EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-Dec-2025 18:11 ET (13-Dec-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)

Big heart, acute senses key to explosive radiation of early fishes

University of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international team led by scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature and the University of Chicago reconstructed the brain, heart, and fins of an extinct fish called Norselaspis glacialis from a tiny fossil the size of fingernail and found evidence of change toward a fast-swimming, sensorily attuned lifestyle well before jaws and teeth were invented to better capture food.

Journal: Nature

Simple design changes can make bat boxes safer

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a recent study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign leveraged digital simulations to discover that simple insulation changes could make bat boxes much safer.

Journal: Ecological Solutions and Evidence

Revealed: New vaccine target to block malaria transmission

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Australian researchers have visualised a key protein complex in malaria parasites for the first time, uncovering a new target for next-generation vaccines that could help stop the disease from spreading.

Using cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy, the research team from WEHI captured the first detailed structure of a protein complex essential for malaria parasite fertilisation.

The discovery published in Science has led to the development of a promising new mRNA vaccine candidate that stops the malaria parasite from reproducing inside mosquitoes, breaking the cycle of transmission before it can reach humans.

Journal: Science

Cicadas sing in perfect sync with pre-dawn light

University of Cambridge
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cicadas coordinate their early morning choruses with remarkable precision, timing their singing to a specific level of light during the pre-dawn hours.

Journal: Physical Review E

Evolutionary insights into the development of the human intestine

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Research from an international team finds that the human gut is a site of rapid change, with recent and important deviations from other mammals, including our closest living relative, the chimpanzee.

Journal: Science
Funder: European Research Council, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium, NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute, John Templeton Foundation, Duke Whitehead Scholarship

Lake sturgeon thriving in Coosa River

University of Georgia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An initiative to bring lake sturgeon back is showing major progress, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

Journal: North American Journal of Fisheries Management

Genetic rescue of endangered species may risk bad mutations slipping through

Ohio State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The established conservation practice of relocating animals from large, genetically diverse populations to small communities of inbred endangered species may risk introducing more damaging than beneficial gene variants into the threatened group, a new study suggests.

Journal: Molecular Ecology