HE stain that shows the bone formation cells (the blue cells aligning a bony spicule), the so-called osteoblasts, whose differentiation from stem cells are regulated by microRNAs according to a new study. Image from Wikimedia Commons (CC-share alike licence) by Nephron.

Stem cells are cells from multicellular animals that have the ability to differentiate into specialised cells. Two types of stem cells can be found in animals; embryonic stem cells, which are present in the early phase of the development of the embryo and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissue in adult animals and function as a repair system. However, in the current study, the Japanese scientists used a third type of stem cells, so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are similar to embryonic stem cells, but are derived from adult somatic cells by inducing expression of specific genes.

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Elder and young males of Cadiocondyla obscurior struggling (Photograph: Sylvia Cremer, IST Austria)

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A frog that died of the chytrid fungus infection. Photo from Wikimedia Commons taken by Forrest Brem.

The population of most amphibian species has in recent years shown a dramatic worldwide decline. This decline which for some tropical frog species has resulted in local extinctions is caused by a fungus infection that has proven very difficult to combat. However new research may offer a solution. Experiments suggest that warm water may rid the frogs of the infections. This has now been confirmed by a field study on Leopard frogs, which show that frogs living in water heated by geothermal springs have a much lower infection rate that other frogs found in nearby colder water.

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Round table at the Oetzi Congress in Bozen 2011 (photograph: EURAC)

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The rainforest harbours most of the as yet undescribed species. Photo taken by Thomas Hesselberg

How many species are found on Earth? You might think that this is a relatively simple question that would elicit a straightforward answer, but you would be wrong. It is very difficult to estimate the total number of species on our planet. Around 1.2 million species have been described by taxonomists, but all scientists agree that many more species remain to be discovered. Previous estimates range from 3 and up to 100 million species. However, a new study in PLoS Biology uses a newly develop method to estimate that a total number of 8.7 million eukaryotic species can be found on land and in the oceans.

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Queen, worker ants and eggs of the species Cardiocondyla mauritanica (courtesy: University of Regensburg, Germany)

In ant colonies queens live longer if they do not compete with other queens. Competition with other queens reduces the life span and the amount of eggs produced by each single animal. This amazing finding was recently revealed by zoologist from the University of Regensburg, Germany. The scientists compared ant states with one single, two and eight queens and used different colonies of the ant species Cardiocondyla obscurior.

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