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410 news posts in Life sciences

Today's landscape on the Faroe Islands. Image credit: Eyðfinn Magnussen

Life sciences

25 Nov 2024

Viking colonizers of Iceland and nearby Faroe Islands had very different origins, study finds

Geneticists have studied the distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups on the Faroe Islands, known to have been colonized by Vikings around the year 900 CE, and compared these to distributions of haplogroups in today’s Scandinavia. They showed with novel analysis methods that the haplotype distribution in the Faroe Islands most closely resembled that in Norway and Denmark, and to a lesser extent that in Sweden, but differed from that in Iceland. They concluded that a band of Viking men from all over Scandinavia colonized the Faroe Islands, which differed in their geographical origin and genetic make-up from those who settled Iceland.

The study’s co-authors Argel Horton and Laura Arton apply the chlorine paste to a large coral (Orbicella annularis). The bright white area is where the treatment has already been applied. Image: Dr Graham Forrester.

Life sciences

14 Nov 2024

Chlorine and cocoa butter could protect corals from disease and decrease antibiotic pollution of the oceans

Researchers found that chlorine mixed with cocoa butter is effective at treating diseased corals, which could reduce negative side effects of antibiotic treatments on ocean ecosystems

Planting Abies religiosa (Sacred fir) seedlings under the shade of pre-existing shrubs (Senecio cinerarioides, narrow green-greyish foliage) as protective “nurse plants”. Large trees on background are adult Pinus hartwegii, the pine that reaches the timberline. Abies religiosa is completely absent in this site at 3800 meters of elevation, northeaster slope of Nevado de Toluca volcano, central Mexico, because it is too high in elevation. Planters personnel are locals of Native Indian origin. Image credit: Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero, UMSNH

Life sciences

18 Oct 2024

Scientists create new overwintering sites for monarch butterflies on a warming planet

Migrating monarch butterflies depend on mountain forests of sacred firs in Mexico as overwintering sites. These forests are under threat from global warming. But researchers from Mexico have now shown that seedlings derived from their original range can be transplanted successfully to a new site further east, on the higher and colder volcano Nevado de Toluca. The resulting new stand of sacred firs could ultimately serve as the overwintering sites of the future.

Life sciences

20 Sep 2024

Oceanic life found to be thriving thanks to Saharan dust blown from thousands of kilometers away

Scientists from the US measured the relative amounts of ‘bioreactive’ iron in four sediment cores from the bottom of the Atlantic. They showed for the first time that the further dust is blown from the Sahara, the more iron in it becomes bioreactive through chemical processes in the atmosphere. These results have important implications for our understanding of the growth-promoting effect of iron on oceanic phytoplankton, terrestrial ecosystems, and carbon cycling, including under global change.

The mysid shrimp Hemimysis margalefi. mage credit: Marie Derrien

Life sciences

17 Sep 2024

How does a tiny shrimp find its way home in a vast ocean? Study finds it’s down to their cave’s special smell

Researchers from France have shown for the first time that mysid shrimp can distinguish between seawater from their cave of origin and that from nearby caves. This recognition behavior, based on local differences in water-borne odor mixes or ‘chemical seascapes’, is likely what enables the shrimp’s homing behavior when they return each dawn from their foraging trips in open water.

Dr Saleem with the Screaming Woman mummy

Life sciences

02 Aug 2024

'Screaming Woman' mummy may have died in agony 3,500 years ago

Researchers from Egypt used state-of-the-art techniques to ‘virtually dissect’ a female mummy from the New Kingdom, named the ‘Screaming Woman’ for her remarkable expression. They showed that she had been embalmed with costly imported frankincense and juniper. There was no obvious cause of death, but the mummy’s wide open mouth may be due to cadaveric spasm, which is typically associated with dying in considerable pain and under strong emotions.

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