New Japanese island will reveal how life spreads

A brand new island emerging off the coast of Japan offers scientists a rare opportunity to study how life begins to develop on barren land - helped by rotting bird droppings and hatchling vomit.

Researchers say bird waste will be the secret ingredient to kick-start nature's colonization of what is still an active volcano that only poked its head above the waves in November 2013.

The speck of land 1,000 km south of Tokyo has grown to engulf its once larger neighbor, Nishinoshima, a part of Japan's Ogasawara island chain known for the wealth and variety of its ecosystem.