Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Messenger RNA with FLASH
A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified a key player in a molecular process essential for DNA replication within cells...
Male Australian Redback Spiders Employ Courtship Strategies To Preserve Their Life
New research shows that male suitors of a female cannibalistic spider risk facing a premature death unless they perform an adequate courtship lasting a minimum of 100 minutes. Further, the...
Getting on 'the GABA receptor shuttle' to treat anxiety disorders
There are increasingly precise molecular insights into ways that stress exposure leads to fear and through which fear extinction resolves these fear states. Extinction is generally regarded as new inhibitory...
Widely Used Virus Assay Shown Unreliable When Compared To Other Methods
In the course of doing research on the mosquito-borne pathogens chikungunya virus and o' nyong-nyong virus, researchers have discovered an inconvenient truth about an assay, strand-specific quantitative real-time PCR (ssqPCR),...
The Science of Pairing Wine With Food
Scientists have figured out why we pair whites with fish and reds with meat.
Study finds protein directing DNA repair
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've found the first protein that randomly moves along a single strand of DNA, selectively allowing other proteins access to...
Hearing on the wing: New structure discovered in butterfly ears
A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the...
Harvard scientists bend nanowires into 2-D and 3-D structures
Taking nanomaterials to a new level of structural complexity, scientists have determined how to introduce kinks into arrow-straight nanowires, transforming them into zigzagging two- and three-dimensional structures with correspondingly advanced...
Alcohol tolerance 'switch' found
Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a genetic 'switch' in fruit flies that plays an important role in making flies more tolerant to alcohol...
Study surprise yields new target for assessing genes linked to autism
Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates strongly with autism and which doesn't involve changes to the DNA sequence itself. Rather, the changes...
Controversial "Ida" Fossil No Missing Link
Primate Not Even in the Same Evolutionary Grouping as Apes, Humans, Experts Say
New research shows how mobile DNA survives - and thrives - in plants, animals
Bits of movable DNA called transposable elements or TEs fill up the genomes of plants and animals, but it has remained unclear how a genome can survive a rapid burst...
Leaping wolf snatches photo prize
The captivating image of a wolf wins the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
Evolution experiments with flowers
Evolution uses every chance it gets to try something new. Dutch researcher Anneke Rijpkema investigated how petunia flowers are formed and discovered that nature is even more varied than the...
Standards for a new genomic era
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, OCTOBER 21, 2009 -- A team of geneticists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, together with a consortium of international researchers, has recently proposed a set of...
Researchers Discover RNA Repair System In Bacteria
Researchers have discovered the first RNA repair system to be discovered in bacteria. The novelty of the newly discovered bacterial RNA repair system is that, before the damaged RNA is...
Sask. to limit needle exchange
The Saskatchewan government wants to put a limit on how many needles are used in various needle exchange programs in the province.
Flapping Bacterial Flagella
H. pylori bacterium stuck in a mucin gel at different pHs. As the pH increase, the gel thins, allowing the bacterium to more easily move it's flagella.
Study: Evolutionary past may determine how we choose leaders
(PhysOrg.com) -- Why did Barack Obama win the US election and did the fact he is over six feet tall influence the voters? The authors of a paper published in...
Study looks at formation of pigment cells
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Swedish scientists say they have discovered skin pigment cells can be formed from completely different cells than previously thought.
Reproduction: Why Having A Mate Provides An Evolutionary Advantage Over Self-fertilization
OK, it takes two for human reproduction, and now it seems that plants and animals that can rely on either a partner or go alone by self-fertilization give their offspring...
Pushing through brain barriers
Understanding the inner workings of the brain remains one of the last frontiers in all of neurobiology. A Case Western Reserve University engineering professor is developing a miniaturized low-power device...
Advance in 'nano-agriculture': Tiny stuff has huge effect on plant growth
With potential adverse health and environmental effects often in the news about nanotechnology, scientists in Arkansas are reporting that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could have beneficial effects in agriculture.
Experts study thriving HIV "controllers" in vaccine search
PARIS (Reuters) - AIDS researchers want to expand their study of a rare group of HIV-infected people, whose immune systems naturally and mysteriously prevent the virus thriving in their bodies,...
Flower power: Blooming plants spawned forests
One hundred million years ago, the rise of flowering plants altered the course of life on Earth.
A piece in the puzzle of bismuth toxicology
Liver cells transform inorganic bismuth into potentially toxic methylated species
Taser issues advisory on use of stun guns
(AP) -- Taser International is advising police agencies across the nation not to shoot its stun guns at a suspect's chest.
Junk food turns rats into addicts
Bacon, cheescake and Ho Hos alter pleasure centers in rats' brains