A new study by French scientists shows that when the ants are removed from their host in an ant-plant mutualism, the host plant suffer more damage from herbivores. They, furthermore, find that ants patrol more often on a young and vulnerable leaves, but are rapidly recruited to leaf wounds.

The so-called myrmecoophyte plants live in a close mutualism with ants. They offer the ants shelter in thorns, hollow stems or curled leaves and food in the form of extra-floral nectar or food bodies. In return the ants protects the plant by removing encroaching competitors and fungal pathogens, killing or scaring off herbivores – the ants usually have painful stings and are so aggressive that they can deter even large herbivores.

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AIDS-Virus leaving an infected cell (Courtesy by NSF)

Facing the virus and destroying it. This is mainly the way AIDS-drugs work. Still no cure is available and still the diagnosis "HIV-positiv" is a longterm death penalty. But amazingly a small number of patients infected with this malignant virus never became ill. This finding was of interest for scientists who wondered what was different between those individuals and "normal" patients who died sooner or later by the AIDS-Virus. The researchers found out, that people obviously immune against HIV are lacking a certain structure on the surface of their cells, the so called CCR5-co-receptor. This was promising reason enough to investigate new drugs based on this principle of the persons with immunity against AIDS. An American-German research group from New York (USA) and Cologne (Germany) now published their results about a new drug which seemingly successfully prevents HIV from getting into the cell of infected people. It is called "Maraviroc".

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Engineers from the North Carolina State University in the US have investigated the anatomy and behaviour of biting mosquitoes and modelled how the thin hollow tube, with which the mosquitoes bite, avoids buckling. Their results have implications for the development of micro-needles for medical purposes

Although all animal life forms deserve respect and the right to exist in their natural niche, there are some animals harmful to man, you sometimes would wish did not exist. Mosquitoes are one of these animals. The species Aedes egypti, for instance, is a carrier of several diseases harmful to man such as Dengue fever and malaria, the latter diseases kills more than a million humans annually. However, a new study shows that perhaps we can also make use of Aedes egypti for something positive. The anatomy and the method by which the mosquito injects it proboscis (a long hollow tube which it uses to such up the blood with) could provide useful inspiration for the development of biomimetic micro-needles.

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Birth of a Neanderthaler, 3-D-Computer-Model (Courtesy: Ch. Zollikofer)

Large brains in humans form a special obstacle to women during the birth of their babies. The diameter of the head of human neonates is  - due to our large developed brain in relation to the body size - far larger compared to the neonates of other mammals. Often the birth canal of the pregnant women is to small for a birth without complcations. Until now it was assumed that this is something special for us, the last remaing humanoid primate on the planet, the modern human (Homo sapiens). A spectacular 3D-construction of a Neanderthaler (Homo neanderthalensis) neonate and the computer simulation of the birth by a Neanderthaler woman, based on fossiles of female and neonate neanderthalers, was now conducted by scientists from Switzerland. The surprising finding: already Neanderthaler women faced these birth difficulties like recent women from Homo sapiens throwing a total new light on the Neanderthaler life story...

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A black widow hanging upside down in its web. The red hour glass marking is clearly visible on the abdomen. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (Author Chepyle) .

The black widow (genus Lactrodectus) is famous for its potent venom. However, due to their small size the bites are rarely fatal. But since they are common and a large geographical distribution (they are found on all continents, although only in the southern parts of Europe and Asia), they are the spiders responsible for most human deaths world wide. Black widows build 3-dimensional cobwebs consisting of a sheet of silk, supporting threads and sticky threads extending to the substrate, where they catch passing insects.

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Next year from the 27th to the 30th of April, Granada in Spain will be hosting a conference, which aims to shed more light on the risks and counter-measures, which can be taken against catastrophic asteroid impacts on our planet.

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