A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working with a colleague in the U.S., has isolated a type of bacteria in the guts of mice that break down nicotine. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they isolated the bacteria and why their finding could reduce incidences of fatty liver disease in humans.

A new study by University of Maryland entomologists shows that the lifespan for individual honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment is 50% shorter than it was in the 1970s. When scientists modeled the effect of today's shorter lifespans, the results corresponded with the increased colony loss and reduced honey production trends seen by U.S. beekeepers in recent decades.

Bloody hell! That cockatoo just opened my bin, and it's eating my leftover pizza. We can't have that, I'll put a rock on the lid to stop it opening the bin. Problem solved…? And so began an arms race in the suburbs of southern Sydney: humans trying to deter sulfur-crested cockatoos from opening curbside bins, and cockatoos overcoming their deterrents to feast on our food waste.

A long watch.

There's something really peculiar about ferns.

A 25-metre fossilised dinosaur skeleton was the last thing a Portugal man expected to uncover in his own backyard in 2017, but now researchers believe he may have stumbled upon the largest of its kind in Europe.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Caltech have created model mouse embryos from stem cells—the body's master cells, which can develop into almost any cell type in the body—that have beating hearts, as well as the foundations for a brain and all of the other organs in the mouse body.

Sabra Klein is deeply aware that sex matters. During her PhD research at Johns Hopkins University, Klein learned how sex hormones can influence the brain and behavior. “I naively thought: Everybody knows hormones can affect lots of physiological processes—our metabolism, our heart, our bone density. It must be affecting the immune system,” she says.

An Israeli lab has grown synthetic mouse embryos with brains and beating hearts — in an egg-free sperm-free procedure that used stem cells taken from skin. The breakthrough, published on Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, represents the first time that an advanced embryo of any species has been created from stem cells alone, cell biologist Prof. Jacob Hanna of the Weizmann Institute of Science told The Times of Israel.

Paleo Analysis

When Kurt Benirschke started collecting skin samples from rare and endangered animals in 1972, he didn't have a firm plan on what to do with them. As a researcher at the University of California San Diego, he believed that one day the tools would be developed to use them to save those animals. A few years later, he moved his collection to San Diego Zoo, and called it the Frozen Zoo.

We looked at eye photos and found one in every 150 Australians might have scarring from a common parasitic disease.

They help us put food on our tables through pollination and nutrient recycling. They break down and dispose of organic waste, and are food for many animals. 

A groundbreaking new study finds that coffee beans are bigger and more plentiful when birds and bees team up to protect and pollinate coffee plants.

In a new study, researchers discovered one clade of cone snail uses a venom that contains a peptide resembling somatostatin, which could treat cancer and other human ailments.

Methanotrophic bacteria consume 30 million metric tons of methane per year and have captivated researchers for their natural ability to convert the potent greenhouse gas into usable fuel. Yet we know very little about how the complex reaction occurs, limiting our ability to use the double benefit to our advantage.

This disparity gets at the difference between one’s chronological age — how old they are in years — and their biological age, which is how their body has aged naturally and in response to its environment. The two can diverge in ways that are either blessings or curses. Hence why those who grow up under extreme stress or in polluted environments may look much older than they actually are.

Mounting evidence suggests humans are now a major driving force of evolution on Earth. From selective breeding to environmental modifications, we're altering so much of our world that we're not only now driving the climate, but the direction of life

For you to read this article, the eyes have to perform quite the task – light enters the cornea and travels through the pupil and lens to the retina at the back, where light-sensitive cells such as cones and rods then pass things on to the brain vi

The study of fossils and prehistoric species is exploitative of local communities, says international team