My picks from ScienceDaily

Sea Urchin Genome Suprisingly Similar To Man And May Hold Key To Cures:

Sea urchins are small and spiny, they have no eyes and they eat kelp and algae. Still, the sea creature's genome is remarkably similar to humans' and may hold the key to preventing and curing several human diseases, according to a University of Central Florida researcher and several colleagues.

Evolution Of The Penis Worm: Research Reveals Embryos More Than Half A Billion Years Old :

Images of the developmental stages of embryos more than half a billion years old were reported by a University of Bristol researcher.

From A Lowly Yeast, Researchers Divine A Clue To Human Disease:

Working with a common form of brewer's yeast, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have uncovered novel functions of a key protein that allow it to act as a master regulatory switch -- a control that determines gene activity and that, when malfunctioning in humans, may contribute to serious neurological disorders.

Stretch A DNA Loop, Turn Off Proteins:

It may look like mistletoe wrapped around a flexible candy cane. But a new molecular model shows how some proteins form loops in DNA when they chemically attach, or bind, at separate sites to the double-helical molecule that carries life's genetic blueprint. Biologists have discovered that the physical manifestation of DNA loops are a consequence of many biochemical processes in the cell, such as the regulation of gene expression. In other words, these loops indicate the presence of enzymes or other proteins that are turned on. Now physicists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that stretching the DNA molecule can also turn off the proteins known to cause loops in DNA.

Study Looks At Effects Of National Trauma On Americans' Health:

A study by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Irvine, has found that people's gender and ethnicity predicted their immediate response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their general state of health over the next two years.

More like this

If our genes are wired like circuits, does that mean nature is an electrician? One of the most important sorts of jobs that genes do is to switch other genes on or off. The classic example comes from Escherichia coli, and how it eats milk. (I'm afraid Escherichia coli will be progressively…
Spider Silk Can Be Stretchy Like Springs Or Like Rubber: Spider silks are incredibly stretchy, but are they stretchy like elastic or springs? The answer lies in their amino acid content. Spider silks are made from proteins, and biologists have just discovered that the secret lies in the silk…
A paper from a week or so, describes a method for detecting regions in the genome where DNA wrapping takes place. So what (you may asked) is DNA wrapped around? Nucleosomes! Each nucleosome (red balls in the cartoon) contains 8 histone proteins (two each of Histone 2A, 2B, 3 and 4). In addition,…
No one should ever be granted a degree in science without being able to finishing this little gem of an aphorism: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble... ...It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Various sources attribute the quote to Mark Twain, or Will Rogers or…