http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Fritz Vollrath and colleagues from Oxford University have been analyzing the gooey material produced by tiny amphipods known as Crassicorophium bonellii, a small shrimp-like creature that produces the goo for use as a binding material in building its undersea home. The team has found, as explained in their study published in Naturwissenschaften, that the material is a sort of combination between the cement barnacles use to affix themselves to rocks and ship hulls, and spider silk; an interesting combination that if duplicated in an industrial process could lead to beneficial materials for use in medical implantation products. http://phys.org/news241257161.html Biology Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:53:13 EST news241257161 (PhysOrg.com) -- How have humans and mice changed since we diverged about 75 million years ago from a small, furry common ancestor? Apart from the obvious, of course. http://phys.org/news239437271.html Biology Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:24:40 EST news239437271 Researchers have built a map that shows how thousands of proteins in a fruit fly cell communicate with each other . This is the largest and most detailed protein interaction map of a multicellular organism, demonstrating how approximately 5000, or one third, of the proteins cooperate to keep life going. http://phys.org/news238939154.html Biology Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:59:49 EST news238939154 Scientists call it LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, but they don't know much about this great-grandparent of all living things. Many believe LUCA was little more than a crude assemblage of molecular parts, a chemical soup out of which evolution gradually constructed more complex forms. Some scientists still debate whether it was even a cell. http://phys.org/news237032859.html Biology Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:27:52 EST news237032859 A central element of the immune system has remained constant through more than 400 million years of evolution, according to new research at National Jewish Health. In the September 29, 2011, online version of the journal Immunity, the researchers report that T-cell receptors from mice continue to function even when pieces of shark, frog and trout receptors are substituted in. The function of the chimeric receptors depends on a few crucial amino acids, found also in humans, that help the T-cell receptor bind to MHC molecules presenting antigens. http://phys.org/news236587562.html Biology Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:46:22 EST news236587562 Maintaining fluid balance in the body is essential to survival, from the tiniest protozoa to the mightiest of mammals. By researching recent genomic data, Swiss researchers have found genetic evidence that links this intricate process to a turning point in evolution. http://phys.org/news235913177.html Biology Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:26:33 EST news235913177 CT scans of fossil skull fragments may help researchers settle a long-standing debate about the evolution of Africa's Australopithecus, a key ancestor of modern humans that died out some 1.4 million years ago. The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how CT scans shed new light on a classic evolutionary puzzle by providing crucial information about the internal anatomy of the face. http://phys.org/news235663136.html Other Sciences Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:01:08 EST news235663136 Researchers at the University of Dundee have made a significant breakthrough in understanding how human cells decode genes important for cell growth and multiplication. http://phys.org/news235379665.html Biology Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:15:00 EST news235379665 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria can generally be divided into two classes: those with just one membrane and those with two. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have used a powerful imaging technique to find what they believe may be the missing link between the two classes, as well as a plausible explanation for how the outer membrane may have arisen. http://phys.org/news234099677.html Biology Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:41:43 EST news234099677 (PhysOrg.com) -- Where do turtles belong on the evolutionary tree? For decades, the mystery has proven as tough to crack as the creatures' shells. With their body armor and retractable heads, turtles are such unique creatures that scientists have found it difficult to classify the strange animals in terms of their origins and closest relatives. http://phys.org/news230356377.html Biology Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:55:39 EST news230356377 Japan's many dialects originate in a migration of farmers from the Korean Peninsula some 2,200 years ago, a groundbreaking study borrowing the tools of evolutionary genetics reported Wednesday. http://phys.org/news223733246.html Other Sciences Wed, 04 May 2011 13:07:46 EST news223733246 It's been a puzzle why our two closest living primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, have widely different social traits, despite belonging to the same genus. Now, a comparative analysis of their brains shows neuroanatomical differences that may be responsible for these behaviors, from the aggression more typical of chimpanzees to the social tolerance of bonobos. http://phys.org/news221221873.html Biology Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:32:19 EST news221221873 Just as a company creates new, better versions of a product to increase market share and pad its bottom line, an international team of researchers led by Brown University has found that plants tinker with their design and performance before flooding the environment with new, improved versions of themselves. http://phys.org/news220615187.html Biology Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:00:19 EST news220615187 Bryozoans (moss animals) are a group of aquatic invertebrates that are found in great variety throughout the world, with well over 100 species in Sweden alone. Yet little is known about them. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have now studied Swedish bryozoan species using DNA techniques. http://phys.org/news220009882.html Biology Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:51:37 EST news220009882 With the genetics of so many organisms that have different traits yet to study, and with the techniques for gathering full sets of genetic information from organisms rapidly evolving, the "forest" of evolution can be easily lost to the "trees" of each individual case and detail. http://phys.org/news217782793.html Biology Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:13:30 EST news217782793 (PhysOrg.com) -- For Debashish Bhattacharya, the knowledge that half the oxygen on Earth is generated by algae through photosynthesis begs an important evolutionary question: How did algae come to be such ndustrious carbon-dioxide-consuming, sugar-and-oxygen producing factories? Did each of the two major kinds of algae, red and green, evolve their photosynthetic abilities separately? Or did they have a common ancestor? http://phys.org/news217002218.html Biology Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:23:58 EST news217002218 Eight small teeth found in a cave near Rosh Haain, central Israel, are raising big questions about the earliest existence of humans and where we may have originated, says Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam. Part of a team of international researchers led by Dr. Israel Hershovitz of Tel Aviv University, Qaum and his colleagues have been examining the dental discovery and recently published their joint findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. http://phys.org/news216469076.html Other Sciences Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:18:11 EST news216469076 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologists from the UCLA Division of Life Sciences have reported the first quantitative evidence for an evolutionary link between habitat and body size in turtles and tortoises. http://phys.org/news215851035.html Biology Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:38:09 EST news215851035 In a study published online today in Genome Research, in coordination with the publication of the orangutan genome sequence, scientists have presented the surprising finding that although orangutans and humans are more distantly related, some regions of our genomes are more alike than those of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. http://phys.org/news215270145.html Biology Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:15:59 EST news215270145 Listeria is an opportunistic pathogen that causes brain infection, blood poisoning, abortion and death for about 500 Americans and a number of farm animals each year. But while its harmful strains can be more lethal than Salmonella, it exists in benign species and strains as well. http://phys.org/news214036811.html Biology Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:40:39 EST news214036811 The first outbreak of plague occurred in China more than 2,600 years ago before reaching Europe via Central Asia's "Silk Road" trade route, according to a study of the disease's DNA signature. http://phys.org/news207809949.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Nov 2010 05:59:27 EST news207809949 (PhysOrg.com) -- If Charles Darwin were alive today, he would be shaking his head and asking, "Why is everybody always picking on me?" http://phys.org/news206972213.html Biology Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:30:01 EST news206972213 (PhysOrg.com) -- The theory that later Neanderthals might have been sufficiently advanced to fashion jewellery and tools similar to those of incoming modern humans has suffered a setback. A new radiocarbon dating study, led by Oxford University, has found that an archaeological site that uniquely links Neanderthal remains to sophisticated tools and jewellery may be partially mixed. http://phys.org/news206700849.html Other Sciences Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:55:45 EST news206700849 University of Florida researchers presenting new fossil evidence of an exceptionally well-preserved 55-million-year-old North American mammal have found it shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans. http://phys.org/news206030546.html Other Sciences Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:42:56 EST news206030546 (PhysOrg.com) -- In contrast to a toothed whale, which retains teeth that aid in capturing prey, a living baleen whale (e.g., blue whale, fin whale, humpback, bowhead) has lost its teeth and must sift zooplankton and small fish from ocean waters with baleen or whalebone, a sieve-like structure in the upper jaw that filters food from large mouthfuls of seawater. http://phys.org/news204998664.html Biology Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:04:41 EST news204998664 (PhysOrg.com) -- A beautifully preserved fossil identified as being of an early relative of the Asteraceae, or aster, family nearly 50 million years old suggests the plant family, which has now colonized much of the planet, originated in South America after Gondwana separated, forming South America, Australia, Africa, Antarctica and India. http://phys.org/news204880473.html Other Sciences Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:15:09 EST news204880473 Towering over the mightiest sequoia, nature’s tree of life holds the totality of the living world on its bountiful branches and limbs. Now, an innovative new application lets anyone with an iPhone tap into this astonishing abundance of life. Download it from Apple Store for free by using TimeTree as a search term. http://phys.org/news204219074.html Biology Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:50:01 EST news204219074 A study published Online First in The Lancet has identified a genetic mutation in the immune system which leads to chronic kidney disease in those affected. Furthermore, all the families affected so far are of Cypriot origin and the researchers believe this mutation represents a significant proportion of the kidney disease burden in Cyprus and in Cypriot families worldwide -- and that the mutation dates back to a single common ancestor at least 16 generations ago. http://phys.org/news201958192.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:30:01 EST news201958192 (PhysOrg.com) -- Professor Bernard Degnan from University of Queensland's School of Biological Sciences has led an international team of scientists to sequence the genome of the first marine animal from Australian waters. http://phys.org/news200123676.html Biology Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:03 EST news200123676 Scientists have successfully used "next generation sequencing" to identify mutations that may cause a rare and mysterious genetic disorder. The research, published by Cell Press on July 29th in the American Journal of Human Genetics, demonstrates that sequencing an affected individual's entire "exome"; that is, all of the genes that carry instructions for producing proteins, can reveal critical genes that when mutant, cause inherited disorders. http://phys.org/news199625767.html Medicine & Health Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:00:01 EST news199625767