Scientists surveying the birdlife of Borneo have discovered a startling surprise: an undescribed species of bird, which has been named the spectacled flowerpecker. While scientists and birdwatchers have previously glimpsed the small, gray bird in lowland forests around the island, the Smithsonian team is the first to capture and study it, resulting in its formal scientific description as a new species.
Read moreA new study shows that the presence or absence of moonlight has a considerable bearing on when migratory birds take flight in the autumn.
Read moreOnly two bird species have ever been shown to undertake what scientists call 'itinerant breeding': nesting in one area, migrating to another region, and nesting again there within the same year, to take advantage of shifting food resources. However, new research provides strong evidence of this rare behavior in a third bird — the Phainopepla, a unique bird found in the southwestern US and the northernmost member of an otherwise tropical family.
Read moreScientists show, on the molecular level, how an experimental vaccine offers long-term protection against the disease.
Read moreThe potential impact of undiagnosed sexually transmitted chlamydia infection on men's fertility has been highlighted in a study, which for the first time found chlamydia in the testicular tissue biopsies of infertile men whose infertility had no identified cause.
Read moreResearch into the molecular phylogeny (evolutionary history) of the HIV-1B virus in Indonesia has succeeded in illuminating the transmission period and routes for three clades (main branches of the virus). This includes a clade thought to be unique to Indonesia, as well as clades that spread from Thailand, Europe and America in the 1970s and 1980s.
Read moreShiga toxin subtype 2a (Stx2a) may play a key role in promoting the colonization and transmission of life-threatening Escherichia coli strains in cattle, according to a new study.
Read moreResearchers offer new insights on how subunits of the influenza virus polymerase co-evolve to ensure efficient viral RNA replication.
Read moreResearchers have analyzed remains from ten archaeological sites in England, France, Germany, Russia, and Switzerland to gain insight into the different stages of the second plague pandemic and the genetic diversity of Yersinia pestis during and after the Black Death. The researchers reconstructed 34 Y. pestis genomes, tracing the genetic history of the bacterium, which revealed key insights into the initiation and progression of the second plague pandemic in Europe.
Read moreLast year, biologists discovered that bird populations in the Mojave Desert had crashed over the past 100 years. The biologists now have evidence that heat stress is a key cause. Simulations with a computerized 'virtual bird' suggest that with higher temperatures, birds need more water to keep cool. Larger insectivores or carnivores should be most affected, and small seed-eaters less so if drinking water is available: just as the biologists reported last year.
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