News Articles

Two manuscripts related to the ancestral wheat genomes of Triticum urartu and Aegilops tauschii  provide an unprecedented glimpse into the adaptation and domestication of wheat throughout the ages and shedding light on the biology of the world's primary staple crop. 

If 41 percent of the human genome is covered by longer DNA patents that often cover whole genes, and so many genes share similar sequences within their genetic structure that if all of the "short sequence" patents were allowed in aggregate they could account for 100 percent of the genome, then you don't own your genes.

Women may be terrible drivers but their abilities to make fair decisions when competing interests are at stake make them better corporate leaders, humanities scholars have found.

Gun control, a dormant issue for much of the 21st century, became a political hot-button again after the murder of children and adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  To effectively influence a country divided on the issue, elected officials must take a broad perspective rather than focusing on specific incidents, according to social psychologists from The University of Texas at Austin.
Psychologists Erin Burgoon and Marlone Henderson say public officials who are located out of state from their constituents and the incident are more likely to gain approval by framing their arguments around the abstract rather than specific incidents - it prompts people to consider the larger picture.

Whole genome sequencing has shown drug-resistant bacteria were transmitted from animals to humans in two disease outbreaks that occurred on different farms in Denmark.
Drug-resistant bacterial infections pose a significant challenge to public health and may have severe and sometimes fatal consequences. As the costs of whole genome sequencing methods continue to plummet and the speed of analysis increases, it becomes increasingly attractive for scientists to use whole genome sequencing to answer disease-related questions.

A team of Harvard scientists have succeeding in measuring the magnetic charge of single particles of matter and antimatter more accurately, by capturing individual protons and antiprotons in a "trap" created by electric and magnetic fields and precisely measuring the oscillations of each particle.
The researchers were able to measure the magnetism of a proton more than 1,000 times more accurately than an antiproton had been measured before. Similar tests with antiprotons produced a 680-fold increase in accuracy in the size of the magnet in an antiproton.    

Fluctuating wind speed and direction means turbines generate power inconsistently. Coupled with customers' varying power demand, the results is that many wind-farm managers end up wasting power-generation capacity and limiting the service life of turbines through active control, including fully stopping turbines, in order to damage to the power grid from spikes in supply.

Over 200 million years ago, a mass extinction wiped out an estimated 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species. It marked the end of the Triassic period and the onset of the Jurassic, clearing the way for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 135 million years. 
It's not clear what caused the end-Triassic extinction, although most scientists agree on a likely scenario; over a relatively short time period, massive volcanic eruptions from a large region known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) spewed forth huge amounts of lava and gas, including carbon dioxide, sulfur and methane. 

An innovative new process releases the energy in coal without burning, while capturing carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas that is the target of emissions reduction goals. How close is it to commercial use?  It has passed an important milestone - a successful 200-hour test on a sub-pilot scale version of the technology using two inexpensive but highly polluting forms of coal.   

Consumption of extra virgin olive oil has been linked to reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its benefit may lie in one component of olive oil that helps shuttle the abnormal AD proteins out of the brain.

A team of scientists has uncovered how some sea snakes have developed 'shrunken heads' - literally smaller physical features than their related species.
A large head would seem to be a welcome trait for sea snakes, which typically have to swallow large spiny fish. However, there are some circumstances where it wouldn't be very useful: sea snakes that feed by probing their front ends into narrow, sand eel burrows have evolved comically small heads. 

Hunting in Africa has halved the number of primates, according to estimates, but that is not the extend of the problem. Primates help with dispersal of seed and the reduction in primates has led to a reduction in the numbers of fruit trees, say biologists from Lund University in Sweden.
Felling and clear-cutting is not the only problem in Africa; the researchers studied rainforests in Nigeria, where the local population hunts for food, and found that the animals that are hunted include almost all mammals, including gorillas and chimpanzees and some small species of monkey.