Washington, Apr 22 : Humans might take into account many factors while deciding a house for themselves, it''s the ants who score over them when it comes to choosing the best home possible, according to a new study.

In the study, led by Dr Elva Robinson in the University''s School of Biological Sciences, researchers fitted rock ants with tiny radio-frequency identification tags, each measuring 1 / 2,000 (one two-thousandth) the size of a postage stamp.

They then observed as they chose between a poor nest nearby and a good nest further away.

Washington, April 22 : In a new research, scientists have concluded that biofuel crops proposed for use in the Hawaiian Islands are two to four times more likely to become invasive pests in Hawaii and other tropical areas when compared to a random sample of other introduced plants.

The research was done by scientists with the University of Hawaii Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, who examined the impact of unregulated planting of biofuel crops for their potential invasiveness and raised concerns about their impacts on Hawaii’s environment.

Washington, April 22 : A new study has suggested that in some cases, changes in the types of plants growing in an area could override the effects of climate change on wildfire frequency.

Philip Higuera of Montana State University and his colleagues show that although changing temperatures and moisture levels set the stage for changes in wildfire frequency, they can often be trumped by changes in the distribution and abundance of plants.

Vegetation plays a major role in determining the flammability of an ecosystem, potentially dampening or amplifying the impacts that climate change has on fire frequencies.

London, April 22 : In a new research, scientists have determined that big volcanic eruptions don’t always fuel mass extinctions because the destructive potential of the blasts seems to depend upon carbon dioxide (CO2) spewing non-volcanic rocks in the region.

Earlier, geologists have found evidence of many huge ancient volcanic eruptions that seem to not be connected to mass extinctions at all.

Now, according to a report in Nature News, a team of researchers has analyzed just how much CO2 non-volcanic rocks around volcanoes might release if they are super-heated.

Washington, April 22 : Researchers at Dartmouth University, US, have determined that the presence of the rare element osmium is on the rise globally.

They trace this increase to the consumption of refined platinum, the primary ingredient in catalytic converters, the equipment commonly installed in cars to reduce smog.

A volatile form of osmium is generated during platinum refinement and also during the normal operation of cars, and it gets dispersed globally through the atmosphere.

While osmium is found naturally, the researchers were surprised to discover that most of the osmium in rain and snow, and in the surface waters of rivers and oceans, is produced during the refining of platinum.

Munich, April 22 : Scientists have announced the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far, which is only about twice the mass of our Earth.

The planet, "e", lies in the famous star system Gliese 581.

The finding is the outcome of more than four years of observations using the most successful low-mass-exoplanet hunter in the world, the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6-metre ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile.