Is virgin birth possible? Yes (unless you are a mammal)

Christmas seems an appropriate time to ask whether it's biologically possible to have a virgin birth. And you may be surprised to hear that it is possible – just not for humans, or any other mammals.

Team discovers how a protein finds its way

(Phys.org) —Proteins, the workhorses of the body, can have more than one function, but they often need to be very specific in their action or they create cellular havoc, possibly leading to disease.

How plants quickly adapt to shifting environmental conditions

Scientists—and gardeners—have long known that plants grow taller and flower sooner when they are shaded by close-growing neighbors. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Salk Institute have shown the detailed inner ...

Researchers discover molecular light switch in photoreceptor cells

How our eyes detect and respond to changes in light intensity is determined by specialized cells in the eye called photoreceptors. In addition to converting light into electrical signals, effectively allowing us to see, rod-shaped ...

Preventing the spread of repression

Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have identified a novel and unexpected regulatory activity of RNA at the edge of inactive chromosomal regions. In their publication in Nature Structural ...

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