Science News
clock | February 14, 2009High-tech Tests Allow Anthropologists To Track Ancient Hominids Across The Landscape:
Dazzling new scientific techniques are allowing archaeologists to track the movements and menus of extinct hominids through the seasons and years as they ate their way across the African landscape, helping to illuminate the evolution of human diets.
Neural Mapping Paints Haphazard Picture Of Odor Receptors:
Despite the striking aromatic differences between coffee, peppermint, and pine, a new mapping of the nose's neural circuitry suggests a haphazard patchwork where the receptors for such disparate scents…
clock | February 13, 2009This was a busy week for me (hence light posting) so I was amiss somewhat with pointing out cool new PLoS articles. So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Medicine, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and PLoS ONE this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
A Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Triassic, Carnian) and the Early…
clock | February 13, 2009Why Sleep Is Needed To Form Memories:
If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she's right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why.
Did Burst Of Gene Duplication Set Stage For Human Evolution?:
Roughly 10 million years ago, a major genetic change occurred in a common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Segments of DNA in its genome began to form duplicate copies at a greater rate than in the past, creating an instability that…
clock | February 12, 2009Why Fruits Ripen And Flowers Die: Scientists Discover How Key Plant Hormone Is Triggered:
Best known for its effects on fruit ripening and flower fading, the gaseous plant hormone ethylene shortens the shelf life of many fruits and plants by putting their physiology on fast-forward. In recent years, scientists learned a lot about the different components that transmit ethylene signals inside cells. But a central regulator of ethylene responses, a protein known as EIN2, resisted all their efforts.
Y Chromosome And Surname Study Challenges Infidelity 'Myth':
Our surnames and genetic information…
clock | February 11, 2009There are 17 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Individual Recognition in Domestic Cattle (Bos taurus): Evidence from 2D-Images of Heads from Different Breeds:
In order to maintain cohesion of groups, social animals need to process social information efficiently.…
clock | February 11, 2009Hummingbird 'Tag' Suggests Fragmentation May Be Part Of Pollination Crisis:
To find out the cause of what's being called a global "pollination crisis," researchers at Oregon State University have successfully attached an electronic tracking device to a hummingbird for the first time - and the darting travels of the tiny bird may be pointing the way to at least part of the problem.
Biologists Find Gene Network That Gave Rise To First Tooth:
A new paper in PLoS Biology reports that a common gene regulatory circuit controls the development of all dentitions, from the first teeth in the throats…
clock | February 10, 2009There are 16 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Genetic Determinants of Financial Risk Taking:
Individuals vary in their willingness to take financial risks. Here we show that variants of two genes that regulate dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission and have…
clock | February 10, 2009New Species Of Prehistoric Creatures Discovered In Isle Of Wight Mud:
In just four years a University of Portsmouth palaeontologist has discovered 48 new species from the age of the dinosaurs. Dr Steve Sweetman's discoveries, found hidden in mud on the Isle of Wight, are around 130 million years old and shed valuable light on the poorly understood world in which well known dinosaurs roamed.
Alzheimer's Prevented And Reversed With Natural Protein In Animal Models:
Memory loss, cognitive impairment, brain cell degeneration and cell death were prevented or reversed in several animal models after…
clock | February 9, 2009There are 15 new articles published Friday night and 15 new articles published tonight in PLoS ONE. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Impact of Climate Change on the Relict Tropical Fish Fauna of Central Sahara: Threat for the Survival of Adrar Mountains Fishes, Mauritania:
Four central Sahara…
clock | February 9, 2009Census Of Modern Organisms Reveals Echo Of Ancient Mass Extinction:
Paleontologists can still hear the echo of the death knell that drove the dinosaurs and many other organisms to extinction following an asteroid collision at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago.
New Bird Species: New Species Of Babbler Discovered In China:
A new species of babbler has been described from Guangxi province in south-west China close to the border with Vietnam. Named Nonggang Babbler Stachyris nonggangensis, after the reserve at which it was discovered, this new species is closely related to…
clock | February 7, 2009Wolf In Dog's Clothing? Black Wolves May Be First 'Genetically Modified' Predators:
Slipping through trees or across snow, the wolf has glided into legend on paws of white, gray or -- in North America -- even black. This last group owes an unexpected debt to the cousins of the domestic dog, say Stanford researchers. In an unconventional evolutionary twist, dogs that bred with wolves thousands of years ago ceded a genetic mutation encoding dark coat color to their former ancestors. As a result, the Gray Wolf, or Canis lupus, is no longer just gray.
'Nonsense' In Our Genes: One In 200 Human…
clock | February 6, 2009Ecologists Report Quantifiable Measures Of Nature's Services To Humans:
The idea of ecosystem services is a promising conservation concept but has been rarely put into practice. In a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, researchers use novel tools to report some of the first quantifiable results that place values on nature's services to humans.
15-year-old Theory About The Nervous System Disproved:
A delay in traffic may cause a headache, but a delay in the nervous system can cause much more. University of Missouri researchers have uncovered clues identifying…
clock | February 5, 2009So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology and PLoS Pathogens this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Social Contact Networks and Disease Eradicability under Voluntary Vaccination:
Interest in infectious disease models that incorporate the effects of human behavior has been growing in recent years. However, most of these models predict that it should never be possible to eradicate a disease under…
clock | February 5, 2009There are 15 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Web Queries as a Source for Syndromic Surveillance:
In the field of syndromic surveillance, various sources are exploited for outbreak detection, monitoring and prediction. This paper describes a study on queries…
clock | February 5, 2009Tinkering With Circadian Clock Can Suppress Cancer Growth:
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that disruption of the circadian clock - the internal time-keeping mechanism that keeps the body running on a 24-hour cycle - can slow the progression of cancer.
How Your Body Clock Avoids Hitting The Snooze Button:
Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered a new part of the mechanism which allows our bodyclocks to reset themselves on a molecular level. ---------- Professor Stanewsky explains: "A circadian photoreceptor called Cry is…
clock | February 4, 2009There are 16 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Climate Change and Trophic Response of the Antarctic Bottom Fauna:
As Earth warms, temperate and subpolar marine species will increasingly shift their geographic ranges poleward. The endemic shelf fauna of Antarctica…
clock | February 4, 2009Personal Touch In Farming: Giving A Cow A Name Boosts Her Milk Production:
A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, scientists at Newcastle University have found. Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have shown that by giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual, farmers can increase their annual milk yield by almost 500 pints.
Wild Boar Given Plenty Of Food And Shelter Do Not Live As Long As Struggling Wild Boar:
Lack of shelter and the large amount of food available from crops in the mid-valley of the Ebro reflect primarily how human beings influence the…
clock | February 3, 2009When I was a little kid, almost nothing was known about evolution of whales. They were huge, they were marine and they were mammals, but their evolutionary ancestry was open to speculation. Some (like Darwin himself) hypothesized that the terrestrial ancestor of whales looked like a bear. Others favored the idea of a hippo-like or even a pig-like ancestor.
Over the decades, two things happened. First, the revolution in molecular biology and computing power allowed scientists to compare many genes of many mammals and thus infer genealogical relationships between whales and other groups of…
clock | February 3, 2009There are 13 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites. The Big One today, I'll cover in a separate post a little later, but here I also want to point out a paper by my good friends Elsa Youngsteadt and Coby Schal, back from my NCSU days (Dr.Youngsteadt now works for…
clock | February 3, 2009
Mammals That Hibernate Or Burrow Less Likely To Go Extinct:
The best way to survive the ill-effects of climate change and pollution may be to simply sleep through it. According to a new study published in The American Naturalist, mammals that hibernate or that hide in burrows are less likely to turn up on an endangered species list. The study's authors believe that the ability of such "sleep-or-hide" animals to buffer themselves from changing environments may help them avoid extinction.
Ten New Amphibian Species Discovered In Colombia; Secluded Safe Haven For Frogs As Global Extinctions Rise…