Science News
clock | July 27, 2008Diversity In Primary Schools Promotes Harmony, Study Finds:
For the first time, children as young as 5 have been shown to understand issues regarding integration and separation. The research confirms that the ethnic composition of primary schools has a direct impact on children's attitudes towards those in other ethnic groups and on their ability to get on with their peers.
Who's More Likely To Do Sports? White, Middle Class, And Middle-aged:
The comfortably off, white, and middle aged are the most likely to participate in sporting activities, reveals a 10 year study published ahead of print…
clock | July 25, 2008Isolation-by-Distance and Outbreeding Depression Are Sufficient to Drive Parapatric Speciation in the Absence of Environmental Influences:
A commonly held view in evolutionary biology is that new species form in response to environmental factors, such as habitat differences or barriers to individual movements that sever a population. We have developed a computer model, called EvoSpace, that illustrates how new species can emerge when a species range becomes very large compared with the dispersal distances of its individuals. This situation has been called isolation-by-distance because remote…
clock | July 25, 2008PLoS Genetics is celebrating its third birthday this month! Let's see what's new this week, among else...
PLoS Genetics Turns Three: Looking Back, Looking Ahead:
PLoS Genetics is three years old this month--a milestone worth celebrating! As we do, and as we recognize all who have helped us reach this point in time, we thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you a summary of our brief history and a look ahead.
Our original intent was to provide an open-access journal for the community that would "reflect the full breadth and interdisciplinary nature of genetics and genomics…
clock | July 25, 2008'Snow Flea Antifreeze Protein' Could Help Improve Organ Preservation:
Scientists in Illinois and Pennsylvania are reporting development of a way to make the antifreeze protein that enables billions of Canadian snow fleas to survive frigid winter temperatures. Their laboratory-produced first-of-a-kind proteins could have practical uses in extending the storage life of donor organs and tissues for human transplantation, according to new research.
Freedom's Just Another Word For Less Sexually Active Teens:
Sophisticated statistical research is providing more evidence of a link between rigid…
clock | July 24, 2008Missing Link Found Between Circadian Clock And Metabolism:
Two new research studies have discovered a long sought molecular link between our metabolism and components of the internal clock that drives circadian rhythms, keeping us to a roughly 24-hour schedule. The findings appear in the July 25th issue of the journal Cell.
Dinosaurs Did Not Evolve Quickly In Last 50 Million Years, New Dinosaur Super-tree Shows:
It has long been debated whether dinosaurs were part of the 'Terrestrial Revolution' that occurred some 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous when birds, mammals, flowering…
clock | July 23, 2008There are 51 new papers in PLoS ONE this week - check them out for stuff you are interested in (and post comments, notes and ratings and send trackbacks), but here are my personal picks:
Sample Size and Precision in NIH Peer Review:
The Working Group on Peer Review of the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH has recommended that at least 4 reviewers should be used to assess each grant application. A sample size analysis of the number of reviewers needed to evaluate grant applications reveals that a substantially larger number of evaluators are required to provide the level of precision…
clock | July 23, 2008Commercial Bees Spreading Disease To Wild Pollinating Bees:
Bees provide crucial pollination service to numerous crops and up to a third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects. However, pollinating bees are suffering widespread declines in North America and scientists warn that this could have serious implications for agriculture and food supply. While the cause of these declines has largely been a mystery, new research reveals an alarming spread of disease from commercial bees to wild pollinators.
Unique Fossil Discovery Shows Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer:
A new fossil…
clock | July 22, 200890 Billion Tons Of Microbial Organisms Live In Deep Marine Subsurface: More Archaea Than Bacteria:
Biogeoscientists show evidence of 90 billion tons of microbial organisms--expressed in terms of carbon mass--living in the deep biosphere, in a research article published online by Nature, July 20, 2008. This tonnage corresponds to about one-tenth of the amount of carbon stored globally in tropical rainforests.
Female Monkeys More Dominant In Groups With Relatively More Males:
Female monkeys are more dominant when they live in groups with a higher percentage of males. This is caused by self-…
clock | July 22, 2008Across the Curious Parallel of Language and Species Evolution:
In February 1837--even before he sailed on the Beagle--Charles Darwin wrote to his sister Caroline, discussing the linguist Sir John Herschel's idea that modern languages were descended from a common ancestor. If this were really the case, it cast doubt on the Biblical chronology of the world: "[E]veryone has yet thought that the six thousand odd years has been the right period but Sir J. thinks that a far greater number must have passed since the Chinese [and] the Caucasian languages separated from one stock".
The Effects of…
clock | July 21, 2008Social Behavior In Ants Influenced By Small Number Of Genes:
Understanding how interactions between genes and the environment influence social behavior is a fundamental research goal. In a new study, researchers at the University of Lausanne and the University of Georgia have shed light on the numbers and types of genes that may control social organization in fire ant colonies.
Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease:
Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats…
clock | July 19, 2008Distribution Of Creatures Great And Small Can Be Predicted Mathematically:
In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time two SFI researchers explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework.
Bees Go 'Off-color' When They Are Sickly:
Bumble-bees go 'off colour'…
evolgen | July 18, 2008Phylogeny Friday -- 18 July 2008
When they published the initial analysis of the complete platypus genome (doi:10.1038/nature06936), Nature, as they're wont to do, also put out a news item announcing the major findings (doi:10.1038/453138a). That news article included a phylogeny illustrating the evolutionary relationships of various animal species in various stages of having their complete genomes sequenced.
The problem with the illustration: they got some of the relationships wrong. This sparked a letter from Peter Ducey of SUNY Cortland (doi:10.1038/454027d), in which he wrote the…
clock | July 18, 2008Pathologists Believe They Have Pinpointed Achilles Heel Of HIV:
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus that continues to kill millions.
Farming At Young Age May Lead To Bone Disease In Adulthood:
Although farm chores are likely to keep young boys in shape and out of trouble, University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health experts caution that it could be harmful to overall bone health if done too often at a young age.
Volcanic Eruptions May Have Wiped Out…
clock | July 17, 2008What's new in PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Pathogens and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this week? Among else, these papers that caught my eye:
Emergent Synchronous Bursting of Oxytocin Neuronal Network:
When young suckle, they are rewarded intermittently with a let-down of milk that results from reflex secretion of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide made by specialised neurons in the hypothalamus, and is secreted from nerve endings in the pituitary gland. During suckling, every 5 min or so, each of these neurons discharges a brief, intense burst of action…
clock | July 17, 2008New Approach Sheds Light On Ways Circadian Disruption Affects Human Health:
Growing evidence indicates that exposure to irregular patterns of light and darkness can cause the human circadian system to fall out of synchrony with the 24-hour solar day, negatively affecting human health -- but scientists have been unable to effectively study the relationship between circadian disruptions and human maladies.
Frogs With Disease-resistance Genes May Escape Extinction:
As frog populations die off around the world, researchers have identified certain genes that can help the amphibians develop…
evolgen | July 17, 2008Olivia Judson says Darwinism is dead. She's right. Anyone who talks about "Darwinism" or "evolutionists" gets my attention. That's not to say that any use of those terms is incorrect. But they are often used as framing devices by creationists, and those frames get carried over into the lay discussion of biology. You should read her discussion of why we should get rid of Darwinism.
On a somewhat unrelated note, Judson also writes the following:
We'd want to discuss evolution beyond natural selection -- the other forces that can sometimes cause (or prevent) evolutionary change. For although…
clock | July 16, 2008Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell:
Sight and hearing are the most important senses for birds - this is at least the received wisdom. By studying bird DNA, however, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, along with a colleague at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, have now provided genetic evidence that many bird species have a well-developed sense of smell (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 16.07.2008).
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Modern Humans:
Some 40,000 years ago, Cro-Magnons -- the first people who had a skeleton that looked…
clock | July 15, 2008There are 74 new articles in PLoS ONE today. Browse for your own choices - these are mine:
A 28,000 Years Old Cro-Magnon mtDNA Sequence Differs from All Potentially Contaminating Modern Sequences:
DNA sequences from ancient speciments may in fact result from undetected contamination of the ancient specimens by modern DNA, and the problem is particularly challenging in studies of human fossils. Doubts on the authenticity of the available sequences have so far hampered genetic comparisons between anatomically archaic (Neandertal) and early modern (Cro-Magnoid) Europeans. We typed the…
clock | July 15, 2008Two Extinct Flying Reptiles Compared: One Was A Glider, The Other A Parachutist:
Archaeopteryx is famous as the world's oldest bird, but reptiles were flying about some 50 million years earlier than that (225 million years ago), even before large dinosaurs roamed the Earth. A new study of extinct reptiles called kuehneosaurs, by scientists from the University of Bristol, England, shows that these early flyers used extraordinary extensions of their ribs to form large gliding surfaces on the side of the body.
Marsupials And Humans Share Same Genetic Imprinting That Evolved 150 Million Years Ago…
clock | July 14, 2008Understanding Hearing, Molecule By Molecule:
Berkeley Lab scientists have for the first time pieced together the three-dimensional structure of one of nature's most exquisite pieces of machinery, a gossamer-like filament of proteins in the inner ear that enables the sense of hearing and balance.
Marine Worm's Jaws Say 'Cutting-edge New Aerospace Materials':
Researchers in California and New Hampshire report the first detailed characterization of the protein composition of the hard, fang-like jaws of a common marine worm. Their work could lead to the design of a new class of super-strong,…