Leptospirosis infections, caused by Leptospira bacteria, occur in people and animals around the world, but different strains of the bacteria may vary in their ability to cause disease and to jump between species. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have for the first time described the characteristics of the Leptospira variants that infect...
Novel flying robot mimics rapid insect flight
A novel insect-inspired flying robot, developed by TU Delft researchers from the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory (MAVLab), is presented in Science (14 September 2018). Experiments with this first autonomous, free-flying and agile flapping-wing robot -- carried out in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research -- improved our understanding of how fruit flies control aggressive escape...
Scientists use bear saliva to rapidly test for antibiotics
If you're looking into the mouth of a brown bear, one of the world's top predators, your chances of survival probably aren't good. But a team of Rutgers and other scientists has discovered a technology that rapidly assesses potentially lifesaving antibiotics by using bacteria in saliva from an East Siberian brown bear.
The technology involves placing...
Climate change may drive 10 percent of amphibian species in the Atlantic Rainforest to extinction
Global warming could lead to the extinction of up to 10% of frog and toad species endemic to Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest biome within about the next 50 years. The temperature and precipitation regimes predicted to occur between 2050 and 2070 will be lethal for species that are less well adapted to climate variation and inhabit...
Ancient bird bones redate human activity in Madagascar by 6,000 years
Analysis of bones, from what was once the world's largest bird, has revealed that humans arrived on the tropical island of Madagascar more than 6,000 years earlier than previously thought -- according to a study published today, 12 September 2018, in the journal Science Advances.
A team of scientists led by international conservation charity ZSL (Zoological...
Wild animals were routinely captured and traded in ancient Mesoamerica
New evidence from the Maya city of Copan, in Honduras, reveals that ancient Mesoamericans routinely captured and traded wild animals for symbolic and ritual purposes, according to a study published September 12, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nawa Sugiyama from George Mason University, Virginia, USA, and colleagues.
Ancient Mesoamerican cultures used wild animals...