ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Genetics reveals where emperor penguins survived the last ice age Posted: 01 Mar 2015 06:21 AM PST A study of how climate change has affected emperor penguins over the last 30,000 years found that only three populations may have survived during the last ice age, and that the Ross Sea in Antarctica was likely the refuge for one of these populations. The Ross Sea is likely to have been a shelter for emperor penguins for thousands of years during the last ice age, when much of the rest of Antarctica was uninhabitable due to the amount of ice. The findings suggest that while current climate conditions may be optimal for emperor penguins, conditions in the past were too extreme for large populations to survive.

Psychology of food choice: Challenging the status quo Posted: 28 Feb 2015 02:45 PM PST Researchers are challenging conventional beliefs about the effectiveness of traditional strategies for encouraging healthy eating. Researchers tackle issues such as the harmfulness of weight-stigma, encouraging healthy choices, and strategies to help children and teens.

Life 'not as we know it' possible on Saturn's moon Titan Posted: 27 Feb 2015 03:13 PM PST A new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form that can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on Earth has been modeled. It is theorized to have a cell membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liquid methane temperatures of 292 degrees below zero.

HIV controls its activity independent of host cells Posted: 27 Feb 2015 08:27 AM PST A major hurdle to curing people of HIV infection is the way the virus hides in a reservoir composed primarily of dormant immune cells. It is generally believed that HIV does not replicate in these cells because the virus depends on active cellular machinery to do so. Now, two new papers propose that the virus itself -- not cells -- controls whether HIV is replicating, and that periods of latency paradoxically give the virus a survival advantage.

Isolated wetlands have significant impact on water quality Posted: 25 Feb 2015 10:22 AM PST Geographically isolated wetlands play an outsized role in providing clean water and other environmental benefits even though they may lack the regulatory protections of other wetlands, according to a new article.

Regulating genome-edited crops that (according to current regulations) aren't GMOs Posted: 25 Feb 2015 10:22 AM PST A survey of rice, wheat, barley, fruit, and vegetable crops found that most mutants created by advanced genetic engineering techniques may be out of the scope of current genetically modified organism regulations. In a review of these findings two bioethicists propose new regulatory models for genome-edited crops and declare a call to action for clarifying the social issues associated with such genetically engineered crops.

New technology tracks cell lineage to watch evolution at work Posted: 25 Feb 2015 10:21 AM PST Evolution is change, and not always for the better. Evolution, in fact, is at the core of many of the diseases that are hardest to treat. Pathogens such as bacteria and parasites evade their host’s defenses or antimicrobial drugs through evolution. Cancer itself in an evolutionary process, whereby “rogue” cells evolve to grow beyond their normal barriers, migrate to distant locations in the body, and ultimately evade chemotherapy.