Category Archives: Medicinal News

Invasive species and habitat loss our biggest biodiversity threats

Invasive species and habitat loss are the biggest threats to Australian biodiversity, according to new research by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub in partnership with The University of Queensland.

Lead researcher Stephen Kearney from UQ's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences said Australia was rich in unique biodiversity, but has had a poor track record since...

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How fruit flies ended up in our fruit bowls

Fruit flies can be a scourge in our homes, but to date no-one has known how they became our uninvited lodgers. For decades, researchers have searched for their origins and now a Swedish-American research team has succeeded. They have also discovered that fruit flies in the wild are far more picky than their domesticated counterparts,...

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Wild African fruit flies offer clues to their modern-day domestic life

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is quite possibly the most studied organism on the planet. Fruit flies are also quite familiar residents in many of our kitchens, attracted as they are to the fruit bowl. But how do the flies live in the wild? Surprisingly little is known.

Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on December...

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Parrot genome analysis reveals insights into longevity, cognition

Parrots are famously talkative, and a blue-fronted Amazon parrot named Moises -- or at least its genome -- is telling scientists volumes about the longevity and highly developed cognitive abilities that give parrots so much in common with humans. Perhaps someday, it will also provide clues about how parrots learn to vocalize so well.

Morgan Wirthlin,...

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