Controversial research group linked to Wuhan discovers never-before-seen virus in bats in Thailand with 'almost' as much potential as Covid to infect humans
British zoologist Dr Peter Daszak, a central and controversial figure in the debate about Covid's origins, has revealed he's found a close relative of the virus living in bats found in Thai caves. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - January 10, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
House-proud Welsh mouse may be ‘tidying’ for fun, say scientists
The rodent was filmed repeatedly gathering objects and placing them in a tray in a shed in Builth WellsMice like to keep themselves clean, but does this diligence extend to their homes? Video footage of a mouse gathering up objects in a shed and placing them neatly inside a box, night after night, has been interpreted as evidence for “mousekeeping”. But there could be other explanations for this curious behaviour, experts say.The Builth Wells rodent, nicked named “Welsh Tidy Mouse” by the shed’s owner, Rodney Holbrook, was recorded gathering clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts and placing them in a tray on Holbro...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 8, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Linda Geddes Science correspondent Tags: Animals Wales Zoology Neuroscience UK news Source Type: news
Ukrainian scientists tally the grave environmental consequences of the Kakhovka Dam disaster
Kyiv and Odesa, Ukraine—
In the predawn hours of 6 June 2023, a pair of explosions rocked the Kakhovka Dam, a 3-kilometer-long hydropower facility on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Waking up that morning to the unfolding catastrophe, “I couldn’t believe it,” recalls Volodymyr Osadchyi, director of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI). “I thought it had to be fake news.” But footage captured by a Ukrainian military drone showed water from one of Europe’s largest reservoirs gushing through a gaping breach in the dam.
Over the next 4 days, 18 cubic kilometers of water surged downs...
Source: ScienceNOW - January 4, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Calls for reptile star of Attenborough hit to be named after man who found it
Complaints amateur fossil hunter Philip Jacobs was ‘airbrushed’ from BBC film about pliosaur discoveryA campaign has been launched to have a reptile that starred in Sir David Attenborough ’s latest blockbuster documentary named after the amateur fossil hunter who found it, after complaints he was “airbrushed” from the BBC show.Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster, which won widespread acclaim, has been criticised for only mentioning the finder of the pliosaur skull, Philip Jacobs, in the credits at the end of the programme.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 3, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Steven Morris Tags: David Attenborough BBC One Fossils Television & radio Dorset Science Zoology Media Culture UK news Source Type: news
Mass whale strandings: what is behind the recent spate of ‘suicidal’ urges?
Scientists are still puzzled by these tragic events, usually involving pilot whales. Vital clues, however, may lie in the tight-knit social ties that give each pod a unique cultureIn July this year, responders scrambled to Traigh Mhor beach on the Isle of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland, to reach astranded pod of long-finned pilot whales. Most had already died. One was refloated and survived. The others were put down with a rifle.It was one of the UK ’s largest mass stranding events (MSE), and the team retrieved samples from the organs and tissues of every pod member. Though exhausting and upsetting, the work revea...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - December 12, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Tom Mustill Tags: Whales Cetaceans Environment Marine life Oceans Wildlife Biology Science Zoology Source Type: news
‘Not dumb creatures.’ Livestock surprise scientists with their complex, emotional minds
Dummerstorf, Germany
—You’d never mistake a goat for a dog, but on an unseasonably warm afternoon in early September, I almost do. I’m in a red-brick barn in northern Germany, trying to keep my sanity amid some of the most unholy noises I’ve ever heard. Sixty Nigerian dwarf goats are taking turns crashing their horns against wooden stalls while unleashing a cacophony of bleats, groans, and retching wails that make it nearly impossible to hold a conversation. Then, amid the chaos, something remarkable happens. One of the animals raises her head over her enclosure and gazes pensively at me, her widely spaced eye...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
$20,000 monkeys: inside the booming illicit trade for lab animals
A lucrative underground trade risks undermining research, creating new pandemics and pushing a recently abundant species to the brinkIn 2019, Jonah Sacha, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, received a delivery of 20 monkeys from Mauritius. As part of his research into stem-cell transplants as an HIV treatment, he performs tests on long-tailed macaques.The captive-bred monkeys were legally imported using an approved vendor, and looked healthy. However, when Sacha tested them, one appeared to have latent tuberculosis (TB).Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - December 7, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Phoebe Weston Tags: Global development Illegal wildlife trade Environment Animals Endangered species Zoology Biology Conservation Source Type: news
10,000 naps a day: how chinstrap penguins survive on microsleeps
Scientists studying the birds in Antarctica have found they snooze for 11 hours a day without falling deeply asleepSpending your nights sleeping for just four seconds at a time might sound like a form of torture, but not for chinstrap penguins, which fall asleep thousands of times a day, new research finds.Scientists studying the birds on King George Island in Antarctica found they nod off more than 10,000 times a day, allowing them to keep a constant eye on their nests, protecting eggs and chicks from predators. In total, the birds manage 11 hours of snoozing a day – without ever slipping into uninterrupted sleep.Contin...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - November 30, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Phoebe Weston Tags: Environment Birds Animals Wildlife World news Antarctica Sleep Zoology Science Source Type: news
‘Cultural vandalism’: row as Kew Gardens and Natural History Museum plan to move collections out of London
Scientific specimens and research facilities set to be rehoused in Reading University science park, alongside British Museum archiveIt is intended to be a world-leading research facility that will house some of the UK ’s greatest collections of historical, botanical and zoological samples. Millions of ancient mosaics and pieces of sculpture, rare plant specimens and fossil remnants will be taken from theBritish Museum, theRoyal Botanical Gardens at Kew and the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London and rehoused at Reading University ’s Thames Valley Science Park in Shinfield, Berkshire.London ’s ageing buildings, cru...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - November 25, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Science editor Tags: Museums Natural History Museum British Museum Kew Gardens Culture Science Science policy UK news Reading Source Type: news
Hitler beetle, Trump moth, Beyonc é fly: is it time to rethink naming of species?
Some scientists say the rules must be changed so plants and animals are not tagged with ‘objectionable’ namesIn 1937, a brown, eyeless beetle was found in a few caves in Slovenia. The new species was unexceptional apart from one feature. Its discoverer decided to name it after Adolf Hitler.Anophthalmus hitleri has an objectionable sound to modern ears. Nor is it alone. Many species ’ names recall individuals or ideas that offend: the butterflyHypopta mussolinii, for example, while several hundred plant species carry names based on the wordcaffrawhich is derived from a racial slur once used in Africa. SimilarlyHibbert...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - November 5, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Science Editor Tags: Taxonomy Animals Natural History Museum Biology Zoology Science Insects Environment Wildlife Source Type: news
Deforestation, Encroachment Threaten West Africa ’s One Health Plans
Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary – a conservation center dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and protecting Sierra Leone’s national chimpanzee. Credit: Stella Paul/IPSBy Stella PaulFREETOWN, Nov 3 2023 (IPS) Thirty-three years ago, Bala Amerasekaran – a Sri Lankan by birth – visited Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since then, the West African nation has been his home, where Amerasekaran has dedicated his life to conserving the chimpanzee – Sierra Leone’s national animal.
In 1995, with support from the national government, he founded Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary – the country’s first conservation center that rescue...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - November 3, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Stella Paul Tags: Africa Biodiversity Conservation COVID-19 Environment Featured Headlines Health Sustainable Development Goals TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Sierra Leone Source Type: news
Leading dolphin expert receives Zoological Society of London's Scientific Medal
A University of Bristol academic specialising in dolphin social behaviour has scooped the Zoological Society of London ’ s (ZSL) Scientific Medal. (Source: University of Bristol news)
Source: University of Bristol news - October 23, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Grants and Awards; Faculty of Life Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Biological Sciences; Press Release Source Type: news
The lost world: Venezuela ’s unique tepui frogs face new perils
Living in carnivorous plants or rolling like balls to flee from predators, amphibians on these tabletop peaks evolved like no others. Can they avoid extinction as their home heats up?The tabletop mountains in Venezuela are sheltered, otherworldly ecosystems. Standing up to 3,000 metres (10,000ft) high and cut off from the rest of the world by their steep cliffs, much of the flora and fauna on the sandstone plateaux has evolved in isolation and is found nowhere else on Earth.“Visiting atepui feels a lot like stepping on another planet, ” says Margarita Lampo, an ecologist at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Resea...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 14, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Luke Taylor Tags: Endangered species Amphibians Venezuela Conservation Animals Environment Wildlife Americas Climate crisis Zoology Biology Science World news Mountains IUCN red list of endangered species Mining Amazon rainforest Source Type: news
Botanists fight removal of plant specimens from one of the world ’s most spectacular gardens
The herbarium at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew may be the largest and most significant plant collection in the world. It contains more than 7 million specimens dried and pressed on paper sheets; laid end to end, they would extend three times the length of the United Kingdom. The research at Kew, in southwest London, is equally impressive, says Barbara Thiers, who for many years directed the herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden. “What Kew does is immensely important and immensely influential.”
But controversial
plans for the herbarium
, announced in June, have left Thiers and many other botanists worr...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Reanimated spiders and smart toilets triumph at Ig Nobel prizes
Electric chopsticks and ‘jamais vu’ studies also scoop awards recognising research that makes people ‘laugh, then think’From using dead spiders to grip objects to probing the weird feeling that occurs when the same word is written over and over again, researchers investigating some of the quirkiest conundrums in science have been honoured in this year ’sIg Nobel prizes.Unlike the rather more stately Nobel prizes – which will be announced next month – the Ig Nobel prizes celebrate unusual areas of research that “make people laugh, then think”. They also come with a rather less majestic cheque: this year’...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - September 14, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Ig Nobel prizes Science prizes Zoology Geology Health Source Type: news
