Laura Blackburn

FLY WITH THE WIND

To get to where they need to go without crashing, fruit flies ( Drosophila melanogaster ) turn away from so-called visual expansion, caused by the image of a looming object expanding on the retina. But the flys world is complex, and `any insect flying forwards is going to experience a certain

NITRITE FORMS NITRIC OXIDE IN ZEBRAFISH

Ever since nitric oxide (NO) was discovered to relax mammalian blood vessel walls, the list of physiological reactions and organisms that this diminutive molecule is found in has grown and grown. Inspired by the discovery that, in mammals, nitrite acts as a NO donor and that deoxygenated haemoglobin

NEURONS SURVIVE BETTER IN DOMINANT CRAYFISH

![][1] If a crayfish wants to know whos boss, it will use its sense of smell. Crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii ) fight each other and use chemical signals to form stable dominance hierarchies, with the winners becoming dominant and the losers subordinate. In the crayfishs brain,

FEMALE LEMURS SNIFF OUT THE COMPETITION

![Figure][1] To a ring-tailed lemur ( Lemur catta ), smell is all important, and they not only use their genital secretions to warn rival lemurs not to trespass on their territory, but also to inform each other about their sexual status. Elisabetta Palagi and Leonardo Dapporto wanted to know

TURNING PERFORMANCE IN GROWING ZEBRAFISH

![Figure][1] There are few things as important to a growing zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) as finding food, and as part of their normal foraging behaviour they show spontaneous turns that help them find nourishment in the water column. Given that turning is a vital zebrafish behaviour, Nicole

A NEW TWIST ON TRANSPORT

![Figure][1] Rooted to the spot in their watery world, aquatic plants depend on the fluid flowing around their leaves to deliver the carbon dioxide (CO2) that they need for photosynthesis. Josef Ackerman at the University of Guelph, Canada, has pondered for some time how the complex flow of

HEAT AND CADMIUM: A DAMAGING COCKTAIL

![Figure][1] Permanently glued to the rocks of their estuary home, eastern oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ) can cope with most of the extremes of their environment: daily and seasonal variations in temperature, from 5°C to 35°C, plus the coming and going of the tides. Add environmental

A TRIBUTE TO PETER LUTZ

![Figure][1] One defining feature of Peter Lutzs career was that he was fascinated by a wide range of animals and how they coped with environmental extremes, particularly hypoxia and anoxia. When he passed away in February 2005, his friends and colleagues wanted to celebrate his career and

WHITING SICKLE CELLS

![Figure][1] In humans, the sickled red blood cells caused by sickle cell disease condemns sufferers to a whole suite of painful symptoms and a shortened lifespan, all due to one amino acid change in the haemoglobin sequence. This causes haemoglobin molecules to clump together to form long,

IMMUNE COSTS OF INCUBATING EGGS

![][1] Many parents will probably agree that raising a brood is a strain, but a female eider duck has a tougher job than most. A female duck sits tight when incubating her clutch without eating a morsel, losing weight in the process. Scientists have shown that acquired immunity -