Archive for the ‘Matter, energy, and organization in living systems’ Category

Assembly-lines don’t work for ants! - Thursday, November 27th, 2008

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?

“Store that fat” says new gene. Is obesity explained? - Thursday, December 20th, 2007

New discovery shows how all animals store fat in cells, could lead to advances in fight against obesity or diabetes. Funny, maybe storing fat is a good thing.

Music and speech - Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Most music is built on the 12-tone “chromatic” scale. Does this reflect chance, or the basic structure of the human voice? New study finds tight link between pronunciation and musical scale.

Flying with bats - Thursday, May 10th, 2007

New study shows how they stay aloft, turn on a dime. Freeze-frame pix of bats flying show unexpectedly complex flight patterns. Meet evolution’s second answer to the problem of vertebrate flight.

New Trick for Water Pistol of the Sea - Thursday, October 12th, 2006

How’s a hungry fish supposed to make a living in the shallow water below tropical mangrove trees? Hint: Squirt, squirt!

Nobel Prizefight - Thursday, October 23rd, 2003

Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology given to inventors of MRI machine — but were these guys really the inventors? Meet an unprecedented PR campaign to change the Nobel.

Extinction: The Danger of Being Big! - Friday, November 16th, 2001

Giant crocodile relative raises question of why big animals go extinct faster. If an 11-meter croc can’t survive, what about a 2-meter Homo sapien?

Earthworms Wrecking Forests? - Thursday, August 31st, 2000

Alien earthworms are killing trees in northern deciduous forests. Are fishing people to blame?

Cool Science Images

SciMax Theater

Virtual Science!

You are currently browsing the archives for the Matter, energy, and organization in living systems category.

Twitter

That's bad. We're not fans of invasive species either. http://bit.ly/3QZwEt RT @WiscWaterLib: Bad news for Lake Michigan: http://ow.ly/E253 23 hrs ago
Just a tweet of thanks to everyone that has included us in their Twitter lists! Thank you! 1 day ago
Coming Thursday: Return of the wild: Coyotes, bears and turkeys are back! 1 day ago
Many environmentalists maintain that intense blasts of sonar, used to detect submarines, disorient, injure, and even kill marine mammals. 3 days ago
More updates...