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UF-led study: Invasive Amphibians, Reptiles in Florida Outnumber World

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Environment, Scienceamerican alligator, bishop museum in honolulu, brown anole, burmese pythons, cargo ships, cement walls, Cuba, everglades, florida, florida museum of natural history, fred kraus, greenhouse frog, iguanas, invasion of lizards, invasive amphibian and reptile, kenneth krysko, lizards, python, turtles, university of florida, west indies, zootaxa

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has the world’s worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species’ introductions.

From 1863 through 2010, 137 non-native amphibian and reptile species were introduced to Florida, with about 25 percent of those traced to one animal importer. The findings appear online today in Zootaxa. (more…)

What’s so Unique About the Tropics?

By Guest PostSeptember 23, 2011Environment, Sciencebeta diversity, brad boyle, calgary, canada, costa rica, distribution of biodiversity across the globe, ecological mechanisms, ecologists, elevations in mountain regions, extinctions, geographical scales, latitudinal diversity gradient, nathan j b kraft, new zealand, northern europe, panama, south america, speciation, temperate forests of canada, tropical rainforests of southeast asia, tropics, university of arizona ecologist, university of british columbia, university of maryland

“Less than we thought,” researchers say in a new study providing insights into the distribution of biodiversity across the globe.

The temperate forests of Canada or Northern Europe may have much more in common with the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia or South America than previously believed, according to a research group including a University of Arizona ecologist.

The assertion, published as the cover article in the journal Science, is focused on the concept of “beta-diversity” – a measure of the change in species composition between two sites, such as neighboring patches of forest. High beta-diversity means that two given sites have few species in common. (more…)

University of Missouri 3-D Prototype Lab Open for Business

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2011Science3 d modeling, prototype, prototype lab, prototype machines, prototype manufacturing, tattletale

Companies can take advantage of state-of-the art equipment; students gain experience

COLUMBIA, Mo. – When Microdyne, LLC, needed help building a prototype for a dairy cattle breeding device, the company, based in St. Joseph, was ready to look overseas for a prototype manufacturing team. Then Microdyne was introduced to Mike Klote, manager of the University of Missouri’s College of Engineering prototype development facility, and a solution was found that also provided MU engineering students a valuable educational opportunity. (more…)

To Ditch Dessert, Feed the Brain

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2011Sciencebrain, brain imaging scans, fmri scans, glucose, glucose levels, high calorie food, hypothalamus, kathleen page, low calorie food, prefrontal cortex, rajita sinha, regulating impulses, striatum, twinkies, yale university

If the brain goes hungry, Twinkies look a lot better, a study led by researchers at Yale University and the University of Southern California has found.

Brain imaging scans show that when glucose levels drop, an area of the brain known to regulate emotions and impulses loses the ability to dampen desire for high-calorie food, according to the study published online September 19 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. (more…)

NASA’s WISE Mission Captures Black Hole’s Wildly Flaring Jet

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2011Sciencea w blain, accretion disks, astronomers, black hole called gx 339 4, black holes, blazing jets, center of our galaxy, d m russell, extreme environments around black holes, flaring black hole, gamma rays, gravity, infrared observations, japan aerospace exploration agency, jaxa, jets, magnetic field, NASA, neowise, peter eisenhardt, physics of jets, poshak gandhi, radio waves, s markoff, speed of light, ultra dense collection of matter, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise, xrays

PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have captured rare data of a flaring black hole, revealing new details about these powerful objects and their blazing jets.

Scientists study jets to learn more about the extreme environments around black holes. Much has been learned about the material feeding black holes, called accretion disks, and the jets themselves, through studies using X-rays, gamma rays and radio waves. But key measurements of the brightest part of the jets, located at their bases, have been difficult despite decades of work. WISE is offering a new window into this missing link through its infrared observations. (more…)

Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Remains a Mystery

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2011Scienceamy mainzer, asteroid belt between mars and jupiter, asteroids, baptistina, baptistina family, demise of the dinosaurs, dinosaurs extinction, earth, greatest mysteries, gulf of mexico, huge asteroid, jet propulsion laboratory, joseph masiero, jpl, lindley johnson, NASA, nasa headquarters in washington, near earth object, neo, neowise, pasadena, visible light data, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise

PASADENA, Calif. — Observations from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not likely the culprit, keeping open the case on one of Earth’s greatest mysteries.

While scientists are confident a large asteroid crashed into Earth approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and some other life forms on our planet, they do not know exactly where the asteroid came from or how it made its way to Earth. A 2007 study using visible-light data from ground-based telescopes first suggested the remnant of a huge asteroid, known as Baptistina, as a possible suspect. (more…)

CT Study of Early Humans Reveals Evolutionary Relationships

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 2011Sciencea africanus, a boisei, a robustus, africa, anatomy of the face, anterior pillars, australopithecus, bony columns, brian villmoare, classic evolutionary puzzle, convergence, ct scans, east africa, facial features, fossil skull, hollow columns of bone, key ancestor of modern humans, parallel evolution, South Africa, william kimbel

CT scans of fossil skull fragments may help researchers settle a long-standing debate about the evolution of Africa’s Australopithecus, a key ancestor of modern humans that died out some 1.4 million years ago.

The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how CT scans shed new light on a classic evolutionary puzzle by providing crucial information about the internal anatomy of the face. (more…)

This Beetle Uses Eggs as Shields Against Wasps

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2011Sciencebeetle larva, beetles, charismatic organisms, cocoon, eggs, joseph deas, m amicus, martha hunter, mesquite and acacia trees, mimosestes amicus, national science foundation, novel discovery, palo verde, parasitic wasps, parasitoids, red eyes, seed beetles, southwestern us, trees of tucson, university of arizona, uscana semifumipennis, wasp

*New UA research has discovered that seed beetles from the desert Southwest shelter their broods from attacking parasitic wasps under a stack of dummy eggs.*

They lead modest lives among the palo verde, mesquite and acacia trees throughout the Southwestern U.S., laying their eggs on seed pods and defending the survival of their offspring against the parasitic wasp species that attacks their eggs before their young can develop.

They are the seed beetles Mimosestes amicus, living all around us in the trees of Tucson, and yet remaining all but invisible to our eyes – or nearly so. (more…)

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