NEWS IN BRIEF
A new leaf
The world’s tallest trees have been hiding a secret. The American Journal of Botany reports that California’s redwoods have two types of leaves with different functions. One type manufactures food by photosynthesis; the other absorbs water from mist and fog. By adjusting the proportions of the two leaf types, redwoods are able to thrive in wet and dry forests.
Beauty sleep
For yellow-bellied marmots, a long sleep is literally rejuvenating, shows new research. Nature Ecology and Evolution reports that, during the seven or eight months a year these North American ground squirrels spend hibernating in burrows underground, their DNA accumulates virtually no age-related damage.
Mini meadows
Even a tiny patch of wildflowers in a garden can increase the diversity of visiting pollinators. The Journal of Insect Conservation reports that a 2 x 2m plot results in 111 per cent more bumblebees, 87 per cent more solitary bees and 85 per cent more solitary wasps than unmodified gardens.
Sniffer ants
Ants may one day be used to detect cancer in humans. New research published in iScience shows that, like dogs, ants can be trained to sniff out chemicals associated with tumours and to distinguish healthy human cells from cancerous ones. Unlike dogs, which require months of training, ants can be taught the task in just 30 minutes.
FACT.
Today, the manatee is classed as an aquatic marine mammal but it retains one telltale sign that its ancestors lived at least in part on dry land: toe nails.