Human-caused biodiversity decline started millions of years ago
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE human-caused biodiversity decline started much earlier than researchers used to believe. According to a new study published in the scientific journal Ecology Letters the process was not started by our own species but by some of our ancestors. The work was done by an international team of scientists from Sweden, Switzerland and the United […]
A biotechnologist’s success story
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY JOEL WILLIAM RECALLING my interview question for my first job; “How do you explain Biotechnology to a 5-year-old kid?” My answer was simply; “Using any form of living organism to convert low value products into high value products.” The simple definition basically means that humans have been practising biotechnology from ancient times when our […]
Dogs can count
Reading Time: < 1 minuteDogs spontaneously process basic numerical quantities, using a distinct part of their brains that corresponds closely to number-responsive neural regions in humans, finds a study at Emory University. Biology Letters published the results, which suggest that a common neural mechanism has been deeply conserved across mammalian evolution. The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) […]
Seasonal migrations shift earlier
Reading Time: 2 minutesIN what the authors believe is one of the first studies to examine climate change impact on the timing of bird migration on a continental scale, researchers report that spring migrants were likely to pass certain stops earlier now than they would have 20 years ago. Also, temperature and migration timing were closely aligned, with […]
New ant species found
Reading Time: 2 minutesWHILE new ant species are usually discovered in surveys involving researchers searching through leaf litter, it turns out that sifting through the stomach contents of insect-eating frogs might prove no less effective, especially when it comes to rare species. Such is the case of a new species of rarely collected long-toothed ant, discovered in the […]
Carolina parakeet extinction
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCHERS from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE, a joint institute of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) in Barcelona and the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen have unveiled the genome of the Carolina parakeet, declared extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. Researchers explored the […]
Moving but nowhere to go
Reading Time: 3 minutesMANY INSECTS moving north in response to climate change find they have nowhere to go in Britain’s intensively managed landscapes, according to new research. Since the 1970s, insects in the warmer half of Britain have been flying, hopping and crawling northwards at an average rate of around five metres per day. Landscapes that were once […]
Expert: Study and conserve local primates
Reading Time: 2 minutesWORLD renowned primate expert, Jane Goodall, has called on local wildlife agencies to protect and conserve the Malaysian primates. Describing humans as a major threat to efforts in protecting local wildlife, Goodall has called on relevant government agencies to halt the destruction of animal habitat and to establish research programmes to study and research local […]
The Telegraph: Monkeys gobbled up so many rats
Reading Time: 2 minutesBritain’s The Telegraph also screamed it out loud on this strange primate behaviour: “Killer rateating monkeys stun scientists in Malaysia”. The newspaper claimed that the monkeys gobbled so many rats, so much so, palm oil plantations in the Southeast Asian nation may no longer need chemical pest control! Pig-tailed macaques had previously been considered a […]
The 5Ws and H of Science continues…
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhich mammals lay leathery eggs? TWO MAMMALS, the duck-billed platypus and the echidna (spiny anteater), do not give birth to live young. Instead, they are very primitive for mammals because, like reptiles and birds, they lay eggs rather than having live birth. They lay eggs that are protected by leathery shells. After laying eggs in […]