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

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Sep-2025 22:11 ET (11-Sep-2025 02:11 GMT/UTC)

Wind energy and marine wildlife in conflict: researchers warn of the overlap between offshore wind farms and areas of high biodiversity

Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A predictive model suggests that seabirds and marine mammals forage in the same areas where wind potential is most significant and that their populations may be at risk if wind farms are built there. The authors propose developing risk maps before the spatial planning of offshore wind farms to avoid harmful impacts on biodiversity.

Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
Funder: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Generalitat Valenciana, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación

New review illuminates how thermodynamics sets boundaries for life's functions

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The review bridges physics and biology by analyzing how stochastic thermodynamics—a framework describing energy exchanges in microscopic systems—helps explain limitations across diverse biological functions.

Journal: Quantitative Biology
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Swiss National Science Foundation

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Anglia Ruskin University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study has found that the world’s finest yodellers aren’t from Austria or Switzerland, but the rainforests of Latin America.

Published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and led by experts from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England, and the University of Vienna, the research provides significant new insights into the diverse vocal sounds of non-human primates, and reveals for the first time how certain calls are produced.

The researchers have discovered that special anatomical structures called vocal membranes allow monkeys to introduce “voice breaks” to their calls. These have the same rapid transitions in frequency heard in Alpine yodelling, or in Tarzan’s famous yell, but cover a much wider frequency range.

Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

Microtubule mysteries revealed

University of Texas at Austin
Peer-Reviewed Publication

TACC's Frontera supercomputer helps model dynamical behavior of cell structural polymers called microtubules that could lead to better understanding neurodegenerative diseases.

Journal: Biophysical Journal
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

How this tiny snake could change our view of genetics

University of Texas at Arlington
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By analyzing the flowerpot snake’s unique genome, scientists at The University of Texas at Arlington are uncovering how the tiny reptile repairs its DNA and prevents harmful mutations. The findings, published recently in the journal Science Advances, provides valuable insights into genetic repair mechanisms that could deepen our understanding of human gene evolution.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Sichuan Science and Technology Program

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Tone Blakesley of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS One

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a small study of eight cats at early stages of pregnancy, researchers detected 19 different kinds of microplastic particles in fetuses from two cats and in the placentas of three cats. Ilaria Ferraboschi of the University of Parma, Italy, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on April 2, 2025.

Journal: PLOS One