A University of Exeter scientist has helped develop an innovative mathematical model for exploring why some individuals evolve to be genetically programmed to be nice, while others stay nasty.

Dr Sasha Dall, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology, and a team of international colleagues have designed a new mathematical framework for examining social behaviour in a range of different species that will help advance our understanding of the evolution of sociality.

One of the first clues pathologists look for in tissue from a newly diagnosed breast cancer patient is the estrogen receptor, a nuclear protein that converts hormonal messages in the bloodstream into instructions for the cell about how to behave. They also look for the presence of progesterone receptors, primarily to confirm that the estrogen receptor is active.

In the June 24 issue of Science Advances, however, researchers radically upgrade the significance of the progesterone receptor. They show that when exposed to estrogens and progestins, these receptor proteins interact with different sets of binding sites in the cell's chromosomes, with the progesterone receptor dramatically altering how estrogen receptors interact with the cell's DNA.

The elephantnose fish explores objects in its surroundings by using its eyes or its electrical sense - sometimes both together. Zoologists at the University of Bonn and a colleague from Oxford have now found out how complex the processing of these sensory impressions is. With its tiny brain, the fish achieves performance comparable to that of humans or mammals. The advance results have been published online in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" (PNAS). The print issue will appear soon.

International researchers centered at Nagoya University use a highly sensitive technique to identify significantly more DNA sequence repeats in patients with schizophrenia than in control individuals, and outline a possible link between genome instability and disease.

Washington, DC - June 24, 2016 - Bacteria that have the potential to abet breast cancer are present in the breasts of cancer patients, while beneficial bacteria are more abundant in healthy breasts, where they may actually be protecting women from cancer, according to Gregor Reid, PhD, and his collaborators. These findings may lead ultimately to the use of probiotics to protect women against breast cancer. The research is published in the ahead of print June 24 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Roughly 90 percent of the biggest black holes are dormant, meaning that they are not actively devouring matter and therefore not giving off any light or other radiation.

Yet dormant is not dead, so when a star wanders too close, the ensuing feeding frenzy - a tidal disruption event - sets off a spectacular fireworks show.