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Suitcases Arranged In Outdoor Experiment Suitcases in the decomposition experiment. (Paola Magni) A crime scene can present itself in any form and size. In recent weeks, an Aotearoa New Zealand family who'd purchased abandoned goods from a storage locker made the harrowing discovery of two sets of human remains hidden inside two suitcases. Sadly, this is not a unique case – bodies of murder victims are found in suitcases with astonishing regularity. But they present a particular challenge for police investigating the crime, which is where forensic science comes in. Why suitcases? Forensic case history and crime news are sadly...

resident Joe Biden claimed there is no "federal solution" to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. He then jetted off to Delaware for the rest of the week. Today, he called a lid at 10:13 am. ... The admission has prompted calls from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and around the country to end federal vaccine mandates, which are destroying the economy. ... Joe Biden, who ran for President on the promise of ending the COVID-19 pandemic: "There is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level. ... If there’s no federal Covid solution, why is there a federal vaccine mandate?...

Using mummy head lice cement gathered from South American mummified remains dating back 1,500-2,000 years, the study’s new analysis technique can now be used when recovered bodies are void of teeth and bones. Natural History, England, and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Until the development of this new way of analyzing ancient DNA, archaeologists were restricted to samples gathered only from bone or tooth fragments . The new DNA technique was useful because most of the sampled mummies were exposed to extremely cold temperatures when they died. Lice depend on the host's head heat to gestate their eggs and they...

Machine learning can help maggots solve crimes Trained algorithms can identify maggots and read clues like time of deathMaggots don’t have fingers, but they do produce chemical “fingerprints” — a blend of chemicals unique to their species. Different maggot species feed on corpses at particular stages of decay. Forensics teams actually use this information to estimate a person’s time of death. The problem is that maggots, which are immature flies, are tricky to identify and rearing them to flyhood is time-consuming and expensive. University of Albany researchers developed a machine learning technique to rapidly distinguish maggot species by their chemical...

A new study, published in Current Biology on Thursday, found that bedbugs have been around for 100 million years — significantly longer than scientists had previously believed. “To think that the pests that live in our beds today evolved more than 100 million years ago and were walking the Earth side by side with dinosaurs was a revelation. It shows that the evolutionary history of bed bugs is far more complex than we previously thought,” Professor Mike Siva-Jothy from the University of Sheffield, who participated in the study, said in a news release. Dr. Steffen Roth from the University Museum Bergen...

As 1968 began, Paul Ehrlich was an entomologist at Stanford University, known to his peers for his groundbreaking studies of the co-evolution of flowering plants and butterflies but almost unknown to the average person. That was about to change. In May, Ehrlich released a quickly written, cheaply bound paperback, The Population Bomb. Initially it was ignored. But over time Ehrlich’s tract would sell millions of copies and turn its author into a celebrity. It would become one of the most influential books of the 20th century—and one of the most heatedly attacked. The first sentence set the tone: “The battle...

The vast majority of Cretaceous ants belong to stem-group Formicidae and comprise workers and reproductives of largely generalized morphologies... recent discoveries from the Cretaceous suggest relatively advanced social levels. Remarkable exceptions to this pattern of generalized morphologies are ants with bizarre mouthparts in which both female castes have modified heads and bladelike mandibles that uniquely move in a horizontal rather than vertical plane... with the mandibles apparently acting as traps triggered by sensory hairs in a way distinct from that of modern trap-jaw ants... some of the most effective predatory ants are solitary hunters with powerful trap jaws... Dr. WANG...

Researchers harness bacteria to cripple insects that transmit disease. Scientists have engineered mosquitoes to carry a bacterium that confers resistance to the malaria parasite — a long-sought advance that could eventually curb malaria cases in humans. A team led by Zhiyong Xi, a medical entomologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, infected Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes with Wolbachia bacteria to produce insects that could pass the infection on to their offspring. Female mosquitoes that carried Wolbachia also bred with uninfected mates, the researchers report today in Science, swiftly spreading the malaria-blocking bacterium to entire insect populations within eight generations1. “This...

..... Those who agreed to appear were later charged a hefty fee for the privilege, and pretty much anyone who paid got a spot on the podium that could be used to pad a résumé. “I think we were duped,” one of the scientists wrote in an e-mail to the Entomological Society. Those scientists had stumbled into a parallel world of pseudo-academia, complete with prestigiously titled conferences and journals that sponsor them. Many of the journals and meetings have names that are nearly identical to those of established, well-known publications and events. Steven Goodman, a dean and professor of medicine...

Recent advances in genomic and post-genomic technologies have facilitated a genome-wide analysis of the insecticide resistance-associated genes in insects. Through bed bug, Cimex lectularius transcriptome analysis, we identified 14 molecular markers associated with pyrethroid resistance. Our studies revealed that most of the resistance-associated genes functioning in diverse mechanisms are expressed in the epidermal layer of the integument, which could prevent or slow down the toxin from reaching the target sites on nerve cells, where an additional layer of resistance (kdr) is possible. This strategy evolved in bed bugs is based on their unique morphological, physiological and behavioral characteristics and has...

SEATTLE — The infection is as grim as it sounds: “Zombie bees” have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. And experts say the condition has crept into Washington state. “I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house,” said Mark Hohn, a novice beekeeper who spotted the infected insects at his suburban Seattle home. Hohn returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find many of his bees either dead or flying in jerky patterns and then flopping on the floor...

Wed Nov 07 2001 11:23:37 ET UPI-- Scientists Wednesday said they had discovered the largest fossil cockroach ever found -- a giant bug more than 3 inches long that lived 300 million years ago, some 55 million years before the first dinosaurs roamed the earth. The extraordinarily well-preserved insect was discovered along with hundreds of fossils of other animals and plants in a coal mine in northeastern Ohio nicknamed "the 7-11 mine" due to its location between Ohio state routes 7 and 11. The researchers said they hope this treasure trove will help scientists better understand ancient life and how ...

Dr Gordon Wilson (pictured left) has a Master’s degree in Entomology, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy. He is currently a Senior Fellow of Natural Philosophy (a.k.a. biology professor) at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, USA--a classical liberal-arts college that he says takes an unashamedly biblical, young-earth creation position...

Chemistry may help scientists improve control of invasive fire ants A fire ant’s weapon is also its weakness. The insect’s venom attracts parasitic flies, which bring about a slow ant death that ends in decapitation, scientists report in an upcoming Naturwissenschaften. By identifying venom alkaloids that attract the flies, researchers may be able to better monitor populations of the pests and their enemies and to design improved fire ant control strategies. Fire ants were imported from South America in the early 20th century and, with little competition and no natural enemies, quickly became a major pest in the southeastern United...

Now, New Jersey authorities fear the next target is the state's ash trees -- the same northern white ash already threatened in Pennsylvania and New York, where the timber is a coveted source for the "Louisville Slugger" and other major league baseball bats. The culprits are invading bugs. The Asian longhorned beetle that was destroying maples in and around Jersey City for years has been eradicated, for now, said environmental and agricultural officials today. But they took no time to celebrate. The state departments of Environmental Protection and Agriculture jointly urged people to keep a look-out for new infestations of...

Enlarge ImageParent trap. Parasitic wasps inject caterpillars with a virus to disable their natural defenses and allow wasp larvae to grow within caterpillars' bodies. Credit: : Image courtesy of Alex Wild/myrmecos.net Ancient Virus Gave Wasps Their Sting By Rachel ZelkowitzScienceNOW Daily News12 February 2009There's no consent for these surrogate parents. Tens of thousands of wasp species lay their eggs inside caterpillars, injecting toxins that paralyze the hosts and allow their young to feast on the innards with impunity. Researchers have long wondered what exactly these toxins are and where they came from. The answers, a new genetic analysis reveals,...

As if the West Nile-toting mosquito isn't enough to worry Mississippians, add the poisonous Latrodectus geometricus to the state's list of creepy-crawly creatures. Dr. Jerome Goddard, entomologist with the Mississippi Department of Health, said the poisonous Brown Widow spider that is a cousin to the well-known Black Widow, is now calling the Mississippi Gulf Coast home. "The tropical Brown Widow spider .... has recently been captured in many locations along the Mississippi Gulf Coast,"Goddard said in a news release Tuesday. He said his office has been receiving many phone calls reporting buildings and grounds heavily infested with this type of...

MOBILE -- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama. A yellow jacket nest engulfs the inside of a 1955 Chevrolet on Harry Coker's Tallassee property on Thursday. Gigantic yellow jacket nests have been found in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama. -- Rob Carr Specialists say it could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, or multiple queens forcing worker yellow jackets to enlarge their quarters so...

In a bizarre war of the sexes, little fire ants have evolved a novel way to fight for their gender's genes, according to new research. The sperm of the male ant appears to be able to destroy the female DNA within a fertilized egg, giving birth to a male that is a clone of its father. Meanwhile the female queens make clones of themselves to carry on the royal female line. The result is that both the males and females have their own, independent gene pools, leading some to speculate whether each gender ought to be technically classified as its...

Great lice debate comes to a head 17:31 13 September 04 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. A new genetic analysis may finally settle the question, and even help when it comes to getting rid of the little parasites, which are staging a comeback in rich countries. Linnaeus named the human louse Pediculus humanus in 1758, but later realised there might be two sorts. Debate has gone on ever since. Those who regard body lice as a separate species point out that they are bigger than head lice and live in clothes rather than...