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| Biology articles |
Trained wasps may be used to detect bombs, bugs, bodies and more
An unusual device that uses trained wasps, rather than trained dogs, to detect specific chemical odors could one day be used to find hidden explosives, plant diseases, illegal drugs, cancer and even buried bodies, according to a joint study by researchers at the University of Georgia and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The dual life of mother-of-pearl
Like a case on a television show called Unsolved Mysteries, North Dakota State University researchers Kalpana S. Katti, Ph.D., and Dinesh R. Katti, Ph.D., are intrigued by a substance whose beauty belies its strength. What intrigues the Kattis is the structure nature painstakingly builds on the inside of abalone shells. The pearly, white layer is often used to make jewelry. Known as nacre (pronounced nay' ker) to scientists, astute jewelry buyers know the iridescent gleam as mother-of-pearl.
Natural selection has strongly influenced recent human evolution
The most detailed analysis to date of how humans differ from one another at the DNA level shows strong evidence that natural selection has shaped the recent evolution of our species, according to researchers from Cornell University, Celera Genomics and Celera Diagnostics.
Researchers redesign life for mars and beyond
Researchers at North Carolina State University are looking deep under water for clues on how to redesign plants for life deep in outer space.
DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations
Researchers at Stanford University have created a larger-than-normal DNA molecule that is copied almost as efficiently as natural DNA.
Scientists identifiy a gene responsible for facial diversity
Researchers at the Forsyth Institute have discovered that the genes that influence the jaws of cichlid fish, tropical freshwater fish renowned for head shape diversity, offer insight into overall vertebrate diversity.
Mice have a gift for song
The biology of song and song learning comes mostly from research on songbirds, and shares important characteristics with human language. Song commonly figures in courtship rituals among birds, insects, and frogs, but aside from humans, such behavior in mammals had been restricted to whales and bats. And none of these organisms can be studied with genetic tools. In a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Timothy E. Holy and Zhongsheng Guo at the Washington University School of Medicine show that mice can sing too; and this could open whole new avenues of research into the genetic contributions to song and song learning.
Monkey math machinery is like humans'
Monkeys have a semantic perception of numbers that is like humans' and which is independent of language, Duke University cognitive neuroscientists have discovered. They said their findings demonstrate that the neural mechanism underlying numerical perception is evolutionarily primitive.
Bees solve complex colour puzzles
Bees have a much more sophisticated visual system than previously thought, according to a new UCL (University College London) study in which bees were able to solve complicated colour puzzles.
Biologists discover new pathway into cells
Researchers at Oregon State University have made a major discovery in basic plant biology that may set the stage for profound advances in plant genetics or biotechnology.
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Study provides insight into cellular defenses against genetic mutation
With their latest discovery, researchers have significantly advanced the understanding of how human cells protect themselves from constant and potentially destructive changes in gene expression. According to an article published in this month's Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the research is important because the protection itself can contribute to disease, and the ability to side-step it may lead to new treatments for hundreds of genetic disorders.
International consortium completes map of human genetic variation
The International HapMap Consortium has published a comprehensive catalog of human genetic variation, a landmark achievement that is already accelerating the search for genes involved in common diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Social learning in noncolonial insects?
Social learning and use of social information in general have been understood to be largely restricted to vertebrates. Among insects, social learning or processes akin to it have been reported only in colonial species (bees, ants, termites), suggesting that highly structured social organizations may have assisted the evolution of social learning.
Clay material may have acted as 'primordial womb' for first organic molecules
Arizona State University geochemist Lynda Williams and her colleagues have discovered that certain clay minerals under conditions at the bottom of the ocean may have acted as incubators for the first organic molecules on Earth.
Can anthrax be controlled?
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin discovered why lung, but not skin, anthrax infections are lethal. As reported in the newest issue of PloS Pathogen (November 2005) Neutrophils, a form of white blood cells, play a key role in anthrax infections.
Sleeping sickness parasite shows how cells divide their insides
Researchers at Yale have brought to light a mechanism that regulates the way an internal organelle, the Golgi apparatus, duplicates as cells prepare to divide, according to a report in Science Express.
Microbes in marine sediments react to temperature changes
Marine scientists from the University of Georgia have shown for the first time that temperature affects the biological activity of microbes that degrade organic carbon in marine sediments. Warming global temperatures could therefore cause shifts in the balance of organic carbon that is recycled into the atmosphere or buried in sediments that serve as reservoirs for the substance.
Scientists use stem cells to grow cartilage
Scientists from Imperial College London have successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into cartilage cells, offering encouragement that replacement cartilage could one day be grown for transplantation.
'Sex' helps bacteria cope with a changing world
Bacteria feel pressures to evolve antibiotic resistance and other new abilities in response to a changing environment, and they react by 'stealing' genetic information from other better-adapted types of bacteria, according to research published in Nature Genetics.
Bacteria which sense the Earth's magnetic field
Max Planck researchers uncover how a nanoscale 'compass' inside bacteria orients them to the Earth's magnetic field.
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| Quotes | By convention!
cussed Tom airily.
Cmon Scully... Itll be a nice trip through the woods-Fox Mulder
But what ... is it good for?
Engineer at IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
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