Posted: 13 Nov 2018 08:54 AM PST

The African elephantnose fish generates weak electrical pulses to navigate its environment. This localization sense apparently shows an astonishing similarity to vision, as a study now shows. The study demonstrates that different objects have different electrical ”colors”. Fish use these colors for instance to distinguish their favorite food – mosquito larvae – from other small animals or plants.

Posted: 13 Nov 2018 08:04 AM PST

With the help of computer simulations, particle physics researchers may be able to explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the Universe. The simulations offer a new way of examining conditions after the Big Bang, and could provide answers to some fundamental questions in particle physics.

Posted: 13 Nov 2018 08:03 AM PST

Marine fishes rely on their sensory systems to survive. A study is the first to quantify the physiological effects of whole crude oil on the olfactory function of a marine vertebrate — the Atlantic stingray. Results of the study, confirm that exposure to crude oil, at concentrations mimicking those measured in coastal areas following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, significantly impaired olfactory function in the Atlantic stingray after just 48 hours of exposure.

Posted: 13 Nov 2018 05:09 AM PST

Today’s birds descend from a small number of bird species living before the dinosaur extinction. Some of the birds that went extinct, the enantiornithines, were actually more common than and out-competed modern bird ancestors. Analysis of a newly described fossil, the most complete known from the Americas, demonstrates, too, that the enantiornithines were as agile and strong in flight as the ancestors of modern birds. Why, then, did enantiornithines die out and modern birds flourish?

Posted: 13 Nov 2018 05:09 AM PST

Purple phototrophic bacteria — which can store energy from light — when supplied with an electric current can recover near to 100 percent of carbon from any type of organic waste, while generating hydrogen gas for use as fuel.

Posted: 12 Nov 2018 04:17 PM PST

Plants have evolved ways to make ants defend them from attacks and spread their seeds, and this new study shows how it happened. In a new study breaking down the genetic history of 1,700 species of ants and 10,000 plant genera, researchers found that the long history of ant and plant co-evolution started with ants foraging on plants and plants responding by evolving ant-friendly traits.