ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• New methane-metabolizing organisms discovered 600 meters below sea surface
• Flying ants mate close to home, produce inbred offspring
• Prawns reveal the secrets of innovation

New methane-metabolizing organisms discovered 600 meters below sea surface Posted: 23 Oct 2015 06:43 AM PDT Textbooks on methane-metabolizing organisms might have to be rewritten after researchers discovered two new organisms. These new organisms played an unknown role in greenhouse gas emissions and consumption.

Flying ants mate close to home, produce inbred offspring Posted: 23 Oct 2015 05:41 AM PDT Ant queens stay close to home in their hunt for a mate and as a result produce thousands of inbred offspring, a study has found. A queen mates only once, can live up to 30 years, and will continue re-producing long after her male mate is dead using the original sperm. The one mating flight will therefore determine the fate of a colony for decades to come. Inbred colonies will produce fewer offspring and a queen who is herself inbred will have a much shorter lifespan.

Prawns reveal the secrets of innovation Posted: 21 Oct 2015 11:47 AM PDT Small and hungry prawns are more likely to be resourceful in the face of adversity than their less desperate counterparts. However, a study has found that size and hunger have different effects depending on whether the prawns are acting alone or in a group. Small individuals were more likely to innovate when alone, but when in a group, size didn't matter and it was the hungry prawns that tended to be most resourceful.

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