Genes pertaining to 'maleness' evolve more rapidly than their non-sexual counterparts
...ve to mate is perhaps the strongest driving force behind evolution," Wu explained. As Darwin wrote, the advantages of "conquering other males in battle or courtship, and thus leaving a numerous progeny are in the long run greater than those derived from rather more perfect adaptation to the conditions of ...BES and ESA to meet: Two plenary sessions to focus on carbon
...estions, says Korner, will depend on the paradigms behind common ecological terminology, which the session will explore. Recent research from Basel will be used to underpin these thoughts. For further information regarding these two plenaries and the BES/ESA meeting, please visit the ESA website ( http://e...Complex mystery of amphibian decline calls for a new kind of science
...hat finding that these pathogens are a big culprit behind a broad disappearance of frogs and salamanders actually raises more questions than it answers: "Are these novel pathogens? Has the physiology of the host changed? Has the biology of the pathogen changed? Has a change in the environment altered the p...Experts say diet and exercise play critical role in cancer prevention
...ayette, Ind. -- Poor diet and lack of exercise are behind just as many cancer cases as smoking, says Dennis Savaiano, dean of Purdue's School of Consumer and Family Sciences and professor of foods and nutrition. "Approximately one-third of cancer cases are related to smoking, one-third to poor diet and lack......ational Institutes of Health. "The driving force behind bioinformatics is the availability of these large databases and the need to come up with sophisticated computer models for extracting useful information from them," said David Haussler, professor of computer science at the University of California, S...NIDA, CSAT, CDC sponsor conference on drug use, HIV and hepatitis
... urgent public health issues. The driving force behind this conference, May 7-10, 2000, at the Baltimore Convention Center, is to reduce the incidence of chronic infectious diseases among drug users, to facilitate entry of drug users into drug treatment, and to link them to appropriate medical care. The...Record breaking temperatures seen as evidence of faster rate of global warming
... the second warmest year of the 20th Century, just behind 1998, an El Nino year. The researchers at NCDC, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), based in Asheville, North Carolina, analyzed data from land based and satellite instruments for their study. They conclude that the ra...Cross-dressing in the snake world
...k they have worked out the evo- lutionary strategy behind the behaviour. The team observed red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) in Manitoba, Canada, which had recently emerged from hibernation. The snakes formed "mating balls", where several suitors competed for one female. But over a ...Bitter taste receptors identified
...k helps explain, on a molecular level, the "logic" behind the taste system and how it differs from the olfac... olfactory system, and we now have found the logic behind it," says Hoon. Every cell that expresses genes in the T2R family expresses nearly all the genes i......sing and reabsorbing carbon is the principal force behind climate change, and for decadesresearchers have been concerned because a substantial part of the carbon emitted from the combustionof fossil fuels can't be accounted for," said Dennis Ojima, senior research scientist at ColoradoState's Natural Resour...Iron chefs get nutritional boost cooking vegetables
...ile raw food diets are trendy today, the chemistry behind simple cooking may add a nutritional boost to certain vegetables. Researchers report that the act of cooking helps to increase the availability of iron already contained in such vegetables as asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, and tomatoes, making it easi...New findings on genetically modified plants and foods
... will focus on the agricultural and food chemistry behind genetically modified plants and foods. Selected studies are described below. New treatments from the genetically modified medicine cabinet: California researchers will discuss administering oral vaccines through edible transgenic plants, includ...Cell division study aids cancer drug search
...r aberrations in the control of the cell cycle lie behind cancer and a number of other diseases. The race is on to develop custom-made drugs to compensate for the failures in the natural control mechanisms. Says Professor La Thangue: "The research teams working on this at the University of Glasgow are makin...Smoking during pregnancy found to increase risk of cleft lip and palate
...erations and years of therapy, but can still leave behind scars, speech impediments and emotional damage. Chung and Buchman have seen the effects directly in their work: More than 100 cases of cleft lip and palate repair and related procedures are seen at the U-M each year. The U-M's multidisciplinary prog...Adding acetone to compost remediates chunk TNT contaminated soil
...d not one where we have to worry about the science behind it." For example, instead of having to grow certain bacterial strains in the laboratory to eat TNT, users of this method will only need to assure their soil conditions and recipes are consistent.The team has already scaled up its experiments to 30-ga...Chemical 'crumbs' from microbes' snacks provide a trail to ancient, remote life
...search focuses on the evidence that microbes leave behind after they munch on metals like molybdenum, copper, iron and zinc. The scientists say it's likely that as tiny organisms scour for these nutrients, they select certain isotopes of elements (isotopes are forms of the same element with a slightly diffe...White House honors Hutchinson Center Scientist with Presidential Early Career Award
...work may be a better understanding of the genetics behind craniofacial defects, because the same genes that orchestrate hindbrain development also affect the brain's neural crest cells, which are responsible for developing the artchitecture and nerves of the head and neck.The arrival of Moens and her fish a...Researchers develop new technique for identifying remaining unknown human genes
...es from a sample pool of genetic material, leaving behind a higher percentage of the undiscovered genes expressed less frequently or at low levels in an attempt to increase the probability of discovering these genes. However, this subtraction method often results in a nightmare; many of these unknown genes...Mighty things from small beginnings
...e sitting. They were interested in the mechanisms behind thrombotic activity, and how alcohol may effect that. They did not investigate long-term or cumulative use of alcohol. "We only looked at a single episode," said Myers. "I can't predict what one drink a day, or two drinks a day, or three drinks a......isease and for understanding the actual mechanisms behind the aging process." The company's scientific objective in applying cloning to human medicine is to create human stem cells -- the basic primitive cells that ultimately form all the cells in the body. These basic building block cells would then be c...