359 articles from THURSDAY 24.9.2020

Scientists discover a natural food pigment that can distinguish between living and dead cells in cell cultures

Conducting studies in vitro—a Latin term that literally means "in the glass"—is essential in the fields of medicine and biology. Working with in vitro cultures is a relatively cost-effective and easily repeatable way of gaining insight into the interactions between cells or microorganisms and specific chemical compounds, such as drugs, nutrients, and toxins. However, to properly assess the...

Tracking shape changes in Amazon fish after major river is dammed

A team of biologists led by Craig Albertson and Ph.D. student Chaise Gilbert at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report this week on their comparison between museum collections of cichlid fishes collected before a dam was closed in 1984 on the Tocantins River in the Amazon and contemporary specimens taken from the Tucuruí Reservoir by fishermen 34 years later.

How earthquake swarms arise

Earthquakes can be abrupt bursts of home-crumbling, ground-buckling energy when slices of the planet's crust long held in place by friction suddenly slip and lurch.

New nemertean species found in Panama represents the first of its genus from the Caribbean

As Natsumi Hookabe snorkeled around Panama's Bocas del Toro archipelago, during the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Training in Tropical Taxonomy program, she encountered an unusual ribbon worm or nemertean: large and dark colored, with numerous pale spots. It was her first field trip outside of Japan, so she wondered if it was a rare species or just one that she had never seen before.