Podcast for 11 March 2011: Animal Adaptations
Regional dialects in gibbons, a squid attack pheromone, bats and carnivorous plants, and why frogs are slimy.
Attack Squid
A newly discovered pheromone instantly sends male squids into a fighting frenzy.
Animal Strength
Mother of pearl gets its strength from the combination of two very different kinds of materials.
Podcast for 20 February 2011
ANNUAL MEETING SPECIAL: The new science of aeroecology, deconstructing taste preferences, new ways to store energy, and 3-D printers that could one day produce replacement organs.
Drumming Wasps
A drum-like beat determines whether a baby paper wasp will become a worker or a future queen.
Bats & Carnivorous Plants
At least one carnivorous plant appears to have lost its taste for insects in favor of bat guano.
A Fairy-Wren Tale
A small Australian bird may benefit from the songs of one of its predators.
Sexing Pterodactyls
The discovery of a female pterodactyl with an egg in China is making paleontologists take a second look at old fossil collections.
Podcast
ANIMAL STORIES: An Australian bird benefits when its predator sings, what happens when bees get sleepy, the invasion of the giant fish, eating insects to slow global warming, and a female pterodactyl fossil is discovered in China.
Sea Urchin Teeth
The sea urchin's super-sharp could inspire new nano-materials.
Asian Carp Invasion
Scientists are using DNA to track the invasion of Asian carp in the United States.
Nerves & Muscle Roundup
"Marathon" mice could lead to new therapies for muscle disorders.
Reversing Early Alzheimer’s
Scientists have erased learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of early Alzheimer's disease.
Podcast
NATURE OF INVENTION: Sea urchin teeth could inspire new nano-materials, and hornet stripes could lead to better solar technology. Also: automatic transmissions could revolutionize electric wheelchairs, and there's new research on the genetics of hair color and male pattern baldness.
Lightning Bug Roundup
Fireflies could help doctors deliver the right dose of heparin to prevent blood clots.
Gangster Birds
In the Kalahari desert, a gangster-like bird provides protection to other birds, but at a high price.
Modified Mosquito Roundup
Sterilized male mosquitoes are part of a grand experiment in biocontrol on Grand Cayman Island.
Toxic Cavefish
A toxic plant used in a traditional religious ritual is shaping the evolution of a Mexican cavefish.
Podcast
Bacterial poison darts, a new approach to cancer research, turning skin into blood, depressing night-lights and the differences between human and Neanderthal brains.
Cat Roundup
Tigers are highly endangered in the wild and the remains of over one thousand of the big cats have been seized in the past decade.
Fatherless Snakes
Boa constrictors are the latest addition to the list of vertebrate species in which parthenogensis, or asexual reproduction, has been documented.
Light-Smelling Mice
Mice that can smell light help neurobiologists study olfaction.