Communication is fundamental to the evolution and development of all kinds of living beings. With no disputes, languages should be recognized as the most amazing artifacts ever developed by mankind to enable communication. Computer has also become such a unique machine, due to its capacity to communicate with humans through languages. It is worth mentioning that the languages understood by comp...

•Expedient assembly of the conidiogenone core via nitrile-assisted TMM diyl cycloaddition•Regio- and diastereoselective decorations D-ring scaffold•Divergent synthesis six (?)-conidiogenones•First total (?)-conidiogenones E, F, 12?-hydroxyconidiogenone C Herein, we constructed fused tetracyclic natural products by single-step tandem cyclizations diazo, allene, olefin moieties in linear precurso...

A short review of the state of the art of research on insects from the Cretaceous period is given. The recent achievements and priorities for future efforts are indicated. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The Cretaceous, the geologic period from circa 145 to 66 million years (Ma) ago is a complex time period in Earth's history (Gale, 2000; Keller, 2008; Cohen et al., 2013). Generally s...

Geographic subspecies of several ithomiine butterflies on the lower east Andean slopes display a black and orange “melanic tiger” aposematic wing pattern that occurs from Colombia to Bolivia, while geographically adjacent lowland subspecies typically bear a coloured, “tiger” pattern. However, it is not clear whether subspecies with similar wing patterns in different regions have arisen through ...

—The process of evolution hinders our ability to make large-scale ecological comparisons—such as those encompassing marine biotas spanning the Phanerozoic—because the compared entities are taxonomically and morphologically dissimilar. One solution is to focus instead on life habits, which are repeatedly discovered by taxa because of convergence. Such an approach is applied to a comparison of th...

Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative spiral-shaped bacterium, member of ε-Proteobacteria specifically colonizing the gastric epithelium of humans. It causes one of the most common infections worldwide, a"ecting about half of the world’s population. However, it should be noted that the prevalence of H. pylori, particularly in the Western world, has significantly decreased coinciding with an in...