News by Subject Biology

The E75 protein is a key regulator of some biological rhythms through interactions with nitric oxide. Suppression of E75 results in longer molt cycles and reduced numbers of offspring in the water flea, Daphnia magna. The work also raises questions about the ability of nitric oxide from environmental sources to disrupt biological rhythms that are critical to population sustainability.

Blooms of blue-green algae have flourished across much of the United States this year. New research from UToledo suggests the toxins those blooms produce can significantly amplify non-alcoholic fatty liver disease at levels below what would harm a healthy liver.

A toxic cocktail of chemical pollutants in US drinking water could result in more than 100,000 cancer cases, according to a peer-reviewed study from Environmental Working Group -- the first study to conduct a cumulative assessment of cancer risks due to 22 carcinogenic contaminants found in drinking water nationwide.

Four substances isolated from Mimosa caesalpiniifolia were found to be more effective against thrush and candida than was fluconazole. Brazilian researchers are developing an ointment.

New University of Saskatchewan research shows how the world's most widely used insecticides could be partly responsible for dramatic declines in farmland bird populations. In the first experiment to track effects of a neonicotinoid pesticide on birds in the wild, the team found that white-crowned sparrows who consumed small doses of imidacloprid insecticide suffered weight loss and delays to their migration -- effects that could severely harm the birds' chances of surviving and reproducing.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced today that animal testing to assess the safety of products under EPA's authority will be substantially reduced in 6 years and phased out by 2035.