With mutations, it turns out that context can be everything in determining whether or not they are beneficial to their evolutionary fate.

Biology - Evolution

Jun 13, 2013 5 / 5 (1) 1 |

Roughly six feet of DNA are packed into every human cell, so it is not surprising that our genetic material occasionally folds into odd shapes such as hairpins, crosses and clover leafs. But these structures ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jun 03, 2013 4.7 / 5 (3) 0 |

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has found how to boost or inhibit a gene-silencing mechanism that normally serves as a major controller of cells' activities. The discovery ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

May 09, 2013 3 / 5 (2) 0 |

Undergoing surgery, even a minor procedure, can be stressful for anyone. But for people who have malignant hyperthermia, a hereditary disease that's triggered by certain drugs used for general anesthesia, ...

Biology - Other

Apr 30, 2013 not rated yet 0

Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Mar 28, 2013 4.9 / 5 (7) 0 |

(Phys.org) —A study on human mitochondrial DNA has led to a new estimate of the time at which humans first began to migrate out of Africa, which was much later than previously thought.

Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils

Mar 22, 2013 4.7 / 5 (12) 0 |

Buried for 100,000 years at Xujiayao in the Nihewan Basin of northern China, the recovered skull pieces of an early human exhibit a now-rare congenital deformation that indicates inbreeding might well have ...

Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils

Mar 18, 2013 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

For deer mice living in the Nebraska Sandhills, color can literally be the difference between life and death.

Biology - Evolution

Mar 14, 2013 4.5 / 5 (2) 3 |

Attaching chains of the small molecule ADP-ribose to proteins is important for a cell's survival and the repair of DNA damage, making this process a promising target for the development of new cancer drugs. Researchers have ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Mar 12, 2013 5 / 5 (1) 0

(AP)—When Superstorm Sandy struck a New York hospital four months ago, hundreds of patients were safely evacuated, but mice in a nearby research building were not so lucky.

Biology - Other

Mar 06, 2013 not rated yet 0

Four billion years ago, soon after the planet cooled enough for life to begin, primordial cells may have replicated and divided without protein machinery or cell walls, relying instead on just a flimsy lipid membrane. New ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Feb 28, 2013 4.5 / 5 (2) 0 |

Dr John Stewart has made important contributions to a growing body of work that shows how the evolution of ecosystems has to be taken into account when speculating between different geological eras. Go back ...

Biology - Evolution

Feb 26, 2013 5 / 5 (2) 0

A genetically mosaic Eucalyptus tree is able to control which leaves are saved from predation because of alterations in its genes, finds an study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Plant Bi ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 19, 2013 5 / 5 (4) 0 |

Understanding how and why diversification occurs is important for understanding why there are so many species on Earth. In a new study published on 19 February in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers show that s ...

Biology - Evolution

Feb 19, 2013 3.6 / 5 (12) 199 |

(Phys.org)—Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. In more than 50 percent of affected patients a particular mutation plays an important role. As the life span of the patients carrying ...

Nanotechnology - Bio & Medicine

Feb 15, 2013 5 / 5 (1) 0 |