Nature : Science World Report

Mar 23, 2012 10:06 AM EDT

Plant DNA Speaks English, Identifies New Species

The important changes to the way scientists name new plants that took effect on 1 January 2012 included the fall of the so-called Latin requirement - a stipulation that descriptions or diagnoses of new species had to be in Latin.

Mar 23, 2012 09:55 AM EDT

An Extinct Species of Scops Owl Has Been Discovered in Madeira

An international team of scientists, including some from Majorca and the Canary Islands, have described a new type of fossil scops owl, the first extinct bird on the archipelago of Madeira (Portugal). Otus mauli, which was also the first nocturnal bird of prey described in the area, lived on land an...

Mar 23, 2012 09:46 AM EDT

Diatom Biosensor Could Shine Light on Future Nanomaterials

A glow coming from the glassy shell of microscopic marine algae called diatoms could someday help us detect chemicals and other substances in water samples. And the fact that this diatom can glow in response to an external substance could also help researchers develop a variety of new, diatom-inspir...

Mar 23, 2012 09:35 AM EDT

Megalara Garuda: the King of Wasps

A new and unusual wasp species has been discovered during an expedition to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Mar 23, 2012 07:42 AM EDT

Scorpio Rising

Even in places as seemly well-studied as the national parks of North America, new species are still being discovered. Using ultraviolet light that cause scorpions to fluoresce a ghostly glow, researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) have discovered an intriguing new scorpion in De...

Mar 23, 2012 07:02 AM EDT

Ancient Civilizations Reveal Ways to Manage Fisheries for Sustainability

In the search for sustainability of the ocean's fisheries, solutions can be found in a surprising place: the ancient past.

Mar 23, 2012 06:55 AM EDT

Activists Sue to Stop Killing of Pacific Northwest Sea Lions

Wildlife activists sued on Monday to stop the killing of sea lions that have been eating endangered Columbia River salmon, seeking a reprieve for the animals a day before three Pacific Northwest states are authorized to begin executing them.

Mar 22, 2012 03:38 PM EDT

Self-reflective Mind -- in Animals! Psychologists Report on Continuing Advances

According to one of the leading scholars in the field, there is an emerging consensus among scientists that animals share functional parallels with humans' conscious metacognition -- that is, our ability to reflect on our own mental processes and guide and optimize them.

Mar 22, 2012 03:08 PM EDT

Trace Element Plays Major Role in Tropical Forest Nitrogen Cycle

A new paper by researchers from the University of Georgia and Princeton University sheds light on the critical part played by a little-studied element, molybdenum, in the nutrient cycles of tropical forests. Understanding the role of molybdenum may help scientists more accurately predict how tropica...

Mar 22, 2012 10:00 AM EDT

Runner's High Motivated the Evolution of Exercise

In the last century something unexpected happened: humans became sedentary. We traded in our active lifestyles for a more immobile existence. But these were not the conditions under which we evolved. David Raichlen from the University of Arizona, USA, explains that our hunter-gatherer predecessors w...

Mar 22, 2012 07:30 AM EDT

False Killer Whales Use Acoustic Squint to Target Prey

Hunting in the ocean's murky depths, vision is of little use, so toothed whales and dolphins (odontocetes) rely on echolocation to locate tasty morsels with incredible precision. Laura Kloepper from the University of Hawaii, USA, explains that odontocetes produce their distinctive echolocation click...

Mar 21, 2012 11:52 AM EDT

USDA Forest Service and NASA Release Web-based Forest Disturbance Monitoring Tool

The USDA Forest Service's Eastern Forest and Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Centers recently unveiled a product that helps natural resource managers rapidly detect, identify, and respond to unexpected changes in the nation's forests by using web-based tools. ForWarn, a satellite-ba...