Desertification: UN experts prescribe global policy overhaul to avoid looming mass migrations
...ly published report of the IPCC give an additional dark shade to an already gloomy picture. However it is difficult to properly quantify the number of environmental migrants and the migration routes as long as the concept itself remains debated even from a scientific point of view, the analysis says. UN...Consumption of small amounts of dark chocolate associated with reduction in blood pressure
Eating about 30 calories a day of dark chocolate was associated with a lowering of blood ...for 18 weeks either 6.3 g (30 calories) per day of dark chocolate containing 30 mg polyphenols or matching polyphenol-free white chocolate. The researcher...Internal clock, external light regulate plant growth
..." to make protein during the day, switch off after dark but then turn on again late in the night. But the proteins made by PIF 4 and PIF 5 break down when exposed to light. So while the internal clock drives transcription of the genes to produce proteins, external light removes the protein. The PIF 4 an...Mild stress in the womb may worsen risk of cerebral palsy
... scientists adjusted the normal cycle of light and dark that the pregnant mice were accustomed to for half of the mice, subjecting them to a mild level of stress. Then the researchers exposed the brains of the developing fetuses to injury. When the brains of the young mice were examined on birth, Gressens...Measuring the unseeable: Penn researchers probe proteins' dark energy
...easure the internal motion inside proteins, or its dark energy. This research, appearing in the current is...ysics in which theoreticians predict that there is dark matter, or energy, that no one has yet seen, says senior author A. Joshua Wand, PhD, Benjamin Rush P......enigmatic. Those unstudied organisms are biologys dark matter, Quake says. Like the dark matter that astronomers can only infer must exist in the universe, these organisms have never been s...Other highlights in the July 24 JNCI
...cancer risk in general. But greater consumption of dark green and cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower, was associated with a decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Aggressive prostate cancer is biologically virulent and associated with poor prognosis. Therefore, if the as...Interaction of just 2 genes governs coloration patterns in mice
...hairs. When both genes are turned on, the mouse is dark in color. A mutation that changes either gene leads to a somewhat blonder mouse, but it is the combination of mutations in both genes that produces a mouse very light in color. "Thus, two different types of mutations in two different genes each con...A 'private bandwidth' for communication in bats: Evidence from insular horseshoe bats
... (Rhinolophidae). These bats find their way in the dark and detect insect prey by emitting long ultrasound calls mainly made of a constant frequency. Different rhinolophid species show different frequency values. It has been proposed that such differences are large enough to allow recognition of conspecif...