News Articles

Natural selection – the force that drives evolution – acts not only on whole organisms and individual genes, but also on gene networks, according to a new study appearing in Nature this week.The finding suggests that natural selection is both more powerful and more complex than scientists recognized.

Biologists have struggled for many years to explain how it is possible that some people who carry a mutated gene don't express the trait or condition associated with the mutation. This common but poorly understood phenomenon, known as incomplete penetrance,  may be partially due to environmental factors and the influence of other genes, but scientists say other forces are likely at work here as well. The authors of a new study in Nature say that some cases of incomplete penetrance may be controlled by random fluctuations in gene expression.In a study of intestinal development of C. elegans, a small worm, the team was able to pinpoint specific fluctuations that appear to determine whether the mutant trait is expressed or not.

the Earth's natural biogeochemical cycles must be better understood before Geoengineering efforts are undertaken as a means to help mitigate climate change, according to two studies in Nature Geoscience which discuss what drove large-scale changes to the carbon cycle nearly 100 million years ago. Both research teams conclude that a massive amount of volcanic activity introduced carbon dioxide and sulfur into the atmosphere, which in turn had a significant impact on the carbon cycle, oxygen levels in the oceans and marine plants and animals.

 A high-fat, low-carb diet used to control multiple, daily and severe seizures in current and former patients is not only effective, but  also appears to have no long-lasting side effects, say scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. The findings are detailed online in Epilepsia.

There's a reason attractive human faces are used to market just about everything consumers purchase today – when people see pretty faces, their brains begin computing how much the experience is worth. New brain-imaging research shows it's even possible to predict how much people might be willing to pay to see a particular face. Scientists say the findings may allow them to predict future purchases of different market segments. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that as participants were watching a sequence of faces, their brains were simultaneously evaluating those faces in two distinct ways: for the quality of the viewing experience and for what they would trade to see the face again.

New images from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showing where supernova remnants emit radiation a billion times more energetic than visible light have brought astronomers a step closer to understanding the source of cosmic rays.Cosmic rays consist mainly of protons that move through space at nearly the speed of light. In their journey across the galaxy, the particles are deflected by magnetic fields, which scrambles their paths and masks their origins.

Subtropical waters are reaching Greenland's glaciers and likely triggering an acceleration of ice loss, reports a team of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Maine."This is the first time we've seen waters this warm in any of the fjords in Greenland," says Fiamma Straneo, a physical oceanographer from the WHOI. "The subtropical waters are flowing through the fjord very quickly, so they can transport heat and drive melting at the end of the glacier."While melting due to warming air temperatures is a known event, scientists are just beginning to learn more about the ocean's impact — in particular, the influence of currents — on the ice sheet.

Biologists have struggled for many years to comprehend the relationships among the major groups of arthropods. Now, a team of researchers has completed new analysis of the evolutionary relationships among arthropods, which may answer many questions that defied previous attempts to unravel how these creatures were connected. The study will appear in Nature later this month.

The way celebrity entrepreneurs are depicted by the media doesn't illustrate what it's really like to start up and run businesses, according to a survey of small business owners and business advisers from Nottingham University Business School.For the Q4 2009 editions of the UK Business Barometer (UKBB) and UK Business Advisers Barometer (UKBAB) surveys, three questions about the media's portrayal of enterprise and entrepreneurs were added and the results reveal some frustration from people running small businesses that media portrayals don't match their experiences and the challenges they face.

Scientists have known for more than a decade that galaxies in the early universe produced many more stars than galaxies today. But what has remained unknown is why. Now, researchers writing in a recent issue of Nature say they may have an explanation for this astronomical mystery. "[T]hree to five billion years after the Big Bang...galaxies churned out new stars at a much faster rate than they do now," said Michael Cooper, a postdoctoral Spitzer fellow at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.

Badly fitting condoms reduce sexual pleasure for both partners and may discourage men from using protection altogether, suggests a study published in Sexually Transmitted Infections.The findings are based on a survey of 436 men between the ages of 18 and 67, all of whom were recruited via newspaper ads and a blog on the website of a condom sales company. Participants completed a questionnaire on the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction website about the fit of condom they had most recently used for penetrative sex with a female partner.

A new study by the Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center (OTRC) shows that concentrations of secondhand tobacco smoke inhaled in smoking rooms of restaurants and bars are exceptionally high and hazardous to health. The authors of the report say the findings justify making all public places smoke free - or ignoring private property rights and treating adults like helpless children. According to the study, the average particulate level measured in restaurant smoking rooms was beyond the hazardous extreme based on levels established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The level found in bars was even worse.