺乳动物a house cat and a teddy bear has a claim to fame as the first new carnivore species discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. Today, scientists in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh unveiled the olonguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe), a member of the same family as raccoons,coatis,…

Aug 14, 2013

My Color Patch Is Shinier Than His

Evolutionary biologists have long suspected that intense competition for mates may speed up the formation of new species, but it has been difficult to find evidence of this effect. In a new paper, NC State biologist Carlos Botero, co-author Nathalie Seddon and colleagues report that bird populations accumulate differences in their physical appearance more quicklyif…

Jul 18, 2013

New Technique for Assessing Calorie Absorption Sheds Light on Genetic Driver of Obesity

Researchers from Harvard, NC State and five other universities have found a specific genetic on-off switch associated with obesity in both mice and humans, raising the long-term possibility of developing new treatments for obesity. As part of the study, NC State researchers had to develop a new technique for assessing calorie absorption in small laboratory animals,which…

Jul 1, 2013

Is This Mouse a Pirate?

Did a field researcher somehow capture a pirate mouse? No! This raffish rodent is part of a study that is evaluating how harvesting plants for use in biofuels is affecting ecosystems. The photographer, NC State Ph.D. student Sarah Fritts, took the photo – and explains what we’re looking at. “Renewable energy likely will become thedominant…

Jun 18, 2013

Scientists Seek to Solve Oystercatcher Mystery – and You Can Watch Online

Oystercatchers are beautiful birds, but to biologists they are also a mystery waiting to be solved. And the solution will be gradually revealing itself online over the next couple of years. Wildlife biologists are particularly interested in oystercatchers because they are a good indicator species for determining whether a natural space is being wellmanaged.…

Jun 3, 2013

That Four-Leaf Clover You Found May Not Be a Four-Leaf Clover

Are four-leaf clovers becoming more common? That was the question put to me by a reader recently. Apparently her kids are finding four-leaf clovers on a daily basis as they walk home from school. What gives? While it is possible that her children are simply amazing four-leaf clover finders, it’s more likely that the“four-leaf…

May 2, 2013

Paper Offers Framework for Amazon Oil and Gas Development

Oil and gas development continues to press into the most remote corners of the western Amazon, one of the most biologically and culturally diverse zones on Earth. Now a study proposes a new 10-point, best-practice framework that combines technical engineering criteria with consideration of ecological and social concerns to reduce the negative impacts ofAmazonian…

Apr 16, 2013

Cretaceous Cold Cases No. 1: A Case With Legs

This is the first post in a series called “Cretaceous Cold Cases” in which the science of taphonomy, or prehistoric forensics, is explained and exemplified by fascinating cases from the files of Terry “Bucky” Gates, a research scientist with a joint appointment at NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Summer, 2001.It…

Feb 28, 2013

New Species of Plant-Eating Dino Was Lunch for Prehistoric Crocs

Sometimes, the fossil record gives us some really exciting insights into prehistoric life – including grisly details of prehistoric death. Paleontologists have found evidence not only of a new species of herbivorous, or plant-eating, dinosaur, but also that these dinosaurs were preyed upon by the prehistoric forebears of crocodiles. Seventy-five million years ago, southernUtah…

Jan 7, 2013

Drawing on Real Life

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Jennifer Landin, a teaching assistant professor of biology at NC State who teaches a course on biological illustration. Check out why she thinks biological illustration is valuable – and some of the art created in her classroom. While other universities have biological illustration courses, as far asI…