After effectively presenting their scientific research at the main final of the Indonesia International Science, Technology, and Engineering Competition (ISTEC) in Bali, a group of young South African scientists received an award. In December of last year, they competed at the Eskom Expo International Science Fair (ISF) and were awarded the opportunity to present their research projects at the ISTEC. Luke Boswell (9th grade, Pearson High School, Port Elizabeth) and Matthew Crouch (10th grade, Paul Roos Gimnasium, Stellenbosch) were both awarded gold medals. Silver medals were awarded to Zariah Parker (Grade 10) of Star College Cape Town and Ndzhaka Mukele Siweya (Grade 12) of Khanyisa Learning Centre in Giyani, Limpopo. Each of the four students was awarded a medal. Mat...

The Chimno gene, which establishes the juvenile stage in insects and humans, may be involved in cancer. The Institute for Evolutionary Biology and IRB Barcelona found that the Br-C and E93 genes regulate insect maturity and promote and prevent carcinogenic processes in humans. Insects' conserved genes may have contributed to metamorphosis. In Drosophila, deleting the Chinmo gene prevented juvenile growth. Geneticists discovered the Chinmo gene, which controls insect juvenile development, in a revolutionary finding. The gene is also found in animals and may be involved in cancer. The work, published on eLife by the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF) and IRB Barcelona, illuminates how genes like Br-C and E93 regulate insect development. Human genes induce and repress c...

NASA's Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) has successfully completed its global flight test after an impressive 39-day, 14-hour journey. The mission, which was launched from Wnaka Airport in New Zealand, which functions as the launch site for NASA's long-duration balloon program, concluded on Thursday, May 25, at 9:27 a.m. EDT. The flight, considered the most successful to date, saw the balloon maintain a consistent float altitude in the stratosphere, a significant accomplishment for NASA's Balloon Program Office. Prolonged Balloon Flight Debbie Fairbrother, chief of NASA's Balloon Program Office at the Wallops Flight Facility, expressed her satisfaction, stating, "Achieving long-duration balloon flight through day and night conditions is an important obje...

The sprayers get out of their truck and carry their metal pesticide tanks through the town. They look like Ghostbusters with their drab overalls, boots, and backpacks. They spray each chamber with milky chemical to fight insects and malaria. Similar teams have treated Boane, an hour outside Mozambique's capital, Moputo. Due to a sickness recurrence, they returned early. Cyclone Freddy's catastrophic floods earlier this year altered malaria's seasonal cycle, the latest evidence of climate change-induced extreme weather events. Mosquitoes are everywhere due to standing water. One sprayer, Neli Machoi, says there are numerous mosquitoes and malaria cases. After the campaign, we were summoned back because malaria cases were rising. The mosquito-borne disease has increase...

We know one insect's cerebral circuitry. Neurons fill brains. Neurons continually communicate. The brain works that way, allowing animals to walk, breathe, and think. A neuron? Studying human brains with over 80 billion neurons is difficult. Many animals have smaller brains with fewer neurons. They help understand brains. Scientists have mapped all newborn fruit fly brain neurons for the first time. Researchers discovered cell-cell communication. Connectomes map neuronal connections. This is the most intricate brain wiring diagram ever. Science reported the findings on March 10. Complex brains This degree of brain diagramming has only been done on three species. Sea squirts were one. Two others were worms. However, their bodies have little more than 1,500 neurons. Th...

Bristol scientists found that animals utilizing the most effective ways of resource hunting may die. Today's Behavioural Ecology discoveries explain why animals don't always adopt the best search method. How animals travel through their ecosystem, especially to get food, is a key biology subject that affects how they adapt to environmental change. Numerous studies have shown that Lévy mobility, which involves long-distance travels between search regions and intense searches in one area, improves resource discovery. Many animals employ this movement. Three-spined stickleback Wikimedia Commons This study shows that prey employing Lévy motion are targeted twice as often as prey using Brownian motion, the movement of molecules in a gas and a baseline expectation. “We sho...