Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Melanoma genes discovered
Australian scientists have identified two news genes that together double a person's risk of developing melanoma.
New Theory Gives More Precise Estimates Of Large-scale Biodiversity
The Census Bureau is good at profiling the US population by sampling small groups of people. Biologists, however, lack a good theory of how to estimate the richness of life...
Seals Quickly Respond To Gain And Loss Of Habitat Under Climate Change
Southern elephant seals responded rapidly to climate and habitat change and established a new breeding site thousands of kilometers from existing breeding grounds, according to new research. Scientists found that...
Scientists identify enzyme important in ageing
The secret to longevity may lie in an enzyme with the ability to promote a robust immune system into old age by maintaining the function of the thymus throughout life,...
Environmental manganese good in trace amounts but can correlate to cancer rates
In the first ecological study of its kind in the world, a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre researcher has uncovered the unique finding that groundwater and airborne manganese in...
Turtles' shells made from shoulder blades and ribs, study says
A folding process takes place in the egg, leading to the bony exterior that is an integral part of the reptile's anatomy, scientists say. The turtle's shell is unique, but the evolution of...
Newborn Brain Cells Improve Our Ability To Navigate Our Environment
Although the fact that we generate new brain cells throughout life is no longer disputed, their purpose has been the topic of much debate. Now, researchers have made a big...
New Technique Can Fast-track Better Ionic Liquids For Biomass Pre-treatments
Researchers are using the natural auto-fluorescence of plant cell walls to dynamically track how ionic liquids are able to dissolve lignocellulose into fermentable sugars for the production of advanced biofuels.
Telomeres resemble DNA fragile sites
Telomeres, the repetitive sequences of DNA at the ends of linear chromosomes, have an important function: They protect vulnerable chromosome ends from molecular attack. Researchers at Rockefeller University now show...
Eating to live longer: It can be a page turner
Is red wine the key? Eating to improve brain chemistry? Or a low-cal, low-carb approach? Or should nutrition be tailored to blood type? Authors have their ideas. Acai berries, green tea, soy, olive...
Safer Bug Spray: Natural Bug Repellents
A Look at Safe Options To Keep Mosquitoes at Bay This Summer
Inner Life of a Cell
Here is a very beautifully animated video put together by the spiffy fellows of Harvard and BioVisions. http://labgeekblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/inner-life-of-cell.html (The song is "The Man Who Doesn't Know Nothing" by Michael Elektrich)
'Uphold the ban'
Geneva, Switzerland -- The 40 member organizations of the International Tiger Coalition (ITC) applaud remarks by the World Bank today stating that legalizing tiger farming is too great a...
A matter of density, not quantity
Infections of wounds, pneumonia, etc. in hospitals in particular are often caused by bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Once they reach a certain density, colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa produce virulence factors...
Exploring standards to advance microbial genomics
Microbes contribute to manifold human endeavours ranging from bioenergy to agriculture to medicine. Moreover, they make the Earth's biogeochemical cycles go round, a prerequisite for all life on the planet....
Chemicals found in fruit and veg offer dementia hope
A group of chemicals found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as tea, cocoa and red wine, could protect the brain from Alzheimer`s disease, a dementia expert will tell...
Wider menu for methane-eating microbes
Marine microbes that oxidise methane for energy may use a wider variety of oxidants than previously thought
Concern over Ebola virus in pigs
A form of Ebola virus has been detected in pigs for the first time, raising concerns it could mutate and pose a new risk to humans.
Detailed crystal structure raises antibiotic hopes
High resolution snapshots reveal how bacteria become resistant to quinolone antibiotics
Toxic Substance Allows Birds to "See" Magnetic Field
Damaging superoxides are the key ingredient that gives migrating birds magnetic vision, a new study says.
Prairie Dogs: Influencing The Accumulation Of Metals In Plants?
Elemental hyperaccumulation in plants is hypothesized to represent a plant defense mechanism. The objective of this study was to determine whether selenium hyperaccumulation offers plants long-term protection from the black-tailed...
UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
NASA: Spirit still stuck in Martian sand ... Antacid drugs may lead to dependency … Frozen carbon a climate change threat … Cancer, non-cancer cells have similarities ... Health/Science news...
Thousands of plant species likely to go extinct in Amazon
As many as 4,550 of the more than 50,000 plant species in the Amazon will likely disappear because of land-use changes and habitat loss within the next 40 years, according...
Beetle, fungus deliver one-two punch to black walnut trees
(PhysOrg.com) -- A newly discovered disease, caused by a previously undescribed fungus hitchhiking on a tiny native bark beetle, is infecting and killing hundreds of black walnut trees in California...
New microscale tool aids biofilm research
ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 9 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've created a microscale tool to aid research involving biofilms -- bacterial colonies involved in most human infectious...
Key To Maintaining Embryonic Stem Cells In Lab
In a new study that could transform embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research, scientists have discovered why mouse ES cells can be easily grown in a laboratory while other mammalian...
Psychiatry Via a Laser Beam To the Brain
This is not your typical light show. The neon light piping into the brain of a mouse with Parkinson's disease stops the animal's tremors instantly. Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth and his colleagues...
Study: Mangrove animals risk extinction
WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. study indicates more than 40 percent of animals living in mangrove ecosystems around the world are threatened with extinction.