A groundbreaking project has been launched to help protect one of the UK’s most spectacular insects – the British Swallowtail butterfly.

The British Swallowtail’s population has significantly declined over the last 20 years and researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in England are working with Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park and Nature’s SAFE, a UK biobank specialising in conservation, to investigate if cryopreservation can support the long-term conservation of the species.

It is believed this is the first time that cryopreservation, where the eggs will be stored in liquid nitrogen at -196 Celsius, has been attempted with butterflies.

A new study, led by researchers at the University of Liverpool, has revealed how pathogenic bacteria construct tiny protein-based compartments, known as Eut microcompartments, which enable them to digest ethanolamine - a nutrient commonly found in the gut.  Eut microcompartments are critical for bacterial growth and virulence. Understanding their assembly offers new insight into how bacteria survive and thrive in the gut and could help identify potential targets for antimicrobial therapies.

University of Utah engineering researchers demonstrate structural and mechanical properties in the mycelium of a common soil mold that show promise in biomedical applications.

New research has uncovered a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived about 167 million years ago and has a confusing set of features seen in snakes and geckos—two very distant relatives.