Issues

Summary: This Review discusses how animals living in a world of microscopic debris, ranging from dust, pollen and dew to insidious parasites like mites and bacteria stay clean.

Highlighted article: Consistent with observations on unihemispherically sleeping cetaceans and birds, saltwater crocodiles use unilateral eye closure for vigilance, raising the possibility that crocodilians may also sleep with one half of their brain at a time.

Summary: Swift feather roughness enhances boundary layer mixing, which reduces flow separation during low Reynolds number glides, enabling swifts to attain high glide performance with rough wings.

Summary: Walking and running are not simply dependent on velocity, but are controlled by the CNS as two completely distinct forms of locomotion in humans.

Summary: Imidacloprid causes a reduction in honey bee aversive olfactory learning of a biting stimulus delivered by a robo-predator.

Highlighted article: Scanning ion-selective electrode technique analysis of the intact excretory system of cabbage looper larvae reveals regional variations in Na⁺ and K⁺ transport and a novel function for the secondary cells.

Summary: Recorded strains in the metacarpal bones during striking support the hypothesis that a clenched fist substantially reduces strain in the bones of the hand and therefore reduces the risk of fracture.

Summary: Key bioenergetics parameters of mitochondria (proton leak, ATP production efficiency and reactive oxygen species production) are correlated with body mass in frogs.

Summary: Steller sea lions use both suction and biting when foraging but northern fur seals are constrained to a biting feeding mode, which may be ancestral for this clade.

Summary: North Sea brown shrimp perform selective tidal stream transport (STST) activity under the influence of cyclic pressure and ‘remember’ the tidal cycle from the field for 1.5 days.

Highlighted Article: Terrestrially reared embryos from the amphibious fish Kryptolebias marmoratus consume less oxygen and reach hatching competency with larger yolk reserves relative to embryos reared in water.

Summary: Despite receiving mixed olfactory sensory neuron innervation, mitral cell axons in the crucian carp are selectively labelled, suggesting that they project the mixed inputs separately to the telencephalon. 

Summary: Tradeoffs between hypoxia tolerance and exercise performance in fish arise from the cumulative influence of a variety of respiratory and metabolic traits involved in oxygen transport and utilization.

Summary: The rebound of the body in hopping, trotting and running appears to be more elastic in larger, more-compliant animals.

Highlighted Article: Hydrodynamic cues are needed for assessment and non-contact fight behaviors during territorial interactions in an African cichlid fish.

Summary: In Drosophila, motion control of appendages allows flies to trim out imbalances in moment generation caused by wing damage and abnormal asymmetries of the flight apparatus. 

Summary: Hyperpolarized ¹³C NMR is used to measure the kinetics of lactate with 3 s resolution in skeletal muscle to validate the tenability of the intracellular lactate shuttle and glycogen shunt models.

Summary: Age-specific muscle biochemistry of the major locomotor muscles in walruses enables estimates to be made of their aerobic dive limits and theoretical bottom times relative to age and dive depth.

Summary: Flatback sea turtles nesting in tropical regions can withstand high-temperature incubation.

Summary: A low-calcium diet in laying ducks impairs eggshell microstructure by suppressing calcium supply and transport, outer membrane formation and calcite crystal calcification.