Trout gut balloons for annual food frenzy
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Once a year, a type of trout that lives in Alaska’s Chignik Lake watershed expands its stomach up to four times the usual size to go on a month-long eating binge. Continue…
Thursday, March 21, 2013 15:33 - 0 Comments
Science & Technology - Mar 6, 2013 16:43 - 0 Comments
‘Horsey’ teeth evolved in forest, not grassland
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Some prehistoric mammals got their big chompers from the gritty dust and volcanish ash in their food, new research suggests. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 22, 2013 12:52 - 0 Comments
Salmon boom and bust in extra-long cycles
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Scientists have known that salmon runs vary by year and by decade, but new research reveals huge cycles in stocks that last up to 200 years. (more…)
Top Stories - Dec 28, 2012 10:16 - 1 Comment
Forget T. rex: ancient piranha had nasty bite
U. WASHINGTON (US) — An extinct relative of piranhas that weighed only 20 pounds delivered a bite 30 times its body weight—considering its size, that’s a nastier chomp than that of T. rex. (more…)
Science & Technology - Dec 11, 2012 16:52 - 0 Comments
With 2-way wiring, moths feast on floral potluck
U. WASHINGTON / U. ARIZONA (US) — Despite being among the insect world’s most picky eaters, moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers because of two distinct “channels” in their brains. (more…)
Science & Technology - Dec 5, 2012 16:24 - 0 Comments
New dinosaur may be oldest by 10 million years
U. WASHINGTON / UC BERKELEY (US) — Working with fossils found in Tanzania, scientists have discovered what may be the oldest known dinosaur. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 12, 2012 16:52 - 4 Comments
Crows recall faces with human-like brain activity
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Like humans, crows recognize faces and form associations with them—and to accomplish this, the two species’ brains appear to work in similar ways. (more…)
Science & Technology - Aug 20, 2012 16:18 - 0 Comments
Dogs sniff forest to spot threatened owls
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Finding northern spotted owls has gotten much easier thanks to dogs specially trained to sniff out the owls’ pellets on the forest floor. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jun 12, 2012 9:02 - 0 Comments
Scat-sniffing dog finds stressed whales
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out killer whales in the Pacific Northwest more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jun 4, 2012 12:09 - 0 Comments
Sun-sensor protein tells plants when to flower
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Scientists believe they’ve pinpointed the last crucial piece of the puzzle of how plants “know” when to flower. (more…)
Earth & Environment - May 16, 2012 11:44 - 3 Comments
Mammals may not get to cool climates in time
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Nine percent of the Western Hemisphere’s mammals—and up to 40 percent in some regions—may not be able to outpace climate change. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 21, 2012 13:13 - 4 Comments
Oil supply’s ‘tipping point’ long gone?
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Stop wrangling over global warming and instead reduce fossil-fuel use for the sake of the global economy. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Dec 21, 2011 14:48 - 0 Comments
Nitrogen ‘double whammy’ could alter lakes
U. WASHINGTON (US) — Nitrogen derived from human activities has polluted lakes for more than a century. The fingerprint is evident even in remote lakes thousands of miles from the nearest city. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Oct 28, 2011 9:45 - 0 Comments
Rare lava collected from under sea volcano
U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — The first scientists to witness exploding rock and molten lava from a deep sea volcano in 2009 report that the eruption was near a tear in the Earth’s crust that is mimicking the birth of a subduction zone. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 28, 2011 15:00 - 0 Comments
Binge-eating fish with 3x the guts
U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — Salmon and other fish predators take the adage “no guts, no glory” literally, by having up to three times the “gut” capacity they need on a daily basis just so they can “glory” when prey is abundant. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jul 25, 2011 12:06 - 2 Comments
Trees’ footprints smaller than steel’s
U. WASHINGTON (US) — By regularly harvesting trees and using wood in place of steel and concrete, the amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere by a forest could be quadrupled in 100 years. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jun 13, 2011 10:44 - 5 Comments
Rockies snow loss unrivaled in 800 years
U. WASHINGTON (US) — A double whammy of climate change in the Rocky Mountains during the last 50 years has caused near unprecedented levels of snowpack decline in context of the past millennium. (more…)
Top Stories - Mar 8, 2011 11:22 - 0 Comments
Algae spew mucus to alter sea ice
U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — The discovery that sea-ice algae release mucus to create microchannels raises questions about the long-term effects on the ice and on animals up the food chain. (more…)
Science & Technology - Feb 4, 2010 11:42 - 2 Comments
Lost City microbes vie for control
U. WASHINGTON (US)—On the marine microbial stage, there appears to be a vast group of understudies only too ready to step in when “star” microbes falter. At least that’s what happens at the Lost City hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic Ocean—the only one of its kind found thus far. (more…)
