Issues

Summary: Recently discovered physiological roles of the vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase include base secretion in shark gills, bone dissolution by Osedax worms and a carbon-concentrating mechanism in corals.

Summary: Na⁺ flux rate across liver cell membranes is compared between mammals (endotherms) and a series of ectotherms with different normal operating body temperatures.

Summary: Two different on-animal sensors that can track biomechanical swimming parameters including changes in gait during cetacean diving, enabling studies of swimming energetics in wild animals.

Highlighted Article: Examination of backward walking Cataglyphis fortis ants reveals remarkable flexibility of inter-leg coordination.

Highlighted Article: Backward-homing Cataglyphis fortis ants exhibit angular and distance gauging comparable to that of forward-homing ants.

Summary: Praying mantises, which use direct muscle contractions to generate jumps, have take-off velocities limited by the amount of power (energy/time) the muscles can produce.

Summary: Evaporative cooling in Burchell's sandgrouse, an archetypal arid-adapted bird, is surprisingly inefficient, and suggestive of heavy reliance on respiratory rather than cutaneous heat dissipation.

Summary: Arid-zone pigeons and doves dissipate heat primarily through cutaneous evaporative pathways, which has minimal metabolic costs, is highly efficient and allows for the defense of a relatively low body temperature under extreme heat conditions.

Highlighted Article: When a honey bee colony experiences broodnest hyperthermia, its water collectors quickly spring into action after being begged for fluid.

Summary: Basking substantially modifies thermal energetics in winter-acclimated hamsters, reducing resting body temperature, metabolic rate and rewarming costs. This suggests that this behaviour is of energetic significance not only for desert but also for cold-climate mammals.

Highlighted Article: Closely spaced structures submerged within a current produce organized flows that encourage refuging in fish.

Summary: A doubly labelled water method validates the use of dynamic body acceleration in estimating energy expenditure of a foot-propelled diving homeotherm capable of flight in the wild.

Summary: In Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to heat stress in combination with oxidative stress, the heat-shock response is prioritized over the oxidative-stress response, leading to a synergistic decrease in survival.

Highlighted Article: The development of endothermic heat production in individual blue tit nestlings differs between broods of different sizes.

Summary: Non-crocodilian reptiles have an undivided ventricle, but some (pythons, varanid lizards) robustly separate blood flow, whereas others (turtles, anacondas, bearded dragons) show a large capacity for cardiac shunting.