NCSU scientists hear about H1N1
The unique ability to jump from one species to another gives the pandemic H1N1 flu virus an unusual advantage, Dr. Thomas Vahlenkamp told a gathering of scientists last week at N.C. State University.
H1N1 infections have been documented in cats, dogs and turkeys, in addition to pigs, said Vahlenkamp, a veterinarian who did post-graduate work at NCSU before returning to Germany at that country's equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While termed "swine flu" because it has a genetic origin in a swine variant, the H1N1 virus also has origins in human and avian strains.
"It has some peculiar biological properties that are not shared with other viruses," Vahlenkamp said.
He said the H1N1 virus's capability to jump species appears to be a natural evolutionary step, but he said he couldn't predict what it might do next. Still, he said, it's unlikely the virus's inter-species travel could result in a combination of H1N1 with a deadly avian strain that worried health leaders earlier in the decade.
How seabirds follow fishing boat routine
It's a typical sight in fishing areas: a trawler or other boat being followed by seabirds eager to gulp down the unwanted fish the crew throws back. Research has shown that this supplemental food can affect bird populations, in some cases improving reproductive success. Now a study has shed light on a different impact of fishing-boat discards. Researchers report in Current Biology that they can affect birds' patterns of movement on large scales.
Frederic Bartumeus of the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes, in Blanes, Spain, and colleagues analyzed satellite tracking data for two species of shearwaters on foraging trips off Spain's Mediterranean coast.
Trawlers that fish mostly for sardines and squid operate in the region only on weekdays, but are prohibited from working on weekends and holidays.
Bartumeus said that the birds' travel patterns differed depending on whether fishing boats were present. When boats were active, the birds appeared to know roughly where they would be and went to those locations. On other days the birds spread over a wide area seeking fish.
The study has implications for research into subjects like disease transport by animals, since patterns of movement may affect to what extent pathogens are passed along.
If you swat, beware: Bees recall faces
The New York Times
A honeybee brain has 1 million neurons, compared with the 100 billion in a human brain. But, researchers report, bees can recognize faces, and they do it the same way we do.
Bees and humans both use a technique called configural processing, piecing together the components of a face - eyes, ears, nose and mouth - to form a recognizable pattern, a team of researchers report in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
"It's a kind of gluing," said Martin Giurfa, a professor of neural biology at the University de Toulouse, France, and one of the study's authors.
It is the same ability, Giurfa said, that helps humans realize that a Chinese pagoda and a Swiss chalet are both abodes, based on their components.
