Which sex is best for coral reef fish
Puberty blues: goby fish choose their sex to find a mate Research on the Great Barrier Reef has revealed that some young reef fish can choose when they mature and which sex they want to be when they grow up. Research conducted by JP Hobbs, an honours student at James Cook University, Townsville, focused on a colourful goby that lives in bushy... view more... (2003-08-29)
Is that song sexy or just so-so?
Why is your mate's rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" cute and sexy sometimes and so annoying at other times? A songbird study conducted by Emory University sheds new light on this question, showing that a change in hormone levels may alter the way we perceive social cues by altering a system of brain nuclei, common to all... view more... (2008-09-23)
El Nino events affect whale breeding
A thirty-year study by an international team of scientists found a strong relationship between breeding success of whales in the South Atlantic and El Nino in the western Pacific. view more (2006-01-11)
Displaced songbirds navigate in the high Arctic
By experimentally relocating migratory white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) from their breeding area in the Canadian Northwest Territories to regions at and around the magnetic North Pole, researchers have gained new insight into how birds navigate in the high Arctic. view more (2005-09-07)
Good breeding increases shelf life
The lettuce cut and packaged for food service and salad mixes is an increasingly important component of the produce industry. Lettuce is highly perishable, and the cutting required in processing further shortens its shelf life. view more (2008-07-21)
Neighbors from hell: Infanticide rife in guillemot colony
One of Britain's best-known species of seabird is increasingly attacking and killing unattended chicks from neighbouring nests due to food shortages. view more (2008-09-17)
Iowa State plant scientists tweak their biopharmaceutical corn research project
A biopharmaceutical corn created at Iowa State University is getting a makeover. Researchers are developing the corn into a variety that keeps the therapeutic protein, but eliminates the pollen. And they're using traditional breeding to do it. view more (2006-06-26)
Migratory bird struggles with climate – pied flycatchers lay their eggs too late
They try very hard, but pied flycatchers are not able to adapt sufficiently to the climate change in Western Europe. Dutch ecologists state this in Nature's issue of May 17 2001. Spring in Western Europe warmed up during the past 20 years and became increasingly ‘early’. However, the migratory flycatchers are still arriving at the same... view more... (2001-05-15)
Less can be more, for plant breeders too
Imagine you are a rice breeder and one day within a large field you discover a plant that has just the characteristics you have been looking for. You happily take your special plant to the laboratory where you find out that the spontaneous, beneficial event was due to inactivation of a single gene. view more (2008-03-20)
Albatross study provides new information vital to their conservation
Albatrosses are the world's most threatened family of birds. New research offers the first hope of identifying migration and feeding patterns to reduce their unnecessary slaughter by long-line fisheries. The study is reported in the journal Science, and outlines, for the first time, the year-round habitat of the grey-headed albatross. view more (2005-01-11)
New Zealand breeding program creates new red raspberry variety
A horticultural research team from New Zealand and Canada has introduced a new red raspberry cultivar. 'Moutere' is a new floricane fruiting red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) created in a planned breeding program at The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Limited (recently renamed The New Zealand Institute of Plant and Food... view more... (2009-02-27)
How Do We Fund Plant Breeding?
Worldwide demand for a safe and secure food supply is growing with plant breeding at the forefront of sustainability discussions; however many research programs have seen their funding decrease due to the erosion of traditional public or formula grants view more (2009-10-29)
Breeding better broccoli
Carotenoids-fat-soluble plant compounds found in some vegetables-are essential to the human diet and reportedly offer important health benefits to consumers. view more (2009-11-05)
North Sea recovers from pollution by antifouling paints
The North Sea has recovered dramatically from the effects of pollution caused by antifouling paints used on boat hulls, according to researchers who claim that proposals for a total ban on the use of tributyl tin (TBT) paints could do more harm than good to the environment. Marine Biologists at Newcastle University say that breeding populations of... view more... (1999-05-28)
A Genome May Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
With the costs of genome sequencing rapidly decreasing, and with the infrastructure now developed for almost anyone with access to a computer to cheaply store, access, and analyze sequence information, emphasis is increasingly being placed on ways to apply genome data to real world problems, including reducing dependency on fossil fuel. view more (2009-05-13)
Pretending To Be A Bird
Tape-recorders allow us to record and analyze birds' singing, but communicating with birds is more difficult. From time immemorial, people have listened to the birds singing, recognized birds by voices, have been able to guess their condition. Some people are able to successfully imitate bird's singing. Only in the 50s of the last century,... view more... (2004-05-24)
Captive breeding introduced infectious disease to Mallorcan amphibians
A potentially deadly fungus that can kill frogs and toads was inadvertently introduced into Mallorca by a captive breeding programme that was reintroducing a rare species of toad into the wild, according to a new study published today in the journal Current Biology. view more (2008-09-22)
Arctic waders do not own a capital - Small migrating birds collect egg energy from snowy breeding grounds
A 20-year old scientific case is solved. Waders, small birds like ringed plover and purple sandpiper, travelling to the North Pole area to breed, do not bring extra food from home with them. Instead they do what ecologists thought of as nearly impossible: they find enough food in the snowy tundra surrounding their nests to lay eggs quickly. Marcel... view more... (2001-10-25)
Genetic discovery could break wine industry bottleneck, accelerate grapevine breeding
One of the best known episodes in the 8000-year history of grapevine cultivation led to biological changes that have not been well understood - until now. view more (2009-09-24)
Rot resistant wheat could save farmers millions
CSIRO researchers have identified wheat and barley lines resistant to Crown Rot - a disease that costs Australian wheat and barley farmers $79 million in lost yield every year. view more (2009-10-29)
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