Friday, 25 May, 2012

Three giant new reserves, extend 50 miles out from shore, will protect coral reefs, fish, clams, and other life forms. But how effective are marine protected areas?

Did the arrival of 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons of space junk start the formation of organic molecules roughly 4 billion years ago? “Could be,” says a new study from Japan…

Specialization may work in factories, but it does not make ant colonies more efficient. As the conventional wisdom about social insects goes topsy-turvy, what’s an ecologist to think?

The color, vision and genetics of an African fish all vary depending on the clarity of its home waters. A new study suggests how species can form without geographic barriers.

Along the coast of Baja, California, a new study finds that parasites outweigh top predators. What does this mean for ecology, and what is the story with “castrating parasites”?

How does momma croc know when to dig up the young? How do the embryos know when to start hatching? The secret’s in the song…

Mice can tell the sex, mating status and identity of another mouse — all from sniffing urine. A new study of how mice read pheromones also gives insight into the human sensory apparatus…

Minute sand dollar larvae, tasty morsels in a sea of famished fish, have a clever way to help ensure their genes are passed to the next generation.

Hawaii is the world’s capital of biological invasions. A new airborne gadget measures how bad the situation has become; offers aid in fighting weedy trees.

Japan says it must kill hundreds of whales each year to do “research” on them; but science has plenty of ways to study whales without killing them. Digital-recording tags, whale songs, even whale scats, are the best ways to study these mysterious marine mammals.