News by Subject Biology

Pulmonary hypertension is a type of high blood pressure that affects the lungs of both animals and people. When tiny vessels in the lungs become narrowed or blocked, it becomes harder for blood to flow through and can cause the heart to weaken or fail.

Human medicines that act on important signal systems in the brain make fish bolder, shows a new study on three-spined sticklebacks by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The results reinforce that the signal substances serotonin and dopamine play important roles in behavioral differences between individuals. Further, it shows that drugs that end up in the natural environment may have consequences for animal life. The study has been published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Multidrug-resistant bacteria are found in half of all dog foods made from raw meat, researchers from the University of Zurich have found. Feeding pets a diet of raw meat, also known as a 'BARF' diet, is a growing trend. The resistant bacteria in the raw food can be transmitted to the pets -- and thus also to humans.

A fast knee-jerk 'ballistic' escape response and a more considered 'delayed' escape response are mediated by distinct and parallel neuronal pathways in zebrafish, according to a study published October 15, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Harold Burgess of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues.

GPS tracking data reveals that the foraging activity of the European nightjar more than doubles during moon-lit nights, and the birds then migrate simultaneously about 10 days after the full moon, according to a study published Oct. 15 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Gabriel Norevik and Anders Hedenström of Lund University in Sweden, and colleagues.

Many creatures, including humans, can determine quantities up to four at a glance, but struggle to distinguish four from five. However, scientists based in Australia and France wondered if honeybees might be able to do better if trained correctly. Amazingly, they discovered that bees can learn to distinguish four from five if they receive a bitter tasting reprimand when they make mistakes during training. Honeybees are better mathematicians than we had thought.

Border collies are highly trainable, greyhounds love to chase, and German shepherds make good guard dogs. While the environment plays a role, traits like these are highly heritable, according to a study of 101 dog breeds by a team of researchers including James Serpell of the University of Pennsylvania. The work identifies 131 genetic variants associated with breed differences in behavior.