EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Ancient DNA found in soil samples reveals mammoths, Yukon wild horses survived thousands of years longer than believed

McMaster University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mere spoonsful of soil pulled from Canada’s permafrost are opening vast windows into ancient life in the Yukon, revealing rich new information and rewriting previous beliefs about the extinction dynamics, dates and survival of megafauna like mammoths, horses and other long-lost life forms.

Journal: Nature Communications

Fish help control crown-of-thorns starfish numbers on Great Barrier Reef

Australian Institute of Marine Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Reef fish, such as emperors, tropical snappers and rockcods, help keep numbers of crown-of-thorns starfish in check on the Great Barrier Reef. New research has found the abundance of the coral-eating starfish increases in places where fish species, particularly those who eat the starfish, are removed.

Journal: Nature Communications

Microplastics found to be harmful to human cells, new study shows

University of York
Peer-Reviewed Publication

High levels of ingested microplastics in the human body have the potential to have harmful effects, a new study reveals. The research - the first of its kind to quantify the levels of microplastics which may lead to harmful effects in human cells - has been led by researchers at the Hull York Medical School and the University of Hull.

RaNNC, automatic parallelization middleware for deep learning, wins first place at PyTorch Annual Hackathon 2021

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
Grant and Award Announcement

RaNNC (Rapid Neural Network Connector), automatic parallelization middleware for deep learning developed jointly by Data-driven Intelligent System Research Center (DIRECT), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), and the University of Tokyo (President: FUJII Teruo), won first place at the PyTorch Annual Hackathon 2021 (PyTorch Developer Tools & Libraries category). PyTorch is the de facto standard framework for deep learning, and this hackathon is the only worldwide event that both awards PyTorch projects and is officially held by Facebook, the leading PyTorch developer (https://pytorch2021.devpost.com/). RaNNC drastically simplifies training of large-scale neural networks, which has been very difficult with existing functions of PyTorch. RaNNC is available as open-source software, and anyone can download and use it for free, even for commercial purposes.

Fleshing out the bones of Quetzalcoatlus, Earth's largest flier ever

University of California - Berkeley
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Though discovered more than 45 years ago, fossils of Earth's largest flying animal, Quetzalcoatlus, were never thoroughly analyzed. Now, a scientific team provides the most complete picture yet of this dinosaur relative, its environment and behavior. The pterosaur, with a 40-foot wingspan, walked with a unique gait, but otherwise filled a niche much like herons today, says a UC Berkeley co-author. The researchers dispel ideas that it ate carrion and walked like a vampire bat.

Streetwise bees cut corners to find food

University of Exeter
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Bumblebees waste no time enjoying the beauty of flowers – instead learning the bare minimum about where to land and find food, new research shows.

Journal: Frontiers in Physiology

Thyroid conditions may affect ovaries’ egg reserves

Wiley
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Thyroid hormones are important for ovarian health and fertility, but the effects of low thyroid hormone levels (hypothyroidism) and thyroid autoimmune diseases on the functioning of a woman’s ovaries are not fully understood. In an analysis published in Reproductive Medicine and Biology, investigators examined results on this topic that have been published to date.