EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 17-Dec-2025 10:12 ET (17-Dec-2025 15:12 GMT/UTC)

New study shows how biomass changed over 500 million years

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have long known that biodiversity has increased over geological time, but corresponding trends for the sheer abundance of living things have never been calculated, until now. The findings add to data suggesting that conserving biodiversity is essential for the health of humans and our planet.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Study finds high protein diet improves birds' ability to tolerate infection

University of Arkansas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research from the University of Arkansas found that canaries fed a high protein diet fared better when it came to immune function and tolerating infection than canaries fed a high lipid, or fatty, diet.

Journal: Molecular Ecology

Scientists discover unknown organelle inside our cells

University of Virginia Health System
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The discovery of an unknown organelle inside our cells could open the door to new treatments for devastating inherited diseases.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Owens Family Foundation

Grip strength gives researchers a new handle on psychosis

Indiana University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Psychosis often begins not with characteristic disturbances of the mind – delusions like paranoia or hallucinations – but with disturbances in the way we move our body. For researchers like Indiana University Assistant Professor Alexandra Moussa-Tooks in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, these motor disturbances offer critical insights into the condition of psychosis itself.

Journal: American Journal of Psychiatry

Smaller islands offer crucial refuge for endangered mammals in Wallacea

Queen Mary University of London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals that smaller islands within the Wallacea biodiversity hotspot are crucial refuges for endangered vertebrates, providing higher-quality habitats and supporting populations. These findings challenge conventional conservation approaches and emphasise the importance of prioritising habitat management on these smaller landmasses.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Uncovering the role of vitamin C in skin regeneration

Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As we age, our skin naturally becomes thinner and more fragile due to a decline in cell production. Now, researchers have found that vitamin C (VC) can help counteract this aging process. Using a 3D human skin model, they showed that VC boosts epidermal thickness by activating genes linked to cell growth through DNA demethylation. These findings suggests that VC may help prevent age-related skin thinning and support healthier, stronger skin in aging individuals.

Journal: Journal of Investigative Dermatology
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Loss of hard chorion: An evolutionary dead-end for parental egg-care fish

Institute of Science Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Parental egg-care in fish traps them in an evolutionary dead-end through the loss of the chorion-hardening system, find scientists from the Institute of Science Tokyo. Fish have diverse egg-caring strategies that have independently emerged multiple times across lineages. Comparative whole genome analysis of 240 fish species revealed a strong correlation between loss of the chorion-hardening system and parental egg-care, revealing the mechanisms behind the evolutionary bias that restricts egg-caring fish from becoming non-egg-carers.

Journal: Molecular Ecology
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science Society, Fujiwara Natural History Foundation, Yoshinori Ohsumi Award for Fundamental Research