Category Archives: Medicinal News

How eggplants became asian: Genomes and elephants tell the story

The evolutionary context of the eggplant was until recently very poorly known. Historical documents and genetic data have shown that the eggplant was first domesticated in Asia, but most of its wild relatives are from Africa. Researchers from the Natural History Museums of London (NHM) and Finland (University of Helsinki) managed to obtain the first...

Read more

Scientists identify a new kind of human brain cell

One of the most intriguing questions about the human brain is also one of the most difficult for neuroscientists to answer: What sets our brains apart from those of other animals?

"We really don't understand what makes the human brain special," said Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. "Studying the differences...

Read more

Serial criminals could help save tigers

A geographic profiling tool used to catch serial criminals could help reduce the casualties of human-tiger conflict, according to scientists who collaborated on an innovative conservation research study.

The results of their research, published in Nature Communications, help explain how villagers in Sumatra coexist with tigers. If used pre-emptively it could have helped cut attacks by...

Read more

In the race of life, the tortoise beats the hare every time

Over the long-run, the race will indeed go to the slower, steadier animal.

"The fable of 'The Tortoise and the Hare' is a metaphor about life, not a story about a race," said Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. "We see in animal life two starkly different lifestyles -- one...

Read more

Beluga whales and narwhals go through menopause

Scientists have discovered that beluga whales and narwhals go through the menopause -- taking the total number of species known to experience this to five.

Aside from humans, the species now known to experience menopause are all toothed whales -- belugas, narwhals, killer whales and short-finned pilot whales.

Almost all animals continue reproducing throughout their lives, and...

Read more

Red light at night: A potentially fatal attraction to migratory bats

Night time light pollution is rapidly increasing across the world. Nocturnal animals are likely to be especially affected but how they respond to artificial light is still largely unknown. In a new study, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Berlin, Germany, tested the response of European bats to red...

Read more