A secret odorant code patches a problematic relationship between pollinators and flowers

Just because a female olive baboon has mated with a specific male doesn't mean he will be the father of her offspring. According to a new study published in PLOS Biology, mate selection continues long after copulation as the vaginal tract appears to "weed out" genetically incompatible suitors.

Cultivating flowering plants for pollinator gardens, commercial farms, or home landscapes often relies on the use of herbicides to manage unwanted weeds. Honeybees are attracted to these locations and play a critical role in their success. So what happens when foraging bees pick up a dose of weedkiller?

Quantum mechanics tells us that a particle can never be perfectly still. But how precisely can it be oriented? A research team at the University of Vienna, together with colleagues at TU Wien and Ulm University, has now cooled the rotational motion of a levitated silica nanorotor all the way to its quantum ground state—in two orientational degrees of freedom.