Exploring the Ozarks Outdoors: freshare.net

For decades, scientists observed gypsy moth caterpillars that were sick with a virus, do something they would normally never do in daylight. The larvae mustered the last of their strength to climb onto a leaf as high in the tree…[more]

Like clues from an Agatha Christie mystery novel, trees can provide secrets about past events, and their rings are especially good at providing information about fires, some of which happened hundreds of years ago, according to studies from a…[more]

In the Hollywood blockbuster “Speed,” a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise—slow down and you explode—makes for a great action movie plot, and also happens…[more]

MDC biologists recently began the second year of a blue catfish study at Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks as regulations are considered to protect intermediate-sized fish from overharvest and boost the numbers of larger catfish.

The…[more]

Two drought simulators designed to test the effects of water deficiency on crops are now operational at the University of Missouri’s Bradford Research and Extension Center east of Columbia.

The simulators are part of a…[more]

Many of the plants ingested as food by deer, rabbits and other critters are also home to colonies of insect life. Those bugs sought food and shelter, but could inadvertently end up as a protein supplement to munching mammals. But…[more]

Leaf size can vary by as much as 1,000 times across plant species, but the reason has been elusive until the results of a recent UCLA study were released. The secret, researchers discovered, were in the leaves’ veins.

…[more]

Record snowfall, killer tornadoes, devastating floods: There’s no doubt about it. Since Dec. 2010, the weather in the USA has been positively wild. But why? Some recent news reports have attributed the phenomenon to an extreme “La Niña,” a band…[more]

Researchers discovered that the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease takes cover in the body’s lymph nodes. By hiding there, the bacteria triggers a significant response by the body’s immune system, but not one strong enough to stave off infection.

Most of the time, we think of trees as competing with one another for the limited resources a forest has to offer. Some trees, walnuts for example, even exude a chemical substance that sours the ground below so that other…[more]