Latest science news in Biology & Nature
New Mouse Model Provides Insight Into Genetic Neurological Disorders
Neurosensory diseases are difficult to model in mice because their symptoms are complex and diverse. The genetic causes identified are often lethal when transferred to a mouse. The lack of...
More Genetic Differences Between Mice And Humans Than Previously Thought
A new article explores exactly what distinguishes our genome from that of the lab mouse. In the first comprehensive comparison between the genes of mice and humans, scientists reveal that...
What Is The Function Of Lymph Nodes?
If we imagine our immune system to be a police force for our bodies, then previous work has suggested that the Lymph nodes would be the best candidate structures within...
Zebrafish provide a model for cancerous melanoma in humans
In a new study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, scientists use the zebrafish to gain insight into the influence of known cancer genes on the development and progression of...
Wine’s chemical memory
Even 10 years after bottling, wine still holds a chemical imprint of the forest from which the wooden barrel it was aged in came
Discovering the History of Marine Animal Populations
The Census of Marine Life is tracking changes in marine life populations and natural sizes through science and historical records.
Gene for Baldness in Mice Found
Absence of the gene Sox21 causes hair loss in rodents and possibly humans.
Heart saves muscle
A heart muscle protein can replace its missing skeletal muscle counterpart to give mice with myopathy a long and active life, show Nowak et al. The findings were published online...
Immune genes adapt to parasites
Thank parasites for making some of our immune proteins into the inflammatory defenders they are today, according to a population genetics study that will appear in the 8 June issue...
Garden analysis saves water
A researcher has found that many gardens are over or under-watered - using a decision tool, gardens could be lush and still save water.
Rapid climate change forces scientists to evaluate extreme conservation strategies
Scientists are, for the first time, objectively evaluating ways to help species adapt to rapid climate change and other environmental threats via strategies that were considered too radical for serious...
Rooks are latest bird to use tools
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yet another animal has picked up a tool and put it to use....
Deforestation 'faster in Africa'
Africa's forests are disappearing faster than those in other parts of the world because of a lack of land ownership, a report says.
Integrated Microbial Genomes Expert Review Goes Primetime
After a genome is sequenced and automatically annotated, researchers often manually review the predicted genes and their functions in order to improve accuracy and coverage across the vast genetic code...
Proteomics: Finding The Key Ingredients Of Disease
New findings show how to improve protein analysis to tease out relevant potential disease-causing molecules. The goal of proteomics is to characterize all the proteins that are encoded from human...
Why The Thumb Of The Right Hand Is On The Left Hand Side
It is the concentration of a few signaling molecules that determines the fate of individual cells during the early development of organisms. Molecular biologists report that a variety of molecular...
Breeding vs. genetic engineering: Debating the best approach for livestock
A debate is heating up over whether selective breeding is more effective than genetic engineering when it comes to improving livestock.
Climate change amplifying animal disease
Climate change is widening viral disease among farm animals, expanding the spread of some microbes that are also a known risk to humans, the world's top agency for animal health...
Opposites Attract: How Genetics Influences Humans To Choose Their Mates
New light has been thrown on how humans choose their partners. Research has shown that people with diverse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) were more likely to choose each other as...
Stem cell research threatened by rules
WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- Research on stem cells in the United States is facing an uncertain future as a result of new regulations put into place by...
More To 'Second Life' Than Just Sex
Researchers have found that a wide array of health-related activity occurs in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life.
Queen's scientist helps search for Colombian 'disappeared'
A Geoscientist from Queen's University Belfast has been advising police and legal professionals in Bogota on techniques to recover the bodies of Colombia's 'disappeared'...
Seahorse mystery solved
Seahorses started swimming upright in order to take advantage of a rapid expansion of seagrass 25 million years ago, researchers have found.
Long-forgotten research may yield new malaria treatments
An unlikely friendship between a 94-year-old retired scientist and a biochemist at Rutgers University has lead to the revival of a World War II-era research program to develop new drugs...
Oklahoma Enlists a Program to Identify Remains From DNA
The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office has begun cataloging all of its unidentified remains in the hope that a Texas university program may be able to use DNA to identify...
Buckyball Computer Simulations Help Team Find Molecular Key To Combating HIV
Researchers have identified specific molecules that could block the means by which HIV -- the deadly virus that causes AIDS -- spreads by taking away its ability to bind with...
Knowledge Of Epigenetics Helps Scientists Develop Tool To Study Deadly Parasite’s Histone Code
In the Japanese art of paper folding, a series of folds can make the same sheet of paper into a ballerina or baby elephant. But try unfolding the baby elephant...
Opinion: Renewing African agriculture
We need to work on making Africa's diversity and complexity work for, rather than against, its small farmers, writes Carlos Seré.