Bio-inspired defenses may help mitigate the threat of IED carrying drones in combat. The latest proof comes out of Australia, where researchers have mapped the visual systems of hovering insects as a means of detecting the acoustic signatures of drones up to 2.5 miles away. The hover fly, which can hover […]

To test if a single gene could affect an entire ecosystem, a research team conducted a lab experiment with a plant and its associated ecosystem of insects. They found that plants with a mutation at a specific gene foster ecosystems with more insect species. The discovery of such a ‘keystone gene’ […]

Scientists have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the first draft human genome sequence. According to researchers, having a complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or ‘letters’) in our DNA is critical for understanding the full […]

Despite having a trunk that weighs over 100 kg, elephants mainly feed on
lightweight vegetation. How do elephants manipulate such small items?
In this experimental and theoretical investigation, we filmed elephants at
Zoo Atlanta showing that they can use suction to grab food, performing […]

My graduate research explores some of evolution’s most impressive inventions, many of which can be found in birds. Specifically, I study bird flight behaviours and how relationships between body mass, wing sizes, species relatedness and other biological traits have evolved to generate the extravagant flight we see in many species.

Animals can move using a regular gait, or an irregular gait. A regular gait means that the steps (however one defines it) occur on a regular interval, however this is not true of irregular gaits. An example of irregular gait is horse galloping. Humans practice a regular gait walking or running. […]

New findings describe a novel way to reduce the energy people spend to walk, as much as by half, which could have applications for therapy received by patients with impaired walking abilities. The metabolic rate of walking can be reduced by applying a constant forward force at the center of mass. […]

The potential for using marine microbes for biodiscovery is severely limited by the lack of laboratory
cultures. It is a long-standing observation that standard microbiological techniques only isolate a very
small proportion of the wide diversity of microbes
that are […]

New study is first anatomical evidence for how two major groups of bats use echolocation differently.

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Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Washington (UW) have been successful in engineering a nature-inspired molecule that can guide gold atoms to form faultless nanoscale stars.

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In what they call surprise findings, scientists report that — unlike fruit flies — mosquitoes’ odor sensing nerve cells shut down when those cells are forced to produce odor-related proteins, or receptors, on the surface of the cell. This ‘expression’ process apparently makes the bugs able to ignore common insect repellents.

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When naval ships and other sea vessels use sonar, many whale species flee for their lives; some even strand themselves on beaches in a desperate attempt to escape. Now, scientists have discovered the most likely reason: The loud sounds trigger the same fear response as when the animals hear calls emitted […]

In the natural world, many animals have evolved characteristics that help them to survive, and these properties can inspire elegant solutions to scientific challenges. One such challenge has been designing materials with surface lubrication properties that can be rapidly switched depending on the requirements of the application. Now, writing in Nature […]

Chemoreception is essential for survival. Feeding, mating, and avoidance of predators depend on detection of sensory cues. Drosophila contains diverse families of chemoreceptors that detect odors, tastants, pheromones, and noxious stimuli, including receptors of the Or, Gr, IR, Ppk, and Trp families. We […]

Biological systems possess nanoarchitectures that have evolved for specific purposes and whose ability to modulate the flow of light creates an extraordinary diversity of natural photonic structures. In particular, the striking beauty of the structural colouration observed in nature has inspired technological innovation in many fields. Intense research has been devoted […]

People worldwide are living longer. According to WHO, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 years or over by 2030. However, aging increases vulnerability to a wide range of human disorders, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. Roughly two-thirds of the 150,000 people who die […]

In the orb-weaving spider Larinioides sclopetarius, hearing is not constrained by the organism’s body but is extended through outsourcing hearing to its extended phenotype, the proteinaceous, self-manufactured orb web. We find that the wispy, wheel-shaped orb web acts as a hyperacute acoustic antenna to capture the sound-induced air particle movements that […]

Researchers have shown a new compound delivered in a nasal spray is highly effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant in mice. The researchers believe this is the first treatment of its kind proven to be effective against all COVID-19 variants of concern reported to date, including […]

Global temperatures are rising at an unprecedented rate, but environmental responses are often difficult to recognize and quantify. Long-term observations of plant phenology, the annually recurring sequence of plant developmental stages, can provide sensitive measures of climate change and important information for ecosystem […]