Endurance running may be key to evolution of human body form
...distinctive human body form that we know today. So say anthropologists at Harvard University and the University of Utah, who report on the evolution of traits such as a small ridge at the base of our skulls, shoulders decoupled from our heads, an extensive series of springy tendons along the back of our ...How receptors govern inflammatory pain
...oduce chronic pain triggered by inflammation. They say that their findings could aid in developing new drugs to treat such chronic pain, which is distinct from the relatively short-lived pain from injury, which fades as the injury heals. In their experiments, Bettina Hartmann and her colleagues studied r......ly arid environment of the Atacama's core. She can say they are unusual. She said, "As a microbiologist, I am interested in how these microbial communities evolve and respond. Can we discover new microbial activities in such extreme environments? Are those activities something we can exploit?...Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...te some harmful bacteria in fermented dry sausages say Canadian researchers. Their findings appear in th... be afforded by the subsequent digestive process," say the researchers. "This new information will be very valuable in refining our assessment of the risk...New fossil may be closest yet to ancestor of all great apes
...ging. "Paleontologists in Spain say 'you don't find a good fossil, the good fossil finds you,'" Moy-Sol said....Researchers probe marine mysteries off the Alaskan coast
...eading cause of the 1946 event, but the scientists say much more investigation is needed to pinpoint the cause due to the new findings. The ROV and sonar explorations revealed a complex set of environments on the Alaskan margin, including deep canyons, steep scarps (walls), sandy slopes and an unus...UGA researchers explain recent decline in Georgia's blue crab population
...ia Sea Grant Program at the University of Georgia, say their research shows that Georgia's recent drought, working in conjunction with an opportunistic parasite, is ultimately to blame for the decline in blue crab numbers. Prior to the recent drought, the 45-year average for blue crab landings in the st...Census of Marine Life - Discoveries and Highlights 2004: Scientists add 4m+ records, 13,000 species
...nd line with no end in sight. And the researchers say such rates are higher in southern and Pacific oceans where research has been less intensive. "We have barely skimmed the surface," says Dr. J. Frederick Grassle of Rutgers University, who directs the OBIS Secretariat and chairs the Census'...Study: Pigeons can sense the Earth's magnetic field; ability might allow them to return home
...havioral experiments in the laboratory, scientists say they have shown unequivocally for the first time t...tory is impaired by various treatments, we can now say that the pigeon's magnetic sense is located in the nasal region and is most likely magnetite-based,"...Finding could improve safety of stem cell transplants
... the safety and efficacy of stem cell transplants, say researchers at the Medical College of Georgia and ...ld later form tumors called teratomas, researchers say in the Nov. 22 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. "The body has amazing mechanisms to elimin...Differences in gene usage dramatically change bacteria's 'lifestyles'
... to survive in different environments. Researchers say the finding shows that understanding such changes will likely help development of new treatments for disease-causing microorganisms. "These differences in gene usage are harder to look for, but we're not going to understand these organisms fully unl...Citrus shows promise for certain childhood cancer
...e every day," Harris noted, "almost everyone would say for vitamin C. That's true, but we also need to learn two new words flavonoids and limonoids." Harris explained that flavonoids and limonoids nutrient-packed pigments that give color and taste to fruit may work against cancer in...US trees affected by growing number of health concerns
...ng the overall vitality of North American forests, say plant pathologists with The American Phytopatholog...nt species of Phytophthora, but plant pathologists say the disease has a number of similarities to SOD. WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST White pine b...Russia- wide tiger count begins
...on on the status of the prey base, we simply can't say with any certainty what the status of the tiger population is, or what the future holds," said Alexei Surovy, lead specialist of the Provincial Wildlife Management Department. Formerly, under the Soviet system, a complex and well-regulated army of bi...UCSD biologists identify gene in corn plants that may have paved way for development of maize
...e stalk-like modern maize. The researchers say the presence of numerous variants of this gene in teosinte, but only one variant of the gene in all inbred varieties of modern maize, provides tantalizing evidence that Mesoamerican crop breeders most likely used this trait in combination with a smal...UT Southwestern researchers trace how virus that causes AIDS spreads following oral exposure
...y infection in the monkey model, which researchers say they hope will lead to a future vaccine. The animal studies were conducted at the California National Primate Center at the University of California, Davis in collaboration with Dr. Marta Marthas. "Our goal is to assist in the design of vaccines by p...Prediction of gene function in mammals
...g simple tissue specificity or tissue restriction" say the authors. This new, quick, high-throughput method for predicting mammalian gene function merely from the pattern of RNA expression could make tissue specificity based predictions a thing of the past and revolutionize the field of functional genomi...Chimpanzee brains are asymmetrical in key areas and their handedness reflects it
...irms that handedness goes way back. Its findings, say the authors, "suggest that the neurobiological basis for handedness evolved as early as five million years ago and emerged independent of systems associated with language and speech." The findings mesh with other recent human evidence that hand...Stanford study links obesity to hormonal changes from lack of sleep
...f. - The less you sleep, the more you may gain. So say Stanford University School of Medicine researchers, who found in a recent study that sleep loss leads to higher levels of a hormone that triggers appetite, lower levels of a hormone that tells your body it's full and an increased body mass index. The...