Frontiers | Science News

Science News post list

426 news posts in Life sciences

Life sciences

21 May 2025

Biodiversity in Antarctic soils may be greatly underestimated after surprising discovery

Researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing to measure biodiversity along a transect – a succession from recently exposed to mature soil – in front of a glacier in Antarctica. To capture a detailed ecological ‘time sequence’ they distinguished between intracellular and extracellular DNA from living versus dead or locally extinct species. They found an abundance of previously unsuspected interactions between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, eg, algae with heterotrophic bacteria and fungi with actinobacteria. The results imply that novel mutualistic interactions play an essential role in shaping this system, and that biodiversity in Antarctica may be much greater than previously thought.

Life sciences

10 Apr 2025

How to protect bumblebee colonies safe from killer moths? Keep honeybee hives away from them

Researchers have shown for the first time that bumblebee colonies are more likely to become infested with bumblebee wax moths as they are closer to nearby honeybee hives, which can likewise host these potentially devastating parasites. As the distance to the apiaries decreased, bumblebee colonies were less productive, while their workers showed a weaker general immune response to pathogens and parasites. The authors advise honeybee keepers to keep apiaries away from habitats rich in bumblebees, which are important pollinators but declining worldwide.

Life sciences

26 Mar 2025

Tadpoles try to flee dangerous virus in their pond by growing much faster than normal

Researchers from the US studied the plasticity in growth and development of wood frog larvae in response to the emerging disease ranavirus, which can kill off the entire population of ponds. They showed that tadpoles in infected ponds speed up the rate of growth and progression through the immature stages. They hypothesize that this plasticity boosts their physical condition and hence immune response to ranavirus, and allows them to metamorphose earlier and escape infection.

Life sciences

27 Jan 2025

Drones could be the ‘magic tools’ we need to chase bears away from people

Starting in 2017, Wesley Sarmento was the first prairie-based bear manager at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, a job that regularly put him right in between massive grizzly bears and people. He is also the author of a new Frontiers in Conservation Science article in which he describes the effectiveness of different methods that aimed to deter bears from human settlements, avoid conflicts between wildlife and locals, and help the successful conservation of the species. In the following guest editorial, he describes his seven-year-long search for the most effective hazing method.

Life sciences

16 Dec 2024

Completing the timetree of primates: a new way to map the evolutionary history of life on Earth

In a new article published in Frontiers in Bioinformatics, biologists Dr Jack M Craig, Dr Blair Hedges, and Dr Sudhir Kumar, all at Temple University, have built an evolutionary tree that encompasses 455 primates, every species for which genetic data are available. The tree, the most complete of its kind, shows the evolutionary timescale of the whole order of primates, including monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises, and galagos. In the following guest editorial, Dr Craig describes the steps of obtaining an almost complete timetree for primates and explains the value of such data.