Physiology
- Life
Insulin-suppressing hormone discovered
A newly discovered hormone suppresses insulin production and secretion in fruit flies and maybe in humans.
- Neuroscience
Decoding sommeliers’ brains, one squirt of wine at a time
Researchers use a ‘gustometer’ to control wine portions in experiments comparing the brains of sommeliers and novices.
- Animals
Cone snail deploys insulin to slow speedy prey
Fish-hunting cone snails turns insulin into a weapon that drops their prey’s blood sugar and eases capture.
- Animals
Mountain migration is a roller coaster for bar-headed geese
Bar-headed geese rise and fall to match terrain below them when migrating over the Himalayas.
- Life
Hydrogen sulfide offers clue to how reducing calories lengthens lives
Cutting calories boosts hydrogen sulfide production, which leads to more resilient cells and longer lives, a new study suggests.
- Life
Electric eels remote-control nervous systems of prey
Electric eels’ high-voltage zaps turn a prey fish against itself, making it freeze in place or betray a hiding place.
- Life
Iguanas’ one-way airflow undermines usual view of lung evolution
Simple-looking structures create sophisticated one-way air flow in iguana lungs, undermining old scenarios of lung evolution.
- Plants
How female ferns make younger neighbors male
Precocious female ferns release a partly formed sexual-identity hormone, and nearby laggards finish it and go masculine.
- Animals
Looking for, not catching, prey drains big cats’ energy
For some big cats, ambushing prey in quick attacks may ease the high energy cost of hunting, new studies show.
- Plants
Borrowed genes raise hopes for fixing “slow and confused” plant enzyme
Inserting some bacterial Rubisco chemistry into a plant might one day boost photosynthesis and help raise crop yields.
- Life
For yeast life span, calorie restriction may be a wash
A new technique for growing and tracking yeast cells finds caloric restriction doesn’t lengthen life span, though some researchers question the study method.
- Animals
Parchment worms are best pinched in the dark
Meek tube-dwelling worms have strange glowing mucus and build papery tubes.
