Posted on 1. October, 2010.

Using field experiments in Africa and a new computer model that gives them a bird's eye view of the world, scientists have discovered how a bird decides whether or not a cuckoo has laid an egg in its nest.

Posted on 30. September, 2010.

Sponges (Porifera) are the most ancient metazoans with ubiquitous benthic distribution. They are distributed along all latitudes from intertidal to deep-sea.  Many sponge species produce toxic substances enabling their survival in competitive marine environments. Some of the metabolites have beneficial pharmaceutical effects for humans with anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antitumor, antibiotic and anti-viral activities (Scheuer, 1978-1983; Faulkner, 1984; Uemura et al., 1985; Kim et al., 1998; Gunasekera et al., 1990).

Posted on 30. September, 2010.

An ethanolic extract of the dried flower petals of Argemone mexicana afforded a new and optically active secondary C31-alkanediol characterized as hentriacontane-3,20-diol on the basis of spectral studies including IR, HR-MS, 1H and 13C NMR.

Posted on 28. September, 2010.

Our sun is the only sustainable energy source large enough to supply carbon-neutral energy to meet humanity’s entire energy demand. However, there is a large gap between Europe’s solar energy use (less than 1% of the total) and the enormous, untapped potential of the sun. There could be several reasons listed why it is so – social, political, technological – but the fundamental reason is insufficient efficiency of sunlight-to-energy conversion devices manufactured from inexpensive materials thus preventing large scale uptake. Along with thermal and photoelectrochemical sunlight-to-energy conversion, photovoltaics – an approach of converting sunlight directly into electricity – is probably most mature for contributing to the increasing renewable energy use.

Posted on 27. September, 2010.

It’s a sight wildlife lovers have been waiting for – the first purple heron chick ever to be raised successfully in the UK has taken its first flight and is learning to fend for itself.

Posted on 27. September, 2010.

The ancient "terror bird" Andalgalornis could not fly, but it used its unusually large, rigid skull - coupled with a hawk-like hooked beak – to fight like a boxer.

Posted on 24. September, 2010.

BirdLife International has announced, in the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds, the extinction of the Alaotra Grebe. Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught and drowned birds, has driven this species into extinction.