ESA's Huygens begins its final journey into the unknown
...us moon, Titan, where on 14 January it will make a descent through one of the most intriguing atmospheres in ...hin the lifetime of the probe's batteries. The descent will last about 140 minutes before Huygens impacts the surface at about 6 m/s. If the probe survives...Higher blood pressures among African Americans - genes not likely to be an explanation
...ent the UK, have shown that populations of African descent are much more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, and related conditions such as obesity and stroke, than white populations of European descent. This led to the assumption that individuals of African origin have a genetic predisposition to hyp...Hypertension risk in African-Americans linked to genetics, Stanford study finds
...differences between people of African and European descent to home in on the location of the gene or genes. F... years that in the United States people of African descent are more likely to develop high blood pressure - also called hypertension - than people of European ...Hypertension in African Americans linked to two genomic regions
... variations occur in people of African or European descent to how often they occur in African Americans. As a group, African Americans can trace their ancestry largely to populations from both Africa and Europe. "The statistical technique we used is ideal for groups who have a trait with a higher occurrence...Falling ants glide back to trunk to avoid dangers of forest floor
...g what he and his colleagues call directed aerial descent in 25 species representing five separate genera. ...ight now are exploring how pervasive such directed descent might be we are, in fact, finding it in a variety of wingless arthropods that glide in using a vari...Falling canopy ants glide home
...ng or being dropped off! "I first noticed directed descent behavior on BCI [the Smithsonian's Barro Colorado Island field station in Panama] in 1998 while working on a canopy ant project with Mike Kaspari. Some spiny C. atratus workers got stuck in my hand while I was sitting in a tree crown. When I brushed...California researchers help map human genetic variation across populations
...netic diversity was in samples of African American descent (a finding consistent with previous studies). Other findings in the Science paper, titled "Whole Genome Patterns of Common DNA Variation in Three Diverse Human Populations," include: Most functional human genetic variation is not population-sp...Where bacteria get their genes
...spread exchange of genes does not blur the line of descent because the acquired genes get lost from the genome at a later point or, if they do persist, the bacteria then transmit them to their offspring. Being able to classify bacteria is crucial for medicine, Ochman said. "If you go to the doctor with strep...Glaciers from Antarctic peninsula in widespread retreat, Science study says
...bility that inland glaciers are accelerating their descent to the ocean and that the rate of sea level rise could be affected if ice shelves on the peninsula continue their retreat. "The widespread retreat of the glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula over the last 50 years was largely caused by climate change....Japanese women found to have lower recurrence of breast cancer
...05 Early-stage breast cancer patients of Japanese descent that are treated with a lumpectomy and radiation therapy are more likely to be cured of their cancer than women of other ancestries, according to a new study published in the May 2005 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*P...Lactose intolerance linked to ancestral environment
...0 percent and primarily those of Asian and African descent -- stop producing lactase, the enzyme required to digest milk, as they mature. People of northern European descent, however, tend to retain the ability to produce the enzyme and drink milk throughout life. Sherman and former Cornell undergraduate stu...Scientific societies support teaching evolution
...controversy. The fundamental tenet of evolution - descent with modification - is accepted by the vast majority of biologists. The current debates within the research community deal with the patterns and processes of evolution, not whether the evolutionary principles presented by Darwin in 1859 hold true. Th...Blood test for colon cancer risk to be goal of Hopkins project
...oximately 2.3 percent of women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent have troublesome forms of the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 genes, a rate five times higher than the general population. http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_62.htm )...Disease-causing protein protects against nerve damage in Parkinson's disease
...nuclein in their brains, expecting to see a faster descent into the Parkinson's-like symptoms in the offspring. Instead, they produced apparently healthy animals. In their terms, the alpha-synuclein "rescued" the mice from the harmful effects of lacking CSP-alpha. The results were "exactly the opposite of wh......ion, with the exception of fewer patients of Asian descent and fewer people who had never smoked. Tumors with high EGFR gene copy numbers were classified as FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization)-positive. If nuclear staining was present, the tumor was classified as p-Akt positive. EGFR expression (the ...New study to find cause of former President's hand disease
...y affects people of north European or Scandinavian descent and runs in families, so we know there is a genetic link involved. "We have already identified a couple of genes that contribute to the disease but we want to extend that research to look at the entire human gene map or genome." Named after Baron Dup...UC Santa Barbara researcher tapped by Europeans for design of instrument to test soil on Mars
...he exploration of Mars, along with a carrier and a descent module. Decisions about the ExoMars spacecraft will be finalized in the next few months, with the aim of maximizing the mission's scientific return. Subject to the availability of national funding for their research, scientists from all states parti...Fish gene sheds light on human skin color variation
...a major role in determining why people of European descent have lighter skin than people of African descent. The find could lead to further research using the protein coded by the pigmentation gene as a target for treatment of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, as well as to research o...Researchers identify gene mutation as major cause of Parkinson's in Ashkenazi Jewish patients
...rchers note that a group of North Africans of Arab descent have been found to have a high frequency of this same gene mutation as a cause of Parkinson's disease. The two groups appear to share the same origin or founder, suggesting a probable Middle Eastern origin for this mutation....Newly identified mechanism helps explain why people of African descent are more vulnerable to TB
...y help explain the puzzle of why people of African descent are more susceptible to tuberculosis infection and...eptibility of people of African and possibly Asian descent to tuberculosis. The researchers suggest a need for clinical trials to investigate the effect of vi...