Humans are by no means alone in the search for more sustainable materials. Nature, too, has been “working” on the problem of sustainability, and it’s been at it for a great deal longer. In a new study, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science show how design tricks employed by ancient creatures such as scorpions and sponges can help optimize the resilience of human-made materials, ultimately advancing sustainable design.

In a new study, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers reveal a bacterial immune system that thwarts the phages’ plot by attaching a small protein molecule to their tails. The components of this new immune system are similar in structure to a human immunity mechanism, and they might help reveal how this mechanism works and how our own immune system has evolved.

Despite a decade of global efforts, the world is far from reaching essential nutrition 2030 milestones set by the World Health Assembly, with critical gaps threatening the health of millions. According to a new Global Burden of Disease analysis, most countries are struggling to meet the six global nutrition targets set in 2012 to combat low birthweight, inadequate breastfeeding, child malnutrition, and anemia in reproductive-age women.

Concordia researchers report that acoustic features from the vocalisations made during the rutting season likely convey reliable information about male reindeers’ attractiveness or quality to potential mates.

These vocalisations are intended for both females and males, they note. The grunts of a rutting male indicate both their potential attractiveness to a mate and their maturity and strength to male rivals.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed an evaluation method for measuring and classifying trace element concentrations in the semen and blood serum of male patients with subfertility. This method demonstrated that the pregnancy rate was highest in the group with low phosphorus and arsenic concentrations and high concentrations of other trace elements. Thus, this method could be a novel approach for evaluating subfertility that does not rely solely on sperm concentration and motility.

Few things are as fascinating to look at a flock of starlings performing their aerial bird dance that is commonly seen, for example, above the West Pier in Brighton, UK, or in Rome when exiting the main train station, or a school of fish escaping a predator. In order to move together so nicely and to make efficient collective decisions, grouping animals (such as certain birds or fish) interact socially with each other, constantly adjusting their movements in ways that create the choreographies that we find so mesmerizing. These interactions are nothing but many small acts of attraction between distant individuals, repulsion from neighbors that are too close, and alignment among neighbors to coordinate the group’s direction of movement. By examining these motions in more detail, scientists from Science of Intelligence in Berlin and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona found that in fish schools, these interactions are regulated by the relative speeds between neighbors, and that individuals tend to align with the faster ones and ignore the slower ones. The findings were published in a PNAS paper. The bottom line is: swimming faster will get you followers.