In The News: School of Life Sciences

PetHelpful

As with most birds, food sources are always a draw, but ravens might also decide your home is the perfect place to rest or even nest.

Dengarden

As temperatures drop and natural food sources become harder for wildlife to find, your yard can become an important refreshment stop for winter birds. But simply getting whatever bird feeder you can find and filling it with seed isn’t always helpful. The type of feeder, where you place it and how often you clean it can all affect which birds show up and whether you accidentally invite squirrels, mice and other pests into your yard as well.

PetHelpful

From deterrents to yard changes, these expert-backed tips can help make your outdoor space less appealing to crows—without putting them at risk.

Las Vegas Weekly

In March of this year, a team of scientists—led by Emil Ruff, a Ph.D. in microbial ecology—descended into a 2.2-mile-deep mineshaft just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The NASA-funded expedition had an unusual objective: to research a billion-year-old brine discovered after an earthquake split a tunnel wall. That radioactive brine contains microbes, argon, phosphorus … and oxygen. Scientists call it “dark oxygen,” oxygen produced without photosynthesis. Ranjani Murali, assistant professor of microbial environmental genomics at UNLV, was on that expedition along with Sujung Lim, a postdoctoral scholar from Murali’s lab.

PetHelpful

Don’t brush it off as just another bird. From scientific reasons to ancient spiritual symbolism, here is what that repeated visitor is really trying to tell you.

WTVG 13 Action News

The next time you’re in one of Toledo’s 19 Metroparks, you might see a bunch of 4 feet tall plastic tubes with trees growing out of them. But that’s not litter: those plastic tubes are actually helping the trees grow.

Science

Discovery in hamsters suggests path toward inducing hibernation in mammals that don’t do it naturally.

The Blade

Two-thirds of Metroparks Toledo plant sites examined over a recent six-year period showed biodiversity gains, a new report shows.

Good Housekeeping

It could be unreliable feeders, unreachable nectar, or the lack of a water feature, to name a few.

Real Simple

Turn your garden into a hummingbird magnet.

KLAS-TV: 8 News Now

A pair of UNLV graduates, Sarah Galera and Sophia Lorenzana, are helping preserve the Wetlands through a tree monitoring project with Clark County. 

Simply Recipes

I’ve picked up a few tips in the restaurants and food service jobs I’ve worked at over the years. One habit that I’ve picked up from restaurant life is that any time I use a dishcloth, it’s getting tossed in the laundry.