X-ray images help explain limits to insect body size
...nding what controls body size in insects. It's the legs that count in the beetles studied here, but what matters for the other hundreds of thousands of beetle species and millions of insect species overall is still an open question, said Jake Socha, Argonne biologist....Study sheds light on why humans walk on two legs
... earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting aroun...rainer willing to coax adult chimps to walk on two legs and to "knucklewalk" on all fours on the sort of treadmill found in most gyms. The five chimps also ...Restless legs genetics on the move
...suffer from an urge to move and paresthesia in the legs in the evening and during the night, when they come to rest, which can only be relieved by moving or walking around. The consequence may be severe sleeping disorders, chronic sleep loss and associated with it daytime fatigue. In severe cases the di...Researchers discover gene responsible for Restless Legs Syndrome
... Genetics, Inc., in Reykjavik, Iceland. Restless legs syndrome is a condition that produces an intense, often irresistible urge to move the legs and is a major cause of insomnia and sleep disruption. RLS affects approximately 10 percent of the U...Study identifies energy efficiency as reason for evolution of upright walking
...pedally on the treadmill. Humans walking on two legs only used one-quarter of the energy that chimpanzees who knuckle-walked on four legs did. On average, the chimpanzees used the same amount of energy using two legs as they did when they...Microscopic jets, diamonds unlikely on Uranus, and amazing mosquito legs
...ly on superhydrophobic (extremely water repelling) legs to allow them to stand on pond surfaces. Water striders' legs do a pretty good job of it, repelling water well enough to support up to 15 times their body weight....Amoebae control cheating by keeping it in the family
...ried away to better environs by the wind or on the legs of passing insects. This simple social system poses an evolutionary conundrum for biologists; the members of the stalk give themselves up altruistically to support the colony, so what's to keep more selfish strains of D. discoideum from cheating th...New dynamic brace developed to advance clubfoot treatment
...the Dobbs brace also allows children to move their legs independently while wearing the brace. Dobbs said these changes are key to preventing a recurrence of clubfoot. "While we've had good success in obtaining correction in clubfeet, maintaining that correction has been more challenging," Dobbs said....A small leak will sink a great ship
... in the fruit fly where a mutant carries a pair of legs at the head instead of the two antennae. Indeed, experiments performed by the German and Dutch scientists showed that in the two plant species mutation in the same gene conferred altered identity to the floral organs. This gene turned out to code fo...Human ancestors learned to walk upright in the trees, say experts
... moving on the forest floor, whilst walking on two legs assisted by the support of tree branches is an o...e walking. The study suggests that walking on two legs was always a feature of great-ape behaviour and human ancestors never passed through a knuckle-walki...Lessons from the orangutans: Upright walking may have begun in the trees
...ans, a research team has found that walking on two legs may have arisen in relatively ancient, tree-dwelli...phery, where the fruit typically is. Moving on two legs and using their arms primarily for balance, or "hand-assisted bipedalism," may have helped them trav...UF scientists identify cancer virus' genetic targets
...spots full of blood vessels on the necks, arms and legs of patients," said Rolf Renne, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the College of Medicine and a member of the UF Shands Cancer Center and the UF Genetics Institute. "We think that the tumor virus is using microRNA...Species thrive when sexual dimorphism broadens their niches
...anoles that occupy open habitats have evolved long legs that are advantageous in running, while arboreal species have shorter legs better suited to navigating narrow and irregular twigs. West Indian anole species also vary greatl...Breathing easy: When it comes to oxygen, a bug's life is full of it
...ks. Insects employ autoventilation (using wings or legs to pump air through the body), abdominal pumping (using the muscles in the abdomen to pump air), and tracheal compression (getting oxygen to the head and thorax). ...Oxford physiology professor earns APS' Walter B. Cannon Award
...lity to see, hear, think, speak, and move arms and legs is due to the activity of ion channels in the nerve cells of the brain and in the muscle cells of the limbs. When these channels malfunction, a variety of diseases can result, including diabetes, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy and sudden cardiac death. ...Deactivating protein may protect nerve fibers in MS
...apsing-remitting MS that's caused weakness in both legs and forced her to ride a Segway personal transportation device or a wheelchair. "For me, it's fabulous," she said. "If you can prevent MS, that's great, but what about the millions of people who have it? They need something that keeps the cells from ...Researchers identify gene that plays key role in size of dogs
...e same trait (such as large or small size or short legs or scrunched-up faces) due to human-directed selection, you will find genes that are likely to affect the same traits in humans," said co-author Carlos Bustamante, assistant professor of biological statistics and computational biology at Cornell. The...Right angles are all wrong for tree frog adhesion
... observation with how the animals positioned their legs - they spread their legs out sideways to minimise the angle between their feet and the surface. The researchers also visite...... be the reason you are able to walk upright on two legs at all! How we have evolved to walk on two legs remains a fundamental but, as yet, unresolved question for scientists. A popular explanation is that...Biologists call for better choice of model organisms in 'evo-devo'
...ant to understand how insects evolved wings or how legs developed from fins, we need to judiciously choose several models from specific parts of the phylogenetic tree. "There is little point in blindly increasing the diversity of model systems, without some specific goals in mind. "Our toolkit is too ...