Monthly Archives: February 2018

Oregon woman first known case of human infected with cattle eyeworm species

An August 2016 call to an infectious disease hotline OHSU runs for Northwest physicians ended up being one for the record books.

Erin Bonura, M.D., assistant professor of medicine (infectious disease) at the OHSU School of Medicine, heard this on the other end of the line:

"'This patient has worms coming out of her eye. What are...

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#EpicDuckChallenge shows we can count on drones

A few thousand rubber ducks, a group of experienced wildlife spotters and a drone have proven the usefulness and accuracy of drones for wildlife monitoring.

A University of Adelaide study showed that monitoring wildlife using drones is more accurate than traditional counting approaches. This was published today in the British Ecological Society journal Methods in Ecology...

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When it comes to extinction, body size matters

On a certain level, extinction is all about energy. Animals move over their surroundings like pacmen, chomping up resources to fuel their survival. If they gain a certain energy threshold, they reproduce, essentially earning an extra life. If they encounter too many empty patches, they starve, and by the end of the level it's game...

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Bats as barometer of climate change

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Bats spend every night hard at work for local farmers, consuming over half of their own weight in insects, many of which are harmful agricultural pests, such as the noctuid moths, corn earworm and fall armyworm. And now they are arriving earlier in the season, and some of them are reluctant...
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Middle Earth preserved in giant bird dung

While the giant birds that once dominated New Zealand are all extinct, a study of their preserved dung (coprolites) has revealed many aspects of their ancient ecosystem, with important insights for ongoing conservation efforts.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, the study, by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient...

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Recordings spout secrets behind blue whale behavior

Researchers are using underwater microphones to interpret and characterize the calls of blue whales swimming through Southern California's oceans, revealing new insights into the behavior of these endangered marine mammals, according to new research being presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting here on Tuesday.

Stretching nearly 30 meters (100 feet) long and weighing up to 172...

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