Parents seeking sex abandon 1 in 3 offspring
...hes of eggs are abandoned in this way, making it a puzzling example of childrearing where both parents improve their reproductive success by abandoning the nest. Males and females can mate with up to seven different partners in any one breeding season and frequently vary their attitude to childcare between ...After a decades-long search, scientists identify new genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis
...findings could shed new light on what causes MS a puzzling mix of genes, environment and immunity and on potential treatments for at least 350,000 Americans who have the disease. "These studies describe the first genes conclusively linked to MS in more than 20 years," said Ursula Utz, Ph.D., a program dir...It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that (modern) swing
...rl.com/2spvwk Evolutionary biologists have been puzzling over why bird songs of a single species can vary significantly from one population to the next, but Derryberry's work shows the songs changing with time as well. Her thesis advisor, Duke biology professor Stephen Nowicki, has done experiments showing...Exploring the dark matter of the genome
... Karpen notes that one intensively studied and puzzling problem in chromosome biology will benefit enormously from the new findings: epigenetics -- the inheritance of traits and genetic information as controlled by proteins associated with the chromosomes, rather than by DNA sequence. Starting in the 1920...1 month post launch, Interactive Autism Network reports 13,000 participants
... such a large pool of family-provided data on this puzzling disorder. In only one month, IAN ( www.IANproject.org ) has achieved significant milestones: More than 13,000 registered participants Representation in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Northern Mariana I...Healthy reefs hit hardest by warmer temperatures
...ratures, coral disease defies predictability, with puzzling variations between years and locations. The international research team, led by UNC-Chapel Hill, tracked an infection called white syndrome in 48 reefs along more than 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Australias coastline for six years. While higher t...Salk scientist Ursula Bellugi elected to National Academy of Sciences
...he mysteries of the genetic basis of behavior.This puzzling genetically based disorder leaves language, facial recognition and social skills remarkably well preserved in contrast to severe inadequacy in other cognitive aptitudes. This disorder arises from a faulty recombination event during the development of...Spiteful soldiers and sex ratio conflict among parasitoid wasps
...w Darwinism can be used to explore the function of puzzling animal behaviors. ...Do you need sex to be a species?
...re youre hosting one of evolutionary biologys most puzzling enigmas: bdelloid rotifers. These microscopic invertebrateswidely distributed in mosses, creeks, ponds, and other freshwater repositoriesabandoned sex perhaps 100 million years ago, yet have apparently diverged into nearly 400 species. Bdelloids have...Some caterpillers just don't want to grow up
...son and mature only after two years. "The question puzzling us for some time," says Prof. Jeremy Thomas, director of the CEH in Dorset, "was to understand why so many caterpillars waste one year's time by delaying their development. From all what we know, which developmental pathway a caterpillar takes is det...Natural antibiotics yield secrets to atom-level imaging technique
...ed hundreds of AMPs in recent years, they're still puzzling over exactly how the peptides wipe out bacteria and other microbes. Unlike conventional antibiotics, which typically inhibit specific bacterial proteins, AMPs get downright physical with invaders, punching holes into their membranes. But they're sele...New bird, bat species revealed by extensive DNA barcode studies
...ry, enabling scientists to re-check and verify any puzzling results. The Smithsonian has barcoded an Ivory-billed woodpecker preserved from decades ago, "so if birdwatchers now find a fresh feather, we could strongly confirm the bird still survives," says Dr. Hebert. The researchers are looking to raise U...Researchers discover genetic cause for word-finding disease
...he journal. "We're dealing with one of the most puzzling phenomenons in neurology," said Mesulam, director of Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center. "Here is a disease that specifically attacks the language part of the brain on the left side. What makes it so specific? How does ...A simple feedback resistor switch keeps latent HIV from awakening
...eir model may also provide an explanation for some puzzling observations about Tat and HIV. Tat contains at least two acetylation sites that must both be deacetylated to turn off transcription. The authors propose this requirement may avoid making the off state so easy to reach that the virus remains dormant ...Abnormal proteins linked to schizophrenia found in body tissue
...lion Americans -- has schizophrenia, a complex and puzzling mental illness that can lead to delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking. It is one of the world's most common causes of psychosis, according to Bahn. Since it was first described more than 100 years ago, scientists have made little progress...Researchers determine why wolves not dispersing as fast as expected in Yellowstone
...d considered the wolves' slow dispersal to be more puzzling than problematic, which is good news, because Lewis believes the the slower-than-expected recolonization rate will continue. "As long as they are dispersing into unchartered territory, we expect the population to continue spreading at the slow rat...Modeling alien invasions: Plasticity may hold the key to prevention
...(a 40% lower chance of death). To understand this puzzling pattern, the authors constructed a "fitness surface," a graph plotting fitness as a function of the consumer's foraging strategy (the probability of eating in the presence or absence of the predator). Peaks on this fitness landscape correspond to ada...How Rett Syndrome mutation targets the brain
...d course of the disease. RTT has been especially puzzling because girls with the disorder develop normally through the first 6 to 18 months of life. But then they lose motor skills and speech, their heads cease normal growth, and they begin to show irregular breathing, obsessive hand-wringing, and autistic ...Mars Express and the story of water on Mars
...r been seen before," says Plaut, "But we are still puzzling out when and where the water on Mars was liquid." "The last MARSIS observations have been done on the South Pole," adds Giovanni Picardi, MARSIS Principal Investigator, from the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'. "The quality of the preliminary res...'Failed' experiment yields a biocontrol agent that doesn't trigger antibiotic resistance
...t for bacteriologist Marcin Filutowicz. As he was puzzling out why what should have been a routine procedure ...s inspiration came one morning in 1999 when he was puzzling over a failed experiment. A researcher in his lab had been trying to insert two different mutations...