Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

Sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, which in a number of species is critical for finding food. However, as per new research from Boston University marine biologists, sharks can not use just their noses to locate prey; they also need their skin specifically a location called the lateral line. The lateral line is an organ used by all fish to detect, with exquisite sensitivity, movement and vibration in the surrounding water. As per the research team, this is similar to how humans can sense air flow with the small hairs on the face. Until now, it had not been demonstrated that the lateral line also aids in the tracking of odor plumes……..

Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to and learning the tunes sung by their neighbors. University of Washington scientists exploring how male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) acquire their song repertoires have found the first evidence that young birds choose a number of of their songs by eavesdropping on the tuneful interactions between other sparrows……..

Like so much of the rest of North America, Missouri faced a late-season freeze after a mild February and March. Many of the trees brought out their flowers and leaves early, and it turned out to be too early.

The frost-blighted leaves above are still hanging from a pignut hickory tree in the western end of Roundrock. There were examples like this all around. Blighted by the unexpected cold, these overachievers paid a price. (I have a couple of trees in my suburban yard — a gingko and a river birch — that took a hard hit. They are only now starting to bring out some ………

Our desination last Sunday was a roadside cliff in northeastern Pennsylvania that my friend L. remembered from one trip some seven years before. To hear her describe it, it was a veritable hanging garden of moss and ferns and wildflowers, and she had jotted enthusiastic notes to that effect in the margins of her atlas. We looked for over an hour, and never re-found

Oh sure, we found the road she’d marked in the atlas, but it wasn’t the one she remembered. The cliff was neither as steep nor as wet nor as rich; she didn’t even recognize it. The road ………

I find four-leaf clovers frequently, even when not explicitly looking. A number of find this “gift” extraordinary, and even though this mutation is reported to only occur once in about 10,000 clovers, getting lucky isn’t as hard as one would think……..

UCLA and Dartmouth researchers have identified a crucial enzyme in plant vitamin C synthesis, which could lead to enhanced crops. The discovery now makes clear the entire 10-step process by which plants convert glucose into vitamin C, an important antioxidant in nature. “If we can find ways to enhance the activity of this enzyme, it may be possible to engineer plants to make more vitamin C and produce better crops,” said Steven Clarke, UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, director of UCLA’s Molecular Biology Institute and co-author of the research study, would be published as a ‘Paper of the Week’ in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and currently available online……..

Female sharks can reproduce without having sex, researchers have found. A female hammerhead shark has given birth without mating with a male and its offspring has no paternal DNA. An international team of scientists from Queen’s University Belfast, the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska has found evidence that sharks can reproduce asexually by an unusual method known as “parthenogenesis”. This is the first scientific report of asexual reproduction in sharks……..

The first assessment of all European mammals, commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), shows that nearly one in every six mammal species is now threatened with extinction. The population trends are equally alarming: a quarter (27%) of all mammals has declining populations and a further 33% had an unknown population trend. Only 8% were identified as increasing, including the European bison, thanks to successful conservation measures……..

These are, I think, the eggs of a Woodhouse’s toad. This critter seems to go by several names, and there are at least three kind with overlapping ranges, but at least one makes my part of Missouri its ………

Almost every year I photograph the reliable and intriguing woodland plant Arisaema sikokianum — a few older photographs can be seen here. Its common names are generally a reflection of its Japanese origin: Japanese Jack-in-the-pulpit and, more romantically, snow rice-cake plant (link to Paghat’s site with gardening information). It is also known as gaudy ………