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Study looks at sensing, movement and behavior
Driving down a country road at night your car’s headlights illuminate a deer in your path, and the creature doesn’t move. Depending on your speed and other conditions, chances are good you will hit the deer. And if you do, it’s because you are in what is fittingly defined as the “collision mode,” according to a Northwestern University study, published online Nov. 13 by the journal
PLoS Biology.
Mice use specialized neurons to detect carbon dioxide in the air
For mice, carbon dioxide often means danger - too many animals breathing in too small a space or a hungry predator exhaling nearby. Mice have a way of detecting carbon dioxide, and new research from Rockefeller University shows that a special set of olfactory neurons is involved, a finding that may have implications for how predicted increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide may affect animal behavior. The finding is reported in the August 17 issue of the journal
Science.
Is there a pilot in the insect?
When they fly, insects use their vision for piloting, just like human pilots. The electric signals from their facetted eyes travel through specialized neurons to stimulate the wing muscles, which let the insects correct their flight and avoid crashes. Could these same neurons be used in a sort of "automatic pilot"?
Sea urchin genome could shed light on human disease
Scientists have sequenced the genome of the sea urchin, an invertebrate surprisingly similar to man, a step that could help develop new treatment for human disease such as cancer, said a study released Thursday.
Snakes’ heat vision enables accurate attacks on prey
Call it a sixth sense, or evolution’s gift to these cold-blooded reptiles: some snakes have infrared vision. Also called “heat vision,” the infrared rays, which have longer wavelengths than those of visible light, signify the presence of warm-blooded prey in 3 dimensions, which helps snakes aim their attacks. Pit vipers and boids, the two snake types that possess this ability, have heat-sensitive membranes that can detect the difference in temperature between a moving prey—such as a running mouse—and its surroundings on the scale of milliKelvins.
The Secret Lives Of Sea Slugs
It turns out that the sea slug isn't really that sluggish after all. So says the first broad field study of this charismatic orange creature's behavior in the wild, which was just published in the April 2006 issue of The Biological Bulletin.
UA Part of Group That is Unraveling How the Brain Manages Memory
A group of scientists, including two neuroscientists from The University of Arizona, may have resolved a long-standing controversy about the role of a part of the brain that is a key component of memory. The group is the Centre for the Biology of Memory at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Their results are published in today's (July 22) issue of Science.
The Color of Evolution: How One Fish Became Two Fish
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since Darwin discovered that species can evolve, scientists have wondered how new species form. Answering this question is the key to understanding the diversity of all of life. A group of colorful fishes in Africa's Lake Victoria have been the focus of scientific efforts to unravel how new species form. This lake contains more than 500 species of cichlids, which play a leading role because of their rapid speciation and remarkable diversity. Still, the mechanisms involved in the rapid appearance of new cichlid species have remained elusive to scientists.
