5,537 results
5,537 results for: Forests
- Plants
Orchid bends around to insert pollen
An orchid species in China has set a new record for acrobatics in self-pollination, twisting its male organs around and inserting them into the cavity where the female organ lies.
- Earth
Alaskan coral beds get new protection
To protect cold-water corals, huge areas of Alaskan waters will be off limits to trawls and other fishing gear that typically scrape the seafloor.
- Tech
Litmus test gets tiny
When zapped by a laser, new, light-sensitive nanobaubles could provide a reading of pH, or how acidic or basic a solution is, even from deep inside living cells.
- Earth
Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska
Genetic analyses of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that some stands of that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age.
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Blood clot protein is stretchiest natural fiber ever found
The protein that forms the backbone of blood clots can stretch to several times its own length and then snap back to its original size.
- Earth
Mercury Rising: Natural wildfires release pollutant
Fires in high-latitude forests and peaty soils of the Northern Hemisphere may loft hundreds of tons of mercury into the atmosphere each year.
- Anthropology
Chimps spread out their tools
Chimpanzees use stones to crack nuts in an African region far from where that behavior was thought to be relegated.
- Earth
Plowing Down the Amazon: Satellites reveal conversion of forest to farmland
The clearing of jungle to create cropland is a major and previously underappreciated force behind deforestation in the Amazon region of Brazil, according to an analysis of satellite images.
- Animals
Family Tree: An arboreal genome is sequenced
Researchers have sequenced the genome of a tree for the first time.
- Paleontology
Mastodons in Musth: Tusks may chronicle battles between males
Damage in the fossil tusks of male mastodons suggests that the creatures engaged in fierce combat with rival males at a certain time of year each year of their adult lives.
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Age Becomes Her: Male chimpanzees favor old females as mates
Male chimpanzees in Uganda prefer to mate with older females, a possible sign of males' need to identify successful mothers in a promiscuous mating system.
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Oceans reveal secrets of viruses
Scientists have completed the first survey of virus DNA in oceans around the world.
