The toughest organisms on Earth, called extremophiles, can survive extreme conditions like extreme dryness (desiccation), extreme cold, space vacuum, acid, or even high-level radiation. So far, the toughest of all seems to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 22, 2020
2
407
It may sound like something out of a science fiction B-movie, but with the help of a mutant tomato, researchers from Japan have discovered that the development process of fruit rewires their central metabolism pathway.
Biotechnology
Sep 10, 2020
0
87
The ability for humans to digest milk as adults has altered our dietary habits and societies for centuries. But when and how that ability—known as lactase persistence or lactose tolerance—occurred and became established ...
Evolution
Sep 3, 2020
0
124
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have found that harmful mutations accumulating in the fire ant social chromosome are causing its breakdown.
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2020
0
135
A novel machine learning model developed by researchers at Michigan State University suggests that mutations to the SARS-CoV-2 genome have made the virus more infectious.
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 20, 2020
1
3215
In recent years, a non-invasive biopsy method called liquid biopsy has shown promise as a potential alternative to tissue biopsy, currently the gold standard in cancer detection and diagnosis. A tissue biopsy sample—traditionally ...
Bio & Medicine
Aug 18, 2020
0
85
The extinction of prehistoric megafauna like the woolly mammoth, cave lion, and woolly rhinoceros at the end of the last ice age has often been attributed to the spread of early humans across the globe. Although overhunting ...
Archaeology
Aug 13, 2020
6
1842
All life is subject to evolution in the form of mutations that change the DNA sequence of an organism's offspring, after which natural selection allows the 'fittest' mutants to survive and pass on their genes to future generations. ...
Evolution
Aug 10, 2020
0
204
Inside every cell lies a genome—a full set of DNA that contains the instructions for building an organism. Across the biological world, genomes show a staggering diversity in size. For example, the genome of the Japanese ...
Evolution
Aug 6, 2020
0
34
Staphylococcus aureus—also known as "golden staph"—has the ability to develop in highly variable environmental conditions (on the skin, in the nose, on sterile surfaces, and so forth). Its great adaptability depends on ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 3, 2020
0
149
