Monthly Archives: February 2018

The field of biomimetics offers an innovative approach to solving human problems by imitating strategies found in nature. Medical research could also benefit from biomimetics, as a group of international experts from various fields, including a wildlife veterinarian and wildlife ecologists from Vetmeduni Vienna, point out using the example of chronic kidney disease. In future...

A new study sheds light on the magnitude of microplastic pollution in our oceans. The study, published today in open-access journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found microplastics in the stomachs of nearly three out of every four mesopelagic fish caught in the Northwest Atlantic -- one of the highest levels globally. These findings are worrying,...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The antioxidant drug ebselen can prevent sexual transmission of Zika virus from male to female mice, according to new research. The results hint at a potential role for ebselen in preventing Zika spread among humans....

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As winters arrive later and snow melts earlier, the worldwide decrease in snow cover already may have dramatic impacts on animals that change coat colors with the seasons. An international scientific team has set out to discover whether adaptive evolution can rescue these animals in the face of rapidly changing climate....

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The bigger the area to pollinate, the more species of wild bees you need to pollinate it....

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Two lineages of dangerous arachnids found in Australia -- long classified as distantly related in the official taxonomy -- are, in fact, relatively close evolutionary cousins. The lineages include the most venomous spiders in the world. The findings could help in the development of novel antivenoms, as well as point to...