For centuries, naturalists have puzzled over what might constitute the head of a sea star, commonly called a "starfish." When looking at a worm, or a fish, it's clear which end is the head and which is the tail. But with ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 1, 2023
7
2586
Studies of human populations and animal models suggest that a father's experiences such as diet or environmental stress can influence the health and development of his descendants. How these effects are transmitted across ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 17, 2018
2
10642
In a study published last month in mSystems, researchers from Osaka University revealed that the interaction between two common types of oral bacteria leads to the production of a chemical compound that is a major cause of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 15, 2024
0
287
Cells will ramp up gene expression in response to physical forces alone, a new study finds. Gene activation, the first step of protein production, starts less than one millisecond after a cell is stretched—hundreds of times ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 1, 2020
0
1462
A simple roadside weed may hold the key to understanding and predicting DNA mutation, according to new research from University of California, Davis, and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany.
Evolution
Jan 12, 2022
4
3388
Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms' DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a ...
Biotechnology
Apr 9, 2021
12
1904
Despite the sheer number of genes that each human cell contains, these so-called "coding" DNA sequences comprise just 1% of our entire genome. The remaining 99% is made up of "non-coding" DNA—which, unlike coding DNA, does ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 9, 2022
2
268
Researchers have developed a new enhanced DNA imaging technique that can probe the structure of individual DNA strands at the nanoscale. Since DNA is at the root of many disease processes, the technique could help scientists ...
Nanophysics
Jun 17, 2016
0
2607
A new study is the first to identify how human brains grow much larger, with three times as many neurons, compared with chimpanzee and gorilla brains. The study, led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory ...
Evolution
Mar 24, 2021
1
691
A longstanding mystery in science is how the over 85 billion individual neurons work together to form a network that forms the basis of who we are—every human thought, emotion and behavior.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 12, 2023
0
756
