News by Subject Biology

ORNL Story Tips: Pandemic impact, root studies, neutrons confirm, lab on a crystal and modeling fusion.

Scientists have provided new insights on the relationship between plant diversity in forests and the diversity of organisms involved in their decay, such as bacteria and fungi.

Forty years after Dan Luoma found an unsual truffle collection, scientists confirmed it is a new species and named it after Luoma. 

New system infuses 'R0' models with climate information to help public health agencies forecast places and times when environmental conditions might enhance transmission of dengue, Zika and other Aedes-borne diseases

Researchers examined the outcome of an entangled bottlenose dolphin calf with monofilament fishing line wrapped tightly around its upper jaw. It was successfully disentangled and immediately released it back into its natural habitat. Surviving only two years, results showed long-term severe damage due to this entanglement including emaciation. There are about 1,000 bottlenose dolphins that live in the Indian River Lagoon, which also is a very popular location for recreational fishing.

Clean-up devices that collect waste from the ocean surface won't solve the plastic pollution problem, a new study shows.

Finding out if the food and water we consume are safe from toxic and carcinogenic metals can now be much faster and simpler. Researchers at the University Johannesburg developed an efficient and more sensitive method to test for dangerous levels of heavy metals, like arsenic, cadmium and chromium in vegetables and water. The method can be used to test other foods also. A clay-based adsorbent makes testing for several metals at the same time possible.

Like humans, cattle are social creatures with complex relationships that change as group dynamics evolve. New research into social grooming interactions between a small herd of dairy cows illustrated patterns of behavior that could be used to better align future farm management practices with the social needs of bovines. Previous research has demonstrated that happier cows are healthier and more productive.

A long-term study on cycads in Guam has revealed how rapidly invasive species devastated the native Cycas micronesica species and the key factors that have influenced the plant's mortality. The research -- conducted by the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center at the University of Guam and the College of Micronesia-FSM -- is published in the May 2020 issue of Diversity, a peer-reviewed journal published by MDPI.

Soils harbour a substantial part of the world's biodiversity, yet data on the patterns and processes taking place below ground does not represent all relevant ecosystems and taxa. For example, tropical and subtropical regions largely remain a blind spot when it comes to soil biodiversity. This is one of the results of a new study published in Nature Communications and led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Leipzig University (UL).