Futurity.org » Tulane University

Leaf-cutting ants prefer low-fungi leaves

Arthur Nead-Tulane — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:19:06 +0000

TULANE (US) — A leaf’s fungi can make it unappealing to leaf-cutting ants, say biologists, who wanted to know why the insects target some plants but not others.

Leaf-cutting ants are major defoliators, inflicting billions of dollars of damage to agriculture in the southern United States and Central America. The ants harvest chunks of leaves, bring them to their nests, and pile them to create compost heaps that host a special fungus.

“They grow this fungus to feed themselves,” says Sunshine Van Bael, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University. The fungus devours the compost, producing fruiting bodies that the ants eat and feed to their larvae.

People judge flu risk by cost of vaccine

Keith Brannon-Tulane — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:39:09 +0000

TULANE (US) — Based on the price of medication, consumers make irrational inferences about their risk of getting sick.

The study, published in Journal of Consumer Research, finds that consumers make judgments about their risk of catching an illness based on the cost of its medication.

Breast cancer tumors feed on obesity

Arthur Nead-Tulane — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:27:52 +0000

TULANE (US) — Obesity causes changes in stem cells that can result in more aggressive breast cancers, a new study shows.

“Clinical studies have shown there is a much higher incidence of breast cancer in obese women than in non-obese women,” says Bruce Bunnell, professor of pharmacology and director of the Center for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine at Tulane University, and lead author of the study that is published in the journal Stem Cells.

Can mice learn to change their tune?

Ashley Yeager-Duke — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:56:41 +0000

DUKE (US) — Like people and song-learning birds, male mice may have certain brain features that they use to learn some of their sounds, new research shows.

“We are claiming that mice have limited versions of the brain and behavior traits for vocal learning that are found in humans for learning speech and in birds for learning song,” says Duke University neurobiologist Erich Jarvis, who oversaw the study.

As birds migrate, oil spill effects may travel

Kathryn Hobgood-Tulane — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:36:30 +0000

TULANE (US) — The full impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill may still reveal itself as bird migration spreads the disaster far from the Gulf Coast.

The largest-ever accidental release of oil into marine waters could impact earth’s ecosystems for years to come—and not just along the 650 miles of the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline directly affected by the spill.

“More than one million migratory shorebirds representing 28 species were potentially exposed to Deepwater Horizon oil during their 2010-2011 nonbreeding season,” says Caz Taylor, assistant professor and a population ecologist at Tulane University.

Would first Olympians recognize today’s games?

Fran Simon-Tulane — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:46:30 +0000

TULANE (US) — This summer’s Olympic Games in London, with a parade of more than 10,000 athletes from around the world, bear only a slight resemblance to the ancient games in Greece.

That’s according to Margaret E. Butler, an assistant professor of classical studies at Tulane University, who says the ancient games had nine main events, compared to 32 sports in the 2012 games.

Gulf Coast sea level rise stuck in overdrive

Kathryn Hobgood-Tulane — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:59:34 +0000

TULANE (US) — A new study shows the rate of sea level rise along the Gulf Coast has increased dramatically during the 20th century, as compared to the preindustrial millennium (600-1600 CE).

“Specifically, we have determined that the rate of sea level rise in the 20th century has been five times higher as a result of human-induced climate change,” says co-author Torbjörn Törnqvist, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University.

Fast-food diners say, ‘Downsize me’

Keith Brannon-Tulane — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:55:27 +0000

TULANE (US) — Asking consumers if they would like a smaller portion may be a better approach to curb overeating than posting calorie counts.

The study from Tulane University found that when servers asked customers whether they’d like to “downsize” starchy side dishes at a Chinese fast-food restaurant as many as a third gladly cut back—saving an average 200 calories each meal.

“Our goal was to test whether the invitation to downsize a meal component would be embraced by consumers and, importantly, whether the approach would be more effective than a purely information-based approach—in this case calorie labeling,” says lead study author Janet Schwartz, assistant professor of marketing at Tulane University.

Bacteria turn newspapers into biofuel

Kathryn Hobgood-Tulane — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:21:17 +0000

TULANE (US) — A novel bacterial strain uses recycled newspaper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline.

TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.

Kids with HIV living well longer

Arthur Nead-Tulane — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:09:36 +0000

TULANE (US) — Children born with HIV are living well into adolescence and adulthood, according to a new study that also finds advances in treatment have all but eradicated mother-to-baby transmission of the disease.

“About two thirds of these kids, at this point, don’t have virus detectable in the blood,” says Russell Van Dyke, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Tulane University. “While they are still infected and they are not cured, it’s surprising how well they’re doing, considering what they’ve been through.”