Study Shows Songbirds Switch From Bugs To Berries To Fuel Fall Migration
... author of the study. "There has been ahuge gap in our knowledge about the biological processes of songbi...migrationcompared to the summer breeding season in our forests and backyards where theiractions and needs are more familiar to us," said Parrish. "Their di...Human-Like Ability, Categorical Perception, Found In Insects
...lor. "A more useful ability in some situations is our ability to tell the difference between sounds like...e onset time or VOT, which instruments can detect, our ears don't discriminate. We hear either 'ba' or 'pa' and that's how we label it. That is categoric...Duke Primate Center Sets October Expedition To Find 'Juliet'
...of his own kind and make a good father. Interms of our naming system, she could be called 'Juliet.'" Diademedsifakas are named after characters in Shakespearean plays, Simons said. The Duke Primate Center houses the world's largest collection of endangeredprimates. Duke is also the only university-opera...Major Plant Genome Research Project Underway
...lant-based products. "Because plants are vital to our existence, increased understanding of the biology of plants will impact every facet of our lives, from agriculture, to energy, to the environment, to health," says Clutter. In 1990, t...'Juliet' Evades Primate Center Expedition
...er. "Although we saw groups of animals on five of our eight days in theforest, the instant they saw us, they would run away," Glander said."We also found a lot of lemur traps and extensive cutting of trees."Glander said his observations supported the accuracy of estimates that thediademed sifaka will be...NCAR Scientist Models Earth's Climate and Vegetation Patterns At Last Glacial Peak
...f climate and vegetation to find which plant types our ancestors would have wandered among during the last glacial maximum (LGM) 21,000 years ago. Felzer presented his work on Wednesday, October 30, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. These models present a world blanket......ve no natural predators, can cause major damage to our harbors and waterways. A prime example is the zebra mussel which has clogged water pipes in the Great Lakes region, causing millions of dollars of damage. Cohen, who works with the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley, has previously reported ...Duke's Russian Laser Making Ultraviolet Light And Gamma Rays
...hat helium burning reaction deep within stars like our own sun convertsthe isotope carbon-12 into the isotope oxygen-16. Knowing more about thereaction is critically important for predicting such vital details as therelative abundance of various elements in the universe. Measuring its details,however, is...Sea Turtles Have Favorite Oceanic Routes
... of the leatherback population. "We've put most of our energy into protecting their nesting beaches, but there is little we can do elsewhere unless we know where they are," Morreale said. "They are not highly visible at sea." The corridor in the case of these particular turtles turns out to be at most a...Plants Have Future As Environmental Clean-Up Agents
...who serves asdirector of the center, said. "One of our goals is to bring usefultechnology to the field....No Such Luck: Nitrogen From Air Pollution Unlikely to Moderate Global Warming
... industrial areas of Europe," said Tilman. "Two of our nine treatments went beyond these rates to try to predict the longer-term effects of nitrogen deposition." Tilman and Wedin found that more than half of the plant species were lost across the nitrogen addition gradient, with the greatest loss...Optical Microscopy Shines Light On Biology
...educes the vibration of the tip," Dunn said. "With our tips, we vibrate vertically with respect to the sample so you don't get the large damping caused by the water." With the high sensitivity of near-field scanning optical microscopy and the newly developed cantilevered probe, researchers can examine in...Siblicide In Nature: Study Of Galapagos Seabird Finds Death Can Ensure Species Survival
...m the year before," Anderson said. "If the rest of our data show the same trend, then you would say that parents seem to maximize their long-term reproductive success by collaborating in the siblicide, because the effort required to raise two chicks at once is so high. The insurance value of the second ...Fast Measurement Technique Reveals Early Steps In Protein Folding
...folding process is complete. "Before we conducted our experiments, many researchers thought proteinfoldi...en going on for decades," Gruebelesaid. "Now, with our fast detection and measurement scheme, I thinkwe can finally resolve some of the arguments." The re...World's Experts Plan Global Locator Service For Environmental Information
... "That information could have a profound impact on our ability to protect our environment, manage natural resources, prevent and respond to disasters, and ensure sustainable deve...Robots, Virtual Reality & Other "Smart" Tools Soon Will Help Physicians Heal Patients
...technologies with human skills, we hope to improve our patients' outcomes. Reducing complications and making procedures more precise and less invasive should result in faster recoveries and less need for repeat surgery," he says. Support for the June workshop was provided by NSF, the Defense Adva...Christmas Bird Count: Another Holiday Tradition
...ure Americans can better understand the changes in our bird populations. And next year, you can join the program and become a trained observer through participation in the Christmas Bird count of the National Audubon Society and see your efforts added to the web....Urbanized Watersheds More Sensitive To Climate Change
...Walle, professor of forest hydrology. "No one, to our knowledge, has formally looked at urban watersheds in this way." De Walle is trying to see how urbanization affects sensitivity of stream flow to climate change. Using population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, precipitation information from ...Pinpoint Gene Control Holds Promise For Nervous System Studies
...d will make possibleimportant studies into the way our nervous system works. "Thistechnology gives us an ...ll developing usually kills the organism. "In our system, the animal develops as it normally would,"says Brooks. "Then we alter it later and study the...New Finding Suggests "HATs" Are Key To Gene Activation Puzzle
...ime, the seven feet of DNA that resides in each of our cells exists in an inactive, tightlypacked form known as chromatin. Because the DNA is wound around spool-like proteins called histones, the proteins thatcontrol DNA replication and expression cannot access the DNA to do their jobs. It's the job of e...