15+ hour, 43+ min ago   (83+ words) When the first fish lineage crawled onto land some 375 million years ago, its fins had to be remodeled into limbs capable of bearing weight. Evolutionary biologists have long focused on the genes that pattern the skeleton—Hox clusters, Sonic hedgehog,…...

23+ hour, 20+ min ago   (675+ words) Edible insects have been heralded as one of the most sustainable protein sources on the planet, but there has always been an awkward catch: many people simply do not like the way they smell or taste....

23+ hour, 27+ min ago   (94+ words) Insects navigate their world largely through smell, relying on an intricate array of chemosensory proteins to detect everything from host plant volatiles to mating signals. Among these molecular sentinels are ionotropic receptors, or IRs, a family of receptors descended from…...

1+ day, 24+ min ago   (663+ words) For decades, neuroscientists have marveled at the sheer speed of communication in the brain, and much of that speed depends on a single family of proteins known as AMPA receptors....

1+ day, 13+ hour ago   (793+ words) Stick and leaf insects are among the most accomplished masters of disguise in the animal kingdom, but their most remarkable imitation may be the one nobody watches happen. The eggs of many phasmid species look uncannily like plant seeds, complete…...

1+ day, 17+ hour ago   (55+ words) Scientists in Australia have developed a robust and reproducible genetic transformation system for Brassica carinata, an ancient East African oilseed that is rapidly emerging as one of the most promising non-food feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. The…...

1+ week, 7+ min ago   (99+ words) In a discovery that rewrites part of the molecular playbook governing how blood vessels build and refine themselves, researchers in France and Canada have identified the protein MCC—better known for its association with colorectal cancer—as a crucial link…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (112+ words) The echoes of a tadpole’s early life can reverberate through a frog’s entire existence, but new research suggests those echoes are far stranger than scientists anticipated. In a long-term experiment conducted on the Iberian green frog (Pelophylax perezi), researchers Francisco…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (608+ words) Hydrogels have long been considered one of the most promising material platforms for implantable bioelectronics. Soft, water-rich, and chemically similar to living tissue, they promise a gentle interface between electronics and biology. Yet despite decades of enthusiasm, hydrogel-based implants have…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (758+ words) Aphids draining sap from a rose bush, bedbugs feeding on human blood, assassin bugs skewering prey, and water striders hunting insects on the surface of a pond all belong to a single insect order, Hemiptera....