Social interaction among hyenas. (Courtesy: Oliver Hoener)

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The bed bug (Cimex lectularius) sucking blood from a human. Wikimedia Commons courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Bed bugs are small night-active insects in the family Cimicidae (order hemiptera). Different species are found in both temperate and tropical regions, where they feed by sucking blood from humans and other warm-blooded hosts. Bed bugs are flattened, brown and have a length of 4-5 mm. They are attracted to body heat and CO₂, and typically feed every 5-10 days, but they can survive for almost a year without feeding.

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Sengrim and Litte Red Riding Hood - the wolf as evil and sneaky beast in European tales. (19th-century-postcard, public domain, wikimedia commons)

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Diabetes is a widespread hormonal disorder which disturbes or destroys the blood sugar (glucose) regulation by insulin and glucagon (two hormones of the pankreas). The oversupply of sugar containing food nowadays makes people sick when the sensitive balance between sugar levels in blood and cells is disturbed. A permanent too high glucose level in the blood causes in the longterm morbid effects for all kind of tissues and organs in the human body.

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A new study investigates the survival of seedlings in the tropical rainforest. Photo by Thomas Hesselberg.

One of the most striking differences between walking in a temperate and in a tropical forest is the much higher plant diversity in the latter. Whereas a typical temperate forest contains perhaps a few dozen different tree species at the maximum, a tropical forest can sustain up several hundred different species. However, how do the individual seed and seedlings from so many species manage to survive and thrive in the highly competitive environment of the rainforest? Of course the obvious answer is that most seeds do not survive, but some obviously do or the diversity would not be maintained. The botanists Alvares-Clare and Kitajima from the University of Florida have in a new study examined seed survival from a Tropical forest in Panama.

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HIV-Virus leaving the host cell (3-D-electron-tomographie photograph, courtesy: University hospital of Heidelberg, Germany)

  Scientists from Germany discovered an unknown mechanism in host cells of the AIDS-Virus. HIV affects cells of the immune system in humans. Viruses transform their hosts for their own purposes and reproduction. Finally they are released from the infected cell and start befalling other immune cells. But how is this achieved by the virus? The latest research results of german scientists from Heidelberg and Munich suggest an active role of the host cell itself!

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