Ocean warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions will prompt many species of marine plankton to seek out new habitats, in some cases as a matter of survival. Researchers expect many organisms to head to the poles and form new communities -- with unforeseeable consequences for marine food webs.

Patients who have cardiovascular disease are at increased risk of serious complications from the flu, according to a new study. The study found that not only are traditional flu-related outcomes worse among some patients with CVD, but infection in those patients also is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Getting the influenza vaccine, however, substantially reduces cardiovascular risks.

Four weeks on a diet of highly processed food led to a strong inflammatory response in the brains of aging rats that was accompanied by behavioral signs of memory loss, a new study has found. Researchers also found that supplementing the processed diet with the omega-3 fatty acid DHA prevented memory problems and reduced the inflammatory effects almost entirely in older rats.

Hot desert sex has resulted in major genetic differences between male and female jojoba plants -- one of only 6 percent of plants that require a male and female plant to reproduce. New research suggests male and female jojoba plants have diverged so much, that the jojoba plant has more novel sex genes than any other known living organism. The discovery may help researchers develop a DNA test to identify male and female jojoba plants, which cannot be distinguished from each other as seedlings - and shed light on how plants adapt to environmental stress.

Although there has been evidence of our species living in rainforest regions in Southeast Asia from at least 70,000 years ago, the poor preservation of organic material in these regions limits how much we know about their diet and ecological adaptations to these habitats. An international team of scientists has now applied a new method to investigate the diet of fossil humans: the analysis of stable zinc isotopes from tooth enamel. This method proves particularly helpful to learn whether prehistoric humans and animals were primarily eating meat or plants.