Why do queen honeybees mate with dozens of males? Does their extreme promiscuity, perhaps, serve a purpose?
An answer to this age-old mystery is proposed in the July 20 issue of Science magazine by Cornell scientists: Promiscuous queens, they suggest, produce genetically diverse colonies that are far more productive and hardy than genetically uniform colonies produced by monogamous queens.
"An intriguing trait of honeybee species worldwide is that each honeybee queen mates with an extraordinarily high number of males," said Heather R. Mattila, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behavior and co-author of the article with Thomas D. Seeley, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior.
The 3,000-kilometer-long Transantarctic Mountains are a dominant feature of the Antarctic continent, yet up to now scientists have been unable to adequately explain how they formed. In a new study, geologists report that the mountains appear to be the remnant edge of a gigantic high plateau that began stretching and thinning some 105 million years ago, leaving the peaks curving along the edge of a great plain.
A heat wave sweeping central and southeastern Europe killed at least 13 people this week, with soaring temperatures sparking forest fires, damaging crops and prompting calls to ban horse-drawn tourist carriages.
In Romania, where temperatures reached 104 degrees Friday, the Health Ministry said at least nine people had died since Monday due to heat.
In Austria, where highs had hovered around 95 degrees for days, the Health Ministry said three deaths Thursday were likely heat-related. Austrian media said at least five people had died from the heat, including an elderly woman who collapsed on a Vienna street Friday.
A 56-year-old woman collapsed and died in Zagreb, Croatia, of what doctors believed was a heat-related heart attack. Temperatures in the Balkan country reached about 104 Friday.
Following a decision of the Rosprirodnadzor environmental protection watchdog, the unique Geyser Valley on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula has been reopened for tourists after a powerful mudslide on June 3.
Tourist paths, destroyed by the mudslide, have been restored, as well as two helicopter landing sites, the head of the department for foreign economic ties and tourism at the regional administration told Tass on Friday.
According to Tamara Tutushkina, the valley has not lost its attractiveness after a natural calamity. Moreover, a lake that has formed in the lower part of the Geysernaya River, has made its landscape even more picturesque.
La Nina, the cooling of sea surfaces in the Pacific Ocean that can wreak havoc with weather patterns, is likely to develop by the end of the year, the World Meteorological Organization said today.
APFri, 20 Jul 2007 11:03 UTC
An earthquake jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake early Friday, breaking glass and rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of injuries.
APFri, 20 Jul 2007 10:05 UTC
One of the world's oldest chimps, Fifi, has died in Australia, zoo officials said Friday. Fifi was the matriarch of the 18 chimpanzees at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, and celebrated her 60th birthday in May with sugar-free cupcakes and coconuts among four generations of her family.
A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years.
Another round of thunderstorms brought more heavy rain to eastern Iowa early Wednesday, sending the Little Maquoketa River out of its banks north of Dubuque.
No homes were flooded, but several roads and farm fields were under water, said Dan Bannon, lead dispatcher with the Dubuque County sheriff's office.
He estimated the area received 7 inches of rain.
APThu, 19 Jul 2007 17:22 UTC
BANGOR, Pa. - A woman was dragging a lounge chair into the shade of a tree when a sudden buzzing told her it was already occupied - by thousands of bees.
"They were swarming like crazy and I ran into the house," Sheila Sabatine said.
