Two researchers at the University of Zurich have discovered and described a new, previously unknown palm species found in the virgin forests of Colombia. In close cooperation with an indigenous community there, they mapped the geographical distribution of the palm species and subjected their study to a local peer review process.

MicroRNAs help cells regulate which genes are active, but they must also be regulated—through destruction. In a new study, researchers at Whitehead and Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have uncovered how cells selectively destroy certain microRNAs through a mechanism that requires two RNA signals working together.

For decades, birdsong research focused almost exclusively on males. In many species, however, females also sing. Now a study by researchers from the University of Vienna and Anglia Ruskin University shows that female Galápagos yellow warblers sing frequently, though not for the reasons males do. In experiments simulating territorial intrusions, the researchers found that female song was neither linked to same sex competition nor to signalling aggression in territorial defence. The findings, published in the journal Animal Behaviour, raises new questions for the function of birdsong.

A new commentary in Biological Diversity emphasizes that botanical gardens are crucial urban green spaces, central to biodiversity conservation, human wellbeing, and global sustainable urban development.

Scientists have long known that dopamine helps the brain learn from rewards, but a new computational model shows how for people with schizophrenia this learning system can break down and simultaneously produce two very different symptoms — delusions and a loss of motivation.

An international research team from Bielefeld University and the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) has uncovered a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in human cells. For the first time, they demonstrate how a key molecular switch regulates the cell’s “recycling centers.” The findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, provide important insights into the understanding of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

A new study analysing two fossilised whale skulls from around 5 million years ago has revealed fragments of sharks’ teeth lodged inside them. This provides rare evidence of how sharks fed on whales in north European waters in prehistoric times.

s human-caused climate change continues to raise temperatures across the globe, understanding how birds regulate their temperature is vital for their conservation. But how much heat birds emit—an invisible spectrum of radiation known as mid-infrared—has never been studied, until now. Published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology, a groundbreaking collaboration between material engineers and museum biologists explored the impact of mid-infrared on birds for the first time in history, reflecting the hidden prism of light, heat, and color in bird feathers.  

It’s long been known that habitat plays a role in bird coloration, a phenomenon described by biologists through things like Gloger’s rule, which predicts that animals like birds living in hot, humid areas will be visibly darker than those in dry, cool areas. Color is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, a visible wavelength that humans can see part of (the visible spectrum), and birds can see even more of (the ultraviolet spectrum), but heat, or infrared, exists outside the bounds of what either humans or birds can see. Infrared is broken down into the heat animals absorb (near-infrared) but not the heat they emit (mid-infrared). The interdisciplinary team of scientists measured both in the new study.