Each sunrise in Las Cruces, Costa Rica, River Ingersoll's field team trekked into the jungle to put the finishing touches on nearly invisible nets. A graduate student in the lab of David Lentink, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, Ingersoll needed these delicate nets to catch, study and release the region's abundant hummingbirds...
Scientists investigate how DEET confuses countless critters
DEET, thought to be the most effective insect repellent available, may not be an insect repellent at all.
It's not that DEET doesn't keep away critters -- it verifiably does. However, Leslie B. Vosshall, Rockefeller's Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, has shown that DEET acts not by repelling bugs, but rather by confusing them, messing with neurons...
Millions of birds die in collisions each year, but lights could change that
Millions of birds die each year in collisions with planes, and airports have used everything from fireworks to herding dogs to scare them away. Some methods have been relatively successful, but they're useless after the plane takes off. Researchers at Purdue University may have just found a solution.
Red and blue LED lights lead some birds...
Giddy up: Help for plump ponies is fast on its way
QUT Professor Martin Sillence, from QUT's School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, said a new veterinary drug related to one used to treat human metabolic syndrome has been found to prevent laminitis in ponies with the equine version of metabolic syndrome.
"This is great news for horse and pony owners because until now we have...
African swine fever: No known risk to consumers
The ASF pathogen is a virus which infects domestic pigs and wild boar and which leads to a severe, often lethal, disease in these animals. It is transferred via direct contact or with excretions from infected animals, or through ticks. The ASF virus is endemic to infected wild animals in Africa, but there have also...
Tiger mosquitoes are capable of transmitting yellow fever
Since December 2016, Brazil has been grappling with its worst yellow fever outbreak for several decades. To date, there have been 2,043 human cases including 676 fatalities, mainly occurring in ten Brazilian states including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. These two states, the most heavily populated in Brazil, had been free of yellow fever...