by Gauri Gharpure – We all have heard of the famous cuckoo bird (koel in Hindi). The male is jet black and is famous for singing at the advent of spring. The female is infamous for laying eggs in others birds’ nest (especially the house crow). The cuckoo’s eggs then develop quickly and hatch before the host’s and the chicks…

by Aditi Mishra – A web developer, long jumper, and skilled hunter – the East African jumping spider Evarcha culicivora is a lot of things. It has a taste for the finer things in life, like extra floral nectaries, but when it comes down to business, this spider relies only on blood. No surprises then, that this creature has a…

The NICE Lab was proud to have our research featured in BeeCraft Magazine, the UK’s “best-selling monthly beekeeping magazine”. Our research, lead by postdoc Geetha G Thimmegowda on the impact of air pollution on the Giant Asian honeybee, was featured in a brilliant story by co-editor Stephen Fleming. The goal of our study was to increase awareness of this important…

by Hinal Kharva: The effect of misinformation can bring a lot of trouble for human society. All animals try to make better choices using accurate information. However, this new study from New Zealand in Science Advances provides a new perspective on using misinformation as a tactic in saving endangered bird species. In New Zealand, the predation by invasive species like…

The NICE Lab is proud to congratulate Cheyenne Tait and Hinal Kharva on their publication this past week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. As noted in the press release: “One of the most fundamental questions in biology is how new species evolve, creating the vast biodiversity on our planet. Here, we present a story 160 years in the…

by Gauri Gharpure : If you do a quick Google search typing “octopus camouflage”, you get a number of videos about their amazing ability to blend in with their surroundings, both in terms of colour and texture. They use a few types of cells in their skin to generate a vast array of hues, patterns and texture [1]. What is…

by Aditi Mishra – With grocery shops bursting with sugar, fats and savoury snacks, finding food might not seem that hard. In fact, those prescribed a diet might even wish that it were harder. But things are a little different in the wild. Food is very hard to find and finding food is one of the most defining motivations of…

by Anshika Singh – Plastic is a magic material that has become the biggest tragedy of mankind.  The word “Plastic” stands for “something which is easily pliable and easily shaped.” It is a synthetic polymer first invented in the year 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt. Sir John created this magic material to take part in a contest initiated by a…

We are proud to congratulate Santosh Rajus as well as his co-authors Sriraksha Bhagavan, Hinal Kharva, and Srinivas Rao on their newest work studying pest management in the shade-grown coffee plantations of South India. In this project, Santosh and his coauthors examined the ecology and behavior of the Coffee White Stem Borer – one of the most significant pests in…