New algorithm explores future changes in plant populations

October 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A long-term study of the Africanized bee invasion of Mexico's Yucatan shows that invading 'killer bees' may actually increase food resources for native bees. Aggressive African bees were accidentally released in Brazil in 1957.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Google has developed an algorithm for ranking web-pages, which can be used to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems. The algorithm, known as "PageRank", can be applied to the study of food webs, the complex networks describing who eats whom in an ecosystem, according to Drs.

August 20th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have come up with a new rice plant that grows "snorkels" when exposed to floods. According to a paper published in the journal Nature, the super plant could help boost the production of the staple food in Asia and Africa, where up to 40 per cent of crops are subject to flash floods or deep water.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research by scientists from the University of Victoria has shown that fish avoid the divers and snorkelers who try to count them, and that is why using snorkelers and SCUBA divers may misrepresent the number of fish. Not all types of fish are equally frightened by the divers, and Faculty of 1000 member Helen Yap, who recommended the study, explains that therefore "such methods may not provide an accurate picture of the actual diversity and abundance of fish communities." Counting coral reef fish informs researchers about local ecological changes.

July 8th, 2009 LONDON - An international group of scientists, led by the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology at The University of Nottingham, UK, has shed light on how a plant hormone is crucial in controlling the growth of plant roots. Plant growth is driven by an increase in two factors: the number of cells, and their size.

June 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A recent study by Australian biologist Jim Underwood has found that despite the fact that corals cast their eggs and sperm haphazardly into the oceans, certain species of coral show remarkable loyalty to their home range. Underwood sampled DNA from coral reefs in the Indiana Ocean and found that individual corals located in the same group of reefs are more closely related than previously thought.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by a team of researchers has provided insights into how climate change might impact geographic ranges of species. The study, by researchers led by Jessica Hellmann, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, offers interesting insights into how species may, or may not, change their geographic range - the place where they live on earth - under climate change.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has indicated that an increase in temperature of only a couple of degrees may increase the dispersal of plants in Northern forests and the spread of plant species into forest clearings after felling or forest fires. The research, in the impact of global warming on seed and pollen dispersal, was led by University of Helsinki researcher Anna Kuparinen.

June 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - At least 21 people were injured and two others missing after the roof of a food plant collapsed in the US state of North Carolina, media reports said Tuesday. According to TV reports, the roof of a food plant that belongs to ConAgra Foods Company partially collapsed Tuesday morning following an explosion inside the plant.

June 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Using phone cameras, scientists can one day hunt for Martian life, by looking for organic matter that could indicate life. According to a report in New Scientist, research with this type of technology is already underway at the Mars Society's Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah, US.

May 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have evolved a formula which will unravel how and why our climate moved us on from ice ages to warmer periods. Similarly, researchers will be able to tackle ecological studies that are currently incomplete or distorted.

May 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found a formula to uncover the Earth's past and predict its future. The novel method, found by a research team from California and Lancaster, involves reconstructing missing data that will shed new light on how and why our climate moved us on from ice ages to warmer periods.

April 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The long standing belief that men are promiscuous and females are selective when choosing a mate is a myth, claims a new study. The research, published by Cell Press in the April issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, suggests that human mating strategies are not likely to conform to a single universal pattern and provides important insights that may impact future investigations of human mating behaviors.

March 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Forget complex retinal laser scanning or even computerised iris recognition; the way forward for biometric validation is a quick X-ray snapshot of a person's knees. Lior Shamir of the Lab of Genetics, National Institute on Aging (NIA) and colleagues working with State University of New York computer engineer Salim Rahimi, explain that identification of individuals often requires focusing on unique features such as their face, fingerprints or retina.

March 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that wild bees, which are not affected by a disease that has hurt honey bee populations, can serve as effective pollinators. Over the past few years, honey bee keepers have experienced problems due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has hurt honey bee populations, causing some growers of fruits, nuts and vegetables to wonder how their crops will be pollinated in the future.