To escape competition at the dung pile, a ball-rolling dung beetle forms a piece of dung into a ball and rolls it away. To ensure their efficient escape from the dung pile, beetles rely on a 'celestial compass' to move along a straight path. Here, we analyzed the reliability of different skylight cues for this compass and found that dung beetles rely not only on the sun but also on the skylight...

Although dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the major causes of blindness, no effective therapies are developed. In this study, we investigated the effects of SUN N8075, a radical scavenger with neuroprotective properties, against light-induced retinal damage used as the model of dry AMD in mice. After dark adaption for 24 h, we exposed the mice at 8000 lx for 3 h. We evaluate...

Differential herbivory and/or differential plant resistance or tolerance in sun and shade environments may influence plant distribution along the light gradient. Embothrium coccineum is one of the few light-demanding tree species in the temperate rainforest of southern South America, and seedlings are frequently attacked by insects and snails. Herbivory may contribute to the exclusion of E. coc...

I. The fungicide triadimefon causes strong-light growth-response and the formation of sun-type chloroplasts as seen from the changed chlorophyll a/b ratio and the carotenoid and prenylquinone composition. 2. The photosystem II herbicide bentazone, in turn, induces a shade-type adaption. It prevents the strong-light induced formation of sun-type chloroplasts, but has little influence on the chlo...

Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) A. Camus, a shade-tolerant C4 grass, has spread throughout the eastern United States since its introduction in 1919. This species invades disturbed understory habitats along streambanks and surrounding mesic forests, and has become a major pest in areas such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The focus of this study was to characterize the photosynthetic induc...

Shade and sun leaves of Valencia orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] were collected to evaluate comparative effects of their leaf chlorophyll concentration, water content, thickness, and mesophyll volume of air on visible light reflectance, specifically the 0.45-, 0.55-, and 0.65-#m wavelength (WLs). The reflectance at the 0.45-, 0.55-, and 0.65-/~m WLs of sun leaves but not shade leaves was n...

A super-light sterile neutrino was proposed to explain the absence of the expected upturn of the survival probability of low energy solar boron neutrinos. This is because this super-light sterile neutrino can oscillate efficiently with electron neutrino through a MSW resonance happened in Sun. One may naturally expect that a similar resonance should happen for neutrinos propagating in Earth mat...