New light shed on demise of two extinct New Zealand songbirds
They may not have been seen for the past 50 and 110 years, but an international study into their extinction has provided answers to...
Plant death may reveal genetic mechanisms underlying cell self-destruction
Hybrid plants, which produced by crossing two different types of parents, often die in conditions in which both parents would survive. Certain hybrid tobacco...
Agricultural parasite takes control of host plant’s genes
Dodder, a parasitic plant that causes major damage to crops in the US and worldwide every year, can silence the expression of genes in...
Plant regulatory proteins 'tagged' with sugar
New work from Carnegie's Shouling Xu and Zhiyong Wang reveals that the process of synthesizing many important master proteins in plants involves extensive modification,...
How can you tell deep-sea octopuses apart? Check their warts
Until now, there'd been no rigorous framework for telling apart two species of deep-sea octopuses -- they're both pink and warty. A new study,...
Closed marriage: An orchid that never blooms
A flower identified as Lecanorchis nigricans has been revealed to be a different identity, Lecanorchis nigricans var. patipetala. Both species are self-pollinating, but the...
Alarming link between feral pigs and vampire bats
A new study shows that the number of vampire bats, which transmit rabies and are a concern for livestock breeders, may be increasing in...
Daisies that close at night have camouflaged petals to protect them from herbivores
Species of daisy that close their flowers at night, produce color in their exposed lower petals that makes them harder to spot for herbivores,...
Micro-rubber in the environment
The tread on the tire is worn out, new tires are needed. Everyday life for many drivers. But where do these lost centimeters of...
How plant stem cells renew themselves — a cytokinin story
Biologists have discovered how cytokinin activates stem cell division in plants.