Honeybees Are'Righties 'When bees are forced to interact with only their left antennas they have trouble bee-having:
Honeybee Scouts Find Food To conduct the research the results of which were published today (June 27) in the journal Scientific Reports the scientists first randomly cut off a honeybee's right or left antenna.
They then placed pairs of bees into a small container and filmed their interactions. Surprisingly bees with only their right antenna behaved almost identically to those with both antennas intact the researchers found.
Remarkable abilities This is just the latest finding to hint at the remarkable abilities of honeybees
 In addition honeybees can recognize human faces navigate complex mazes and teach each other where to find food by dancing (have fun trying that one at the next club you visit!).
And now honeybees. Â The result is interesting as it provides provocative information to suggest that there might be lateralization in the bee brain as there is in vertebrate brains said Gene Robinson a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who wasn't involved in the study.
Both humans'right-handedness and honeybees'right-antenna-preference are byproducts of asymmetries in the brain meaning the left and right side of the brain do different things Vallortigara said.
although not as well understood as for insects mammals birds and even in snakes. The recent study published in the Journal of Zoology shows that for crocodiles almost a quarter of the fruits consumed were of the oefleshy kind.
#As Superbugs Rise, New Studies Point To Factory Farms (Op-Ed) Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural resources Defense Council (NRDC.
Finally treatment with a potent form of the antibiotic cephalosporin managed to beat back the multidrug-resistant superbug.
or fields fertilized with pig manure is also at greater risk of getting infected by a superbug.
For decades scientists have been teasing out the link between the abuse of antibiotics on livestock farms and the rise of superbug infections in humans.
whether it be human hand a crawly insect or an oozy fungus. Research teams led by Robert Last Daniel Jones
Despite their well-earned reputation as a firefighter's worst nightmare eucalyptus trees remain a favorite landscape specimen renowned for fast-growing stands of tall shade trees that according to some research help repel insects through the same fragrant eucalyptus oil that's blamed for fueling wildfires.
While animals like sharks are known to sense electrical fields nobody had ever found that an insect could do the same Scientificamerican reports.
Flowers use various means to attract bees and other pollinators. In addition to their electrical charge and alluring fragrance flowers display bright colors and research has found that bees see colors three times faster than humans.
whose nectar has just been taken by another insect. The last thing a flower wants is to attract a bee
Other scientists are excited about the possible implications this research may have for other nectar-gathering insects such as hoverflies and moths.
Assuming we can replicate the findings this is going to open up a whole new window on insect sensory systems.
Mysterious disappearance Honeybees have been disappearing mysteriously in a trend known as colony-collapse disorder. Though no one knows exactly what causes the dramatic die-off scientists think a range of factors including parasites
Honeybee Scouts Find Food To see whether honey provided any benefit to the bees May Berenbaum a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The researchers then took those chemicals added them to bee candy a combination of sucrose and powdered sugar and fed them to 15 worker bees.
Climate change promotes fire-friendly infestations of bark beetles via a double whammy: Milder winters enable populations of bark beetles to survive the winter
and thereby increase their numbers and amplify their killing power. By contrast populations of these pests used to be thinned
At the same time climate change increases the vulnerability of forests to bark beetle attacks. It does so by triggering droughts that subject trees to water stress
which reduces their resistance to bark beetle infestations much the way that starvation reduces the resistance of people to infections.
and it teems with earthworms beneficial insects and microorganisms. The change is due to several key farming practices including cover cropping and no-till farming
Hobbyists Swarm to Beekeeping Matt Howes would never have stuck his bare hand into a beehive six months ago
but since he has taken the reins of managing the four hives on the rooftop of his office he has become more comfortable handling the honey makers.
You become calmer have steadier hand movements Howes said after adjusting an infrared camera he installed in one of his hives
Howes is one of a growing number of New yorkers tending to their office hives this summer.
Gallery of the Cutest Bugs Now hundreds of residents including at home hobbyists and office beekeepers have registered hives with the New york city Department of health
and the numbers continue to rise. A new hive appeared one office building over from the NRDC just a few weeks ago perhaps inspired by Howe's work.
The city does not limit the number of hives allowed per registrant and while many bee enthusiasts appreciate this freedom to expand others worry that the city may eventually hit bee capacity
and run out of food sources for the bees. It takes one million flowers to produce enough nectar for one pound of honey said Andrew Cote founder of the New york city Beekeepers Association.
Each hive needs hundreds of pounds of honey to survive. To supplement what the bees forage from parks
and cracks in sidewalks many beekeepers provide their hives with bowls of sugar water. But Cote said he would rather see bees feed on wild more nutritious sources of nectar
and the burgeoning number of hives worries him. We have the same amount of flowers
Elsewhere office hives have played more of a role in business. The Waldorf Astoria hotel for example uses its rooftop-made honey in cocktails salad dressing and even wild mushroom chowder.
And it has a story behind it that we can share with guests many of whom can't believe that there are beehives in Manhattan.
Only 125 of the 1000 pounds of honey the Waldorf kitchen consumed last year came from the rooftop hives.
and political views said Alex Batkin a poetry graduate student at Brooklyn College who recently joined a group that helps Cote check hives each week.
#Caffeine Gives Bees a Memory Boost Honeybees like tired office employees like their caffeine suggests a new study finding that bees are more likely to remember plants containing the java ingredient.
Caffeine in nectarâ is likely to improve the bee's foraging prowess while providing the plant with a more faithful pollinator Wright added.
All of these plants contained caffeine. 10 Things You Need to Know About Coffee Plants produce caffeine as a defense mechanism a bitter-tasting brew to fend off insects.
Cells in the brains of insects are similar to neurons in the hippocampus. To see how caffeine affected these cells the researchers recorded the electrical activity of honeybee brains bathed in a caffeine-containing liquid.
The caffeine had a noticeable effect on the brain cells'activity results showed. Wright and colleagues think the caffeine is affecting neurons in the bees'brains in a way that reinforces memories.
and hives whereas celiac disease is characterized by the reaction in the small intestine and other listed symptoms.
and one of the tiniest dung beetles ever found are among the new species discovered during a survey of
Researchers also got out their magnifying glasses to uncover the Lilliputian beetle a teeny-tiny insect measuring just 0. 09 inches (2. 3 millimeters) long.
The antlered red beetle is likely the second-smallest dung beetle species in South america the researchers reported.
Dung beetles play critical ecological roles that help support healthy ecosystems Trond Larsen the director of the Rapid Assessment Program said in a statement.
The expedition also turned up five other potentially new frog species many insects and one snake.
Several of the new insects were leggy katydids most in shades of green. One of the potentially new katydids seems to mimic a dead leaf with its curved torso and brown coloration.
No less impressive were the species already known to science recorded in the area. They include the pale pink worm lizard (Amphisbaena vanzolinii) rarely seen aboveground
A fly-sized robot? A killer cave in Spain? These stories and more made our top picks for the week.</
Antimatter Might Just Fall Up</a p><p></p><p>Flies have tiny wings and even tinier brains yet they are capable of flying swiftly and agilely through even turbulent air.
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/29292-robotic-insects-controlled-flight. html target=blank>Fly-sized Robot Takes First Flight</a p><p
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/26914-why-we-are-all-above-average. html target=blank>Why We're All Above Average</a p><p></p><p>Beware of robots driven by small insects.
A group of researchers has put a silkmoth in the driver's seat of a small two-wheeled robot to study how the insect tracks down smells.</
</p><p>Understanding the scent-tracking behavior of a silkmoth(<i>Bombyx mori </i>)could help scientists develop robots that are able to sense environmental spills and leaks by smell according to the new study.</
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/26892-moth-drives-robot. html target=blank>Insect Drives Tiny Robot Toward Seductive Smells</a p><p
</a p><p></p><p>Honeybees like tired office employees like their caffeine suggests a new study finding that bees are more likely to remember plants containing the java ingredient.</
insects you've ever heard of it's the size of a quarter and its painful bite has been compared to being knifed is set to invade Florida this summer.</
and other disasters can expect to see an explosion of shaggy-haired gallinippers(<i>Psorophora ciliata</i>)a type of giant mosquito according to entomologist Phil Kaufman of the University of Florida.</
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/27772-gallinipper-giant-mosquito. html target=blank>Gallinippers! Monster Mosquitoes Poised to Strike Florida</a p
#Coolest Science Stories of the Week<p></p><p>Mini black holes images of early birds and talking plants topped our favorite stories this week.</
</p><p>Though often too low or too high for human ears to detect insects
Anderson is developing tiny foam drone airplanes that fly using a $170 autopilot essentially a brain for the plane that works in any kind of automated vehicle.
It used to be thought that the pollinating insects such as bees and wasps evolved at about the same time as the angiosperms.
It was cited frequently as an example of co-evolution. New research however indicates that insect pollination was established probably well before the first flowers.
While the oldest bee fossil was trapped in its amber prison only about 80 million years ago evidence has been found that bee
-or wasp-like insects built hive-like nests in what is called now the Petrified Forest.
It is thought now that competition for insect attention probably facilitated the relatively rapid success and diversification of the flowering plants.
As diverse flower forms lured insects to pollinate them insects adapted to differing ways of gathering nectar
In 1966 a farmer said he saw a flying saucer rise up from a swampy area and fly away;
insects and fish and people and dogs all have bilateral symmetry. It now appears that the closest relative of Bilaterians are jellyfish
and blowflies helping to reduce the elk herd to an eerie scattered sea of skeletons in the desert.
As these pines are high-altitude trees growing best above 8000 feet (about 2400 meters) some have proposed that the warming climate might facilitate outbreaks of native mountain pine beetles
The winter temperatures aren't cold enough to break the cycle for the beetles. One hypothesis is that we're going to see more frequent outbreaks
The survey respondents reported a long list of challenges including cover-crop seed availability increased insect potential
but police and searchers had identified already the Smith property as among the most likely places where Terry Smith Jr. might be found.
#Do Bark beetles Affect Water Quality? This Research in Action article was provided to Livescience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
Hydrological studies in the Rocky mountains involving the tiny mountain pine beetle a species of bark beetle have big implications for water resource management in Colorado and elsewhere.
A team of National Science Foundation-funded scientists is investigating how a rampant beetle infestation could change the quantity and quality of drinking water in Colorado.
Scientists say bark beetles have killed about 90 percent of Colorado's lodgepole pines 4. 5 million acres of trees.
In earlier years cooler temperatures in fall and winter checked bark beetle populations in western North america.
As Cambridge university's Patrick Bateson points out it was rare in the past to find people taking seriously the possibility of insect pain
and effects such as bark beetles or parasites on stressed trees were measured not. Different than uncontrolled burns Predicting the effects of climate change on trees is difficult
#Drunk Fruit flies! Lots of Animals Self-Medicate The use of medicine can no longer be considered a solely human trait
And this list runs the gamut with the usual suspects primates chewing on medicinal herbs as well as some more surprising drug-takers such as fruit flies ants
and butterflies a new study finds. Previously scientists thought such behavior was unique to primates
But according to the study scientists who examined recent research in the field animals from insects to chimpanzees may self-medicate as an innate response to parasites and perhaps for other reasons as well.
Drunk fruit flies Medication can be taken either in response to an active infection or to prevent future parasitic attacks of an animal
Fruit flies for example will lay their eggs in more alcoholic fruit (produced by natural fermentation) when parasitic wasps are hanging around said Todd Schlenke an Emory researcher who wasn't involved in the review paper.
In the flies increased blood-alcohol content causes the wasp maggot parasites living in their blood to die in a particularly gruesome way by having their internal organs evert outside their bodies through their anuses Schlenke told Livescience.
The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites Whereas the alcohol can have negative effects on the developing flies it also makes infection less likely.
When parasitic wasps are scarce the flies prefer to lay their eggs in less fermented fruit.
Infected larvae can also preferentially seek out areas of a fruit with more alcohol Schlenke said.
Ants have also been found to medicate their colonies against infection bringing back chemicals with antifungal properties.
And monarch butterflies fight parasites by laying their eggs in toxic milkweed plants. Helping humans Animal medicine can be useful to humans in a variety of ways.
and bring it back to their hives to help them fight infection. Beekeepers have selected against this trait
and underground roots and even termites or small scavenged animals although the exact composition of the diet still remains a mystery.
#Eating Insects Will feed Help Hungry World, UN Says NEW YORK The problem is familiar: How to feed a growing world population.
Eat insects. Now the United nations'Food and agriculture organization has weighed in favor of entomophagy the practice of eating insects.
In a 200-plus-page report issued in May the FAO provides the first comprehensive assessment of insects'current and potential uses food for humans and livestock.
It is accepted widely that by 2050 the world will host 9 billion people. To accommodate this number current food production will need to almost double reads the report titled Edible Insects:
Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. We need to find new ways of growing food.
and a proponent of bug eating told an audience on Wednesday (June 26) night here at the New york Academy of Sciences.
The FAO report as well as books published over the past 20 years featuring appealing insect recipes
and photos have been a part of the greater acceptance of bug-eating Sorkin said. You have to get people to
Although many Westerners may react to the idea of bug-eating with disgust insects make up a part of the traditional diets of about 2 billion people the report estimates.
These include the larvae of the palm weevil a type of beetle in a number of tropical regions;
yellow jacket wasp larvae in Japan; and grasshoppers known as chapulines in Oaxaca Mexico to name a few.
Beetles account for the most commonly eaten group of insects. I happen to like more the immature beetles the grubs.
They're softer Sorkin said. They don't have the exoskeleton and they are more flavorful but to each his own.
Insects offer a clear environmental benefit because they can convert their own food to body mass more efficiently than traditional livestock
because unlike chickens pigs and cows insects are not warm-blooded Sorkin said. As a result they do not have to expend energy to keep themselves warm
and can use it to grow instead. Â Among other benefits insects take up little space can be raised on waste
and research indicates they emit fewer greenhouse gases than conventional livestock according to the report. They can be nutritious with high fat protein vitamin fiber
I think most people here probably don't like to eat insects because they look like insects. But if you cook the insects dry the insects
and grind them into a flour more people would consume it Sorkin said. One company Utah-based Chapul has taken this approach
and sells energy bars made of cricket flour. Â Humans aren't the only ones who could stand to eat more insects.
Research is exploring using insect protein to feed farmed fish and poultry the report says. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
+Original article onâ Livescience. com S
#Eating Peppers May Lower Parkinson's Risk Regularly eating peppers may lower the risk of Parkinson's disease a new study suggests.
and butterfly wings make use of some unique surface characteristics that promote self-cleaning. The researchers believe that incorporating some of these features into man-made products might be key to tackling problems associated with biofouling.
and butterfly wings combine the low drag of shark skin with the superhydrophobicity of the lotus leaf putting these surfaces at the top of the list of nature-made self-cleaners.
and butterfly wings came to the investigators from observing these structures in their natural habitats.
and butterfly wings roll off effortlessly and that each remains clean in their respective environment says Bhushan.
and lotus leaves rice leaves and butterfly wings have special properties that make them particularly resistant to fouling.
Like shark skin rice leaves and butterfly wings exhibited low drag and self-cleaning properties.
Both rice leaves and butterfly wings contain micro -and nano-sized features that repel and direct water in one direction says Bixler.
and butterfly wings combine antifouling properties of some of nature's best self-cleaners Bhushan and Bixler have identified new surfaces that can be used as engineering inspiration for a wide range of industries plagued by biofouling.
and butterfly wing-inspired films for applications requiring low drag self-cleaning and antifouling say Bhushan.
Bushan's study on rice leaves and butterfly wings was titled Bioinspired rice leaf and butterfly wing surface structures combining shark skin
and lotus effects and was published online in the journal Soft Matter on September 11 2012. DOI:
The birds that fly through Central park you still have to call them wild the trees that grow in Central park you still have to call them wild he said.
They will now only be allowed for use on plants that aren't attractive to pollinators like bees the BBC reported.
Pollinators like bees fertilize about one-third of crops worldwide scientists estimate. In the United states the number of colonies has been reduced by about 50 percent in the last year alone according to news reports.
A Western bird the blue and black Steller's jays like to frequent cleared forest edges which are filled with bugs
You may experience a drop in blood pressure asthma and skin reactions such as hives or eczema. An allergic reaction to food can cause serious illness and in some cases death.
when honeybees are stressedthey display an increased expectation of bad outcomes. In other words they become pessimists.
#Forests Recover Quickly After Bark beetles Attack SAN FRANCISCO A forest ravaged by the red hand of death also known as a bark beetle attack recovers quickly with little ecosystem damage scientists said here today (Dec 9) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The potential effects of massive tree die offs in Western forests have been a concern since a sudden uptick in bark beetle attacks in the late 1990s.
A species called the mountain pine beetle is one of the primary culprits leaving large swaths of forest dying of a fungus carried by the tiny insects.
Even when up to 80 percent of trees were killed by beetles Ewers and his colleagues saw little evidence of these worrisome effects.
Photos of Destructive Invasive Species Even though bark beetles have an enormous visual impact the forest is resilient to the attack Ewers told Livescience.
because beetles don't kill all the trees at once the survivors gobble up extra water and nutrients freed up by the fatalities both studies found.
In four different study sites 40 percent of older trees grew two times faster in the years after bark beetles munched through the forest Rhoades and his colleagues found.
or nitrogen but overall there is very little change after a bark beetle infestation Ewers said. Even though the bark beetle visual impact is really impressive and striking there's many things going on in that forest that makes it resilient to the attack
and so those compensating mechanisms result in little impact in what the ecosystem itself is doing Ewer said.
A newborn joey can be anywhere from 0. 2 to 0. 9 inches (5 to 25 millimeters) long the size of a grain of rice to the size of a honeybee.
Tasmanian devils eat meat from snakes birds fish and insects. Their prey can reach up to the size of small kangaroos.
The stripes may also help deter bloodsucking insects research has suggested. The height of an adult plains zebra is 44-58 inches (112 to 147centimeters) at the shoulder.
These spiders typically eat insects though they have been known to eat other spiders. There are about 40 species of hexathelidae in Australia
These spiders usually eat insects or small vertebrates like lizards or frogs. Tree dwellers While most funnel spiders live on the ground a few species on the eastern coast of Australia live in wet forest trees.
The team found the nocturnal carnivores on the western slopes of the Andes prowling the cloud forests for figs nectar and insects.
or they are resistant to a pesticide like Roundup (manufactured by Monsanto Corp.).One widely used method of incorporating insect resistance into plants is through the gene for toxin production found in the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) according to the World health organization.
GMO crops that are modified with the Bt gene have a proven resistance to insect pests thus reducing the need for wide-scale spraying of synthetic pesticides.
It does not take into account the situation the realities of the conditions on the ground in whitebark pine forests said Jesse Logan the retired head of the U s. Forest Service's bark beetle research unit.
Climate change has made the high-elevation whitebark pines more accessible to the destructive beetles. Bear battle The fight over the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly population is a years-long saga.
and bison and a fatty high-elevation insect called the army cutworm moth. Pine nuts in particular are linked to birth
When the agency first delisted the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species list in 2007 it estimated that 16 percent of the whitebark pine in the habitat had been affected by beetles.
We were able to launch a study in the summer of 2009 to measure the impact of mountain pine beetles in whitebark pine he said.
#Harnessing The Power Of Peacocks To Make Colorful Images (ISNS)--The gloriously colored iridescent feathers of the male peacock aren't
As a peacock moves around its tail colors appear to change. That's because its iridescent feathers reflect different colors or wavelengths of light at different angles.
 But while peacocks use feathers Guo's team uses metals which interact with light in more complicated ways.
To simulate the peacock effect the Michigan researchers combined the techniques. They etched nanoscale grooves on a piece of glass with the same technology used to etch computer chips.
and filmmaker Doug Peacock writes The USDA Wildlife Service is among the most unaccountable and clandestine of taxpayer-supported programs in America.
and killing animals we call pests is accepted as easily as swatting flies or mosquitos when they bother you it's
because those who oppose the kill kill kill mentality remain silent and choose to practice slacktivism talking about something
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