Evidence that human brain evolution was a special event
...cally modern humans about 150,000 years ago. "It's clear that human evolution did not occur in one fell swoop," he said, "which makes sense, given that the brain is such a complex organ." Lahn further speculated that the strong selection for better brains may still be ongoing in the present-day human popul...New signaling step for key player in Crohn's Disease
...flammatory responses. NOD2's clinical relevance is clear from the fact that it is encoded by a Crohn's Disease susceptibility gene. Understanding NOD2 has posed a particularly intriguing challenge for researchers because it appears able to somehow both activate and inhibit inflammatory cytokine responses i...Ants' 'genetic engineering' leads to species interdependency
...ardless of the specific advantages, however, it is clear that these ants have committed themselves to the hybrid workforce strategy. When the researchers prevented queens from mating with males of the other species, very few succeeded in making any workers at all, a handicap that would lead to certain popu...University of Chicago researchers discovered that humans are a 'privileged' evolutionary lineage
... that both the ASPM and Microcephalin genes showed clear evidence of accelerated changes due to intensified evolutionary pressure in the lineage leading to humans. For ASPM, the acceleration is particularly prominent in recent human evolution after humans parted way from chimpanzees. By contrast, the resea...Vollum Institute discovery may unlock human genome
...to be far more numerous than genes, but it was not clear how to identify them." "We developed a novel technique that is able to isolate a comprehensive set of regulatory regions and map them to the entire genome. Our work will help unravel the genomic instruction set that governs how genes are regulated in...Highlights of January 2005 issue of Biology of Reproduction
...rity is rescued by glycine. These results not only clear up long-standing confusion about the etiology of the 2-cell block but also highlight the important effects of culture conditions on experimental design. (The full text of this paper is available from Biology of Reproduction--Papers in Press at www.b......surface these antibodies are binding to, nor is it clear how these antibodies are disrupting the calcium fluctuations that are required for the heart cells to contract. The authors are actively searching for the binding target of these antibodies. Meanwhile, they hope that their success in narrowing down...DNA movement linked to formation of antibody genes
...n) and the transposases of some retroviruses shows clear similarities between these recombination enzymes....An invasion of cheats: The evolution of worthless nuptial gifts
...such as leaves or silk balloons. Gift-giving is of clear benefit to females when gifts are nutritious and thus valuable, but why females of some species require an inedible and worthless gift remains unexplained. In experiments reported this week, researchers Natasha LeBas and Leon Hockham from the Univers...NJIT astrophysicist who revived earthshine named fellow of American Physical Society
...ern off-axis, open air, 1.6-meter (5 foot, 3 inch) clear aperture instrument. The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded the project $1.5 million. "Our new telescope will be the world's largest optical telescope for solar research," said Goode. "The new telescope will use visible and infrare...New lensless imaging technique opens door to nanoscale world
...an billions of pulses, will be needed to capture a clear picture of the action at that moment in time. Scientists could take a series of such images to create a "movie" of the changes, analogous to time-lapse photography for slow processes like a flower coming into bloom. This confers a brand new capabilit...Unusual reproductive behavior of odd ants surprises scientists
...ineage eggs became successful adult workers. "It's clear what the queen must do she must mate with more than one male," Rissing said. The researchers surmised that harvester ant queens can probably tell the difference between the males they mated with. The researchers also noted that the males were differ...Satellite data to track wildlife: Elephants in space
...onx Zoo in November 2004, have revealed incredibly clear images of everything from giraffes to Thomson's gazelles. According to members of the team, the detail of the images taken from so far away has been particularly impressive. "We're counting individual gazelles in the zoo's African Plains exhibit from...New genetic mutation linked to Parkinson's disease
...ile a great deal of work remains to be done, it is clear that any future genetic testing for Parkinson's disease must include studies of the LRRK2 gene." The patients in the Indiana University study who had the mutation had longer disease duration but less severe symptoms when they were participating in ...Fat hormone acts on brain circuit to curb obesity, diabetes
...s continues to rise in industrialized countries, a clear understanding of the cellular and neuroanatomic pathways that control energy and glucose balance is critical to the discovery of new methods to prevent or treat these conditions," Elmquist said. "The current findings definitively demonstrate that the...Key molecule in plant photo-protection identified
...hat have yet to be placed for scientists to have a clear picture of the process. Fleming likens the on-going research effort to the popular board game, Clue. "You have to figure out something like it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe," he says. "When we began this project, we didn't k...Why do some people get bitten by mosquitoes more than others?
...oodfellow, BBSRC Chief Executive, said, "There are clear benefits from this research. Discovering what makes a person more attractive to mosquitoes presents scientists with the opportunity to develop safe, naturally occurring insect repellent which could be far more effective than conventional products bec...UBC prof's research challenges prevailing theory of how new species evolve
... in North America's west coast, are the only known clear examples of species that may have evolved across distance. Two distinct forms of greenish warblers co-exist in central Siberia but do not interbreed there, making them distinct species in that region. Irwin, along with co-authors Staffan Bensch (Lund...Priming embryonic stem cells to fulfill their promise
...tories. "When we talked to our colleagues, it was clear that, whether it's cells in the liver, brain, or heart, there had been no practical way for researchers to find the optimal extracellular matrix needed to turn embryonic stem cells into cells with therapeutic potential," said Bhatia. "We think we've ......than all the other trials put together, and gave a clear result that patients given steroids have a greater chance of dying than those who did not receive them," says Dr Phil Alderson of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford, who wrote the review along with Prof Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and T...