Latest Snail Stories
How methamphetamine improves snail's memoryCrystal meth (methamphetamine) is a highly addictive drug that seduces victims by increasing self-esteem and sexual pleasure, and inducing euphoria. But once hooked, addicts find the habit hard to break. Barbara Sorg from Washington State University, USA, explains that amphetamines enhance memory. 'In addiction we talk about the "drug memory" as a "pathological memory". It is so potent as to not be easily forgotten,' she explains....
Deep within the Kairei Indian hydrothermal vent field, two-and-one-half miles below the central Indian Ocean, scientists have discovered a gastropod mollusk, whose armor could improve load-bearing and protective materials in everything from aircraft hulls to sports equipment.Researchers at the National Science Foundation-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are studying the mollusk's physical and mechanical properties. A...
Unique structure helps dissipate energy that would cause weaker shells to fractureNew insights about a tiny snail that lives on the ocean floor could help scientists design better armor for soldiers and vehicles, according to MIT researchers.A team of materials scientists, led by MIT Associate Professor Christine Ortiz, report that the shell of the so-called "scaly-foot" snail is unlike any other naturally occurring or manmade armor. The study suggests that its unique three-layer...
Indiana University graduate student describes research studying populations of New Zealand freshwater snails that reproduce either sexually or asexually to determine if sexual reproduction offers advantages in parasite-rich environmentsSince Darwin's time, biologists have tried to understand the advantages of sexual reproduction. This is not trivial because there are clear disadvantages to sex.Unlike sexual organisms, asexuals do not need a partner to reproduce, they can reproduce clonally...
Fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands show that the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years.Isotopic measurements performed on fossil land snail shells resulted in oxygen isotope ratios that suggest the relative humidity on the islands was higher 50,000 years ago, then experienced a long-term decrease to the time of maximum global cooling and glaciation about 15,000 to...
A collaborative team led by a University of Hawai'i at Manoa researcher has published the first-ever assessment of snail and slug species that are of potential threat to the nation's agriculture industry and the environment, should they ever be introduced in the U.S.The July 2009 article in the American Malacological Bulletin is authored by snail/slug biologist Robert H. Cowie of the UH Manoa Center for Conservation Research and Training (CCRT) and his team. They evaluated all known snail...
 The coevolutionary struggle between a New Zealand snail and its worm parasite makes sex advantageous for the snail, whose females favor asexual reproduction in the absence of parasites, say Indiana University Bloomington and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology biologists in this week's Current Biology.The scientists' report represents direct experimental evidence for the "Red Queen Hypothesis" of sex, which suggests sexual reproduction allows host species to avoid infection...
A Utah boy stuck 43 snails to his face during his 11th birthday party, setting a possible world record if it is certified by Guinness. Chris Keheler said the unusual birthday celebration for his son, Fin, in Sandy, Utah, resulted from a Guinness Book of World Records he obtained last autumn, KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, reported Thursday. We started leafing through it and he saw a record he thought he could break, Keheler said of his son, who performed the feat at his birthday party Saturday. I...
A study of venomous snails on remote Pacific islands reveals genetic underpinnings of an ecological phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since Darwin.The research, by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Tom Duda and Taehwan Lee, is scheduled to be published online May 20 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.In the study, Duda and Lee explored ecological release, a phenomenon thought to be responsible for some of the most dramatic diversifications of living things in Earth's...
Everything is coming up roses for snails with slower metabolic rates, Chilean researchers have found. This is the first instance that natural selection has chosen this trait in any kind of species. These snails have a leg up over others because they reserve more energy for other actions like growth or mating, says the findings, available in the journal Evolution. Roberto Nespolo and Paulina Artacho from the Southern University of Chile reviewed an old hypothesis called the "energetic...
