biology

Aug 27, 2014

Three Things You Didn’t Know About the Arachnids That Live on Your Face

Right now, in the general vicinity of your nose, there are at least two species of microscopic mites living in your pores. Scientists have just published a study about these little-known mites. 

Jul 30, 2014

Urbanization: Good for Pests, Bad for Trees

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Steve Frank, an assistant professor of entomology at NC State.The post first appeared on Frank’s blog, Insect Ecology and Integrated Pest Management. My wife is from a neighborhood outside Baltimore called Lawyers Hill. This is where, in the 18th century, lawyers (and I assume doctors and other gentlemen)… 

Jul 15, 2014

Cretaceous Cold Case No. 5: When Evidence Dries Up

This is the fifth post in a series called “Cretaceous Cold Cases” in which the science of taphonomy, or prehistoric forensics, is explained by fascinating cases from the files of Terry “Bucky” Gates, a research scientist with NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. South Africa, 250 million years ago. The United States,145… 

Jun 23, 2014

Carnivore Mystery: Why Fishers Thrive in East, Not West

For weasel-like fishers it’s a good time to live in the East. The fierce little carnivores are reclaiming historic habitats, including the Bronx, New York, where police have photographed one fisher. But it’s a different story for fishers in the West, which haven’t been as successful in repopulating areas they once roamed in the Pacific… 

Jun 6, 2014

What’s the Best Way to Wash Microbes off Your Produce?

Note: This post is part of an ongoing series in which we try to answer questions about the science behind food – from farm to fork. If you have a food-related question, please let me know at matt_shipman@ncsu.edu. Short version: You can use water to wash off your fruits and veggies – but it may… 

Jun 4, 2014

How a Protein “Cancer Cop” Targets UV Damage in DNA

Ah, summer. People are outside enjoying the warm weather, swimming, playing, or just soaking up that glorious, skin-damaging, high-energy UV radiation from the sun. We know that prolonged sun exposure damages skin – the sun is a nuclear reactor, after all. But how does our body respond to and repair this damage at the DNA… 

May 15, 2014

Small Number of Genes Have Big Impact on Fish Egg Quality

NC State researchers have taken a big step toward solving a puzzle that has long vexed vertebrates – predicting egg quality, or the viability of embryos in eggs. Using gene expression data and computer modeling, the researchers examined farmed striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and showed that the coordinated interactions of less than 2 percent of the… 

Apr 8, 2014

Where Credit Is Due: How Acknowledging Expertise Can Help Conservation Efforts

Scientists know that tapping into local expertise is key to conservation efforts aimed at protecting biodiversity – but researchers rarely give credit to these local experts. Now some scientists are saying that’s a problem, both for the local experts and for the science itself. To address the problem, a group of scientists is calling for… 

Mar 13, 2014

What’s Eating You?

It’s a jungle out there. Humans can be infected by more than 1,400 parasites – viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. It can be bad enough when one nasty parasite takes hold – it’s certainly no fun to be stricken with tuberculosis – but what happens if you have two simultaneous infections? If one infection is diagnosed… 

Mar 11, 2014

Lignin Breakthroughs Serve as GPS for Plant Research

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed the equivalent of GPS directions for future plant scientists to understand how plants adapt to the environment and to improve plants’ productivity and biofuel potential. Two articles published March 11 in The Plant Cell offer a step-by-step approach for studying plant traits, drawing on comprehensive, quantitative research… 

Feb 27, 2014

Caught on Camera: Tree-Dwelling Orangutans on Ground

When researchers in Borneo set up camera traps to monitor tropical mammals on the ground, they didn’t expect to be photobombed by orangutans. In the wild, humans rarely see the red apes come down from the trees, says Dr. Rahel Sollmann, an NC State postdoctoral researcher in fisheries and wildlife. Sollmann helped analyze a database of… 

Feb 11, 2014

A Wealth of Wildlife, Right in the Backyard

Zoologist Roland Kays travels the world to study rare species, so he calls it a “cool surprise” to find a wealth of wildlife in the suburban backyards of Raleigh and Durham, N.C. “As scientists, we’ve traditionally thought of residential areas as non-habitat,” says Kays, a faculty member at NC State University and the North Carolina Museum… 

Feb 10, 2014

A Radical Approach to Defense

When are free radicals good for you? When your next door neighbor produces a toxic chemical soup. Behold the lowly marine worm, Amphitrite ornata. It’s red, looks like spaghetti and spends all of its time sifting through seafloor mud for meals. With absolutely zero defensive capabilities, Amphitrite would make an easy target for predators, yet… 

Feb 4, 2014

NC State Ants Boldly Go Into Space

NC State is helping to colonize space. A group of pavement ants collected by postdoc Clint Penick in Western North Carolina is now orbiting the earth on the International Space Station. Find out about the final frontier of science. 

Jan 8, 2014

Poisonous Water Leads to Bigger, But Fewer, Fish Babies

Living in extreme environments often entails taking extreme measures to survive. Live-bearing fish mothers in toxic North and South American waters try to give their offspring the best chance at surviving the harsh environment by giving birth to big babies, according to research published in Ecology Letters. The study examining nine different live-bearing fish species…