Science News
clock | October 12, 2008
'Virgin Birth' By Shark Confirmed: Second Case Ever:
Scientists have confirmed the second-ever case of a "virgin birth" in a shark, indicating once again that female sharks can reproduce without mating and raising the possibility that many female sharks have this incredible capacity.
Digital Zebrafish Embryo Provides First Complete Developmental Blueprint Of A Vertebrate:
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have generated a digital zebrafish embryo - the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate. With a newly developed microscope scientists could for…
clock | October 10, 2008Can Genetic Information Be Controlled By Light?:
DNA, the molecule that acts as the carrier of genetic information in all forms of life, is highly resistant against alteration by ultraviolet light, but understanding the mechanism for its photostability presents some puzzling problems. A key aspect is the interaction between the four chemical bases that make up the DNA molecule. Researchers at Kiel University have succeeded in showing that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences.
Journey Toward The Center Of The Earth: One-of-a-kind Microorganism Lives…
clock | October 9, 2008There are 11 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Evolutionary Signatures of Common Human Cis-Regulatory Haplotypes:
Variation in gene expression may give rise to a significant fraction of inter-individual phenotypic variation. Studies searching for the underlying genetic controls for such variation have been conducted in model organisms and humans in recent years. In our previous effort of assessing…
clock | October 9, 2008Circadian Clock May Be Critical For Remembering What You Learn, Researchers Say:
The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, according to Stanford researchers. Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything."
Time Of Day Influences Yield For Pharmacologically…
clock | October 8, 2008There are 8 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Hemispheric Specialization in Dogs for Processing Different Acoustic Stimuli:
Considerable experimental evidence shows that functional cerebral asymmetries are widespread in animals. Activity of the right cerebral hemisphere has been associated with responses to novel stimuli and the expression of intense emotions, such as aggression, escape behaviour and…
clock | October 8, 2008Atomic-resolution Views Suggest Function Of Enzyme That Regulates Light-detecting Signals In Eye:
An atomic-resolution view of an enzyme found only in the eye has given researchers at the University of Washington (UW) clues about how this enzyme, essential to vision, is activated. The enzyme, phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6), is central to the way light entering the retina is converted into a cascade of signals to the brain.
Green Fluorescent Protein Pioneers Share 2008 Nobel Prize In Chemistry:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 jointly to Osamu…
clock | October 7, 2008There are 9 new articles in PLoS ONE today (as well as another 3 articles published last night). 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:
Hybridization among Three Native North American Canis Species in a Region of Natural Sympatry:
Population densities of many species throughout the world are changing due to direct persecution as well as anthropogenic habitat modification. These changes may induce or increase the frequency of…
clock | October 7, 2008
Key To Rapid Evolution In Plants: Reproduce Early And Often:
Yale researchers have harnessed the power of 21st century computing to confirm an idea first proposed in 1916 -- that plants with rapid reproductive cycles evolve faster.
Nerve Cell Actions Made Optically Visible In Mice:
Thought processes made visible: An international team of scientists headed by Mazahir Hasan of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in optically detecting individual action potentials in the brains of living animals. The scientists introduced fluorescent indicator proteins into…
clock | October 6, 2008Published today in PLoS Medicine:
This essay makes the underlying assumption that scientific information is an economic commodity, and that scientific journals are a medium for its dissemination and exchange. While this exchange system differs from a conventional market in many senses, including the nature of payments, it shares the goal of transferring the commodity (knowledge) from its producers (scientists) to its consumers (other scientists, administrators, physicians, patients, and funding agencies). The function of this system has major consequences. Idealists may be offended that…
clock | October 6, 2008Gene Expression In Alligators Suggests Birds Have 'Thumbs':
The latest breakthrough in a 120 year-old debate on the evolution of the bird wing was published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, October 3, by Alexander Vargas and colleagues at Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Galloping And Breathing At High Speed:
The coordination of two systems are key for any horse to walk, trot, gallop or win a race. The first are the lower limbs, which allow the animal to move along on a "spring-like" tendon. The second is a complicated…
clock | October 5, 2008Antisocial Behavior May Be Caused By Low Stress Hormone Levels:
A link between reduced levels of the 'stress hormone' cortisol and antisocial behaviour in male adolescents has been discovered by a research team at the University of Cambridge.
Gas From The Past Gives Scientists New Insights Into Climate And The Oceans:
In recent years, public discussion of climate change has included concerns that increased levels of carbon dioxide will contribute to global warming, which in turn may change the circulation in the earth's oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Adolescent Insomnia…
clock | October 4, 2008Female Medical Students Underestimate Their Abilities And Males Tend To Overestimate Theirs:
Despite performing equally to their male peers in the classroom and the clinic, female medical students consistently report decreased self-confidence and increased anxiety, particularly over issues related to their competency.
Direct Recording Shows Brain Signal Persists Even In Dreamless Sleep:
Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first direct looks at one of the human brain's most fundamental "foundations": a brain signal that never switches…
clock | October 3, 2008There are 12 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Importance of Achromatic Contrast in Short-Range Fruit Foraging of Primates:
Trichromatic primates have a 'red-green' chromatic channel in addition to luminance and 'blue-yellow' channels. It has been argued that the red-green channel evolved in primates as an adaptation for detecting reddish or yellowish objects, such as ripe fruits, against a background…
clock | October 3, 2008New Fish Species May Emerge Because Of How Females See Males:
Eye colour and hair colour play a role in human partner choice, but visual stimuli can also determine mating preferences in the animal kingdom. In many species, the male's fortunes in the mating stakes are decided by a conspicuous breeding dress.
New Dinosaur Species, Pachyrhinosaur Lakustai, Had Bony Frill And Horns:
The fossils revealed a herd of dinosaurs that perished in a catastrophic event 72.5 million years ago. The animals are characterized by a bony frill on the back of the skull ornamented with smaller horns. They also…
clock | October 2, 2008So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS ONE and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here is my pick for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Mutation and Evolutionary Rates in Adelie Penguins from the Antarctic:
Molecular evolutionary theory suggests that for neutral DNA sequences, rates of mutation and evolution should be equal. However, there has been considerable variation in empirical estimates of…
clock | October 2, 2008There are 13 new articles published last night and another 12 new articles published today in PLoS ONE. 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:
An Intracellular Antioxidant Determines the Expression of a Melanin-Based Signal in a Bird:
To understand how traits used in animal communication evolved and are maintained as honest signals, we need to understand the mechanisms that prevent cheating. It has been proposed that honest signaling is…
clock | October 2, 2008HIV/AIDS Pandemic Began Around 1900, Earlier Than Previously Thought; Urbanization In Africa Marked Outbreak:
New research indicates that the most pervasive global strain of HIV began spreading among humans between 1884 and 1924, suggesting that growing urbanization in colonial Africa set the stage for the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Specific Gene Found In Adolescent Men With Delinquent Peers:
Birds of a feather flock together, according to the old adage, and adolescent males who possess a certain type of variation in a specific gene are more likely to flock to delinquent peers, according to a…
clock | October 1, 2008Urban Black Bears 'Live Fast, Die Young':
Black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Tiny Organisms Feast On Oil Thousands Of Feet Below Bottom Of Sea:
Thousands of feet below the bottom of the sea, off the shores of Santa Barbara, single-celled organisms are busy feasting on oil.
Mass Extinctions And The Evolution Of Dinosaurs:
Dinosaurs survived two mass extinctions and 50 million years before taking over the world and dominating ecosystems,…
clock | September 30, 2008There 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. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L):
Numerous collecting expeditions of Theobroma cacao L. germplasm have been undertaken in Latin-America. However, most of this germplasm has not contributed to cacao improvement because its relationship to cultivated selections was poorly understood.…
clock | September 30, 2008Meat-eating Dinosaur From Argentina Had Bird-like Breathing System:
The remains of a 30-foot-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina's Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how birds evolved their unusual breathing system.
Discovering How Human-caused Sounds Affect Marine Mammals:
The Marine Board-ESF published its 13th Position Paper, which presents a view from marine mammal specialists on the research needed to assess the effects of anthropogenic sound upon marine mammals.*
Microbes 'Run The World': Metagenomics Increasingly Used To Characterize Them:
Mostly hidden from…