Issues

Summary: This Commentary provides an update on recent advances on the role of hydrogen sulfide in mammalian hibernation, particularly on the mechanisms for the suppression of mitochondrial respiration during torpor.

Summary: Brood parasites are an underutilized resource for understanding enduring questions in neuroethology. This Review explores how studies of brood parasites provide new insights into the neurobiological basis of social behaviors.

Summary: Snakes maintain fully functional blood pressure regulation during digestion despite the pronounced tachycardia associated with specific dynamic action (SDA).

Highlighted Article: The hawkmoth Manduca sexta is able to detect odors with the tip of its tongue: this ‘second nose’ is not used for olfactory learning during flower investigation.

Highlighted Article: People can adapt to energy optimal walking patterns without being consciously aware they are doing so. This allows people to discover economical gaits while preserving attentional resources for other tasks.

Summary: Simulated infection of adult side-blotched lizards via lipopolysaccharide injection shows that differences in immune challenge severity can lead to differences in energy expenditure, innate immune activity and locomotor performance.

Highlighted Article: Seahorses generate high suction flow and head rotation speeds with temporal patterns that differ from those of other actinopterygians; variation in snout length results in a trade-off between pivot and suction feeding.

Summary: Intermittent heat shock in oysters acclimated to normal and high temperature modulates mitochondrial and reactive oxygen species metabolism, indicating the important role of acclimation in their capacity to adjust to thermal challenges.

Summary: The first direct measurements of human muscle passive mechanical properties and associated sarcomere lengths demonstrate that muscles are not simply scaled versions of muscle fibers, which is critical for creating accurate biomechanical models.

Highlighted Article: Brood parasitic cowbirds that puncture host eggs produce stronger eggshells than do both host species and those cowbirds that remove host eggs. This study characterizes the microstructural bases in which hosts' and different parasites' eggs differ from each other.

Summary: Temperature sensitivity of insect embryonic development rate increased after nervous system development. This could be a target of selection in the genetic adaptation of the winter moth to climate change.