Biology

One of the most pivotal steps in evolution-the transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms-may not have required as much retooling as commonly believed, found a globe-spanning collaboration of scientists led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute.

For more than a century, neuroscientists believed that the brains of humans and other mammals differed from the brains of other animals, such as birds (and so were presumably better). This belief was based, in part, upon the readily evident physical structure of the neocortex, the region of the brain responsible for complex cognitive behaviors.

Not keen on old age?  Most people aren't. No matter what you do to prevent the signs of it however, there is no escaping it. While most theories on aging to date emphasize the effects of stress, radiation, oxidation or caloric intake as major factors that control human lifespan by damaging DNA, a new theory states that within the DNA itself, are archaic retroviruses, much like HIV, which can damage DNA, and therefore possibly control the...

Insects may have tiny brains the size of a pinhead, but the latest research from the University of Adelaide shows just how clever they really are. For the first time, researchers from the University’s Discipline of Physiology have worked out how insects judge the speed of moving objects.

How is it that some people who apparently freeze to death, with no heart rate or respiration for extended periods, can be brought back to life with no long-term negative health consequences? New findings from the laboratory of cell biologist Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, may help explain the mechanics behind this widely documented phenomenon.

It's Jurassic Park without the amber or man-eating dinosaurs ... well, no, not really ... but it is still kinda cool.A team of international researchers has brought the primary component of mammoth blood back to life using ancient DNA preserved in bones from Siberian specimens 25,000 to 43,000 years old.

Punk penguins have a new reason to rock out and celebrate.  The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced an agreement to create a new marine-protected area in Argentina that will safeguard one of the country’s most unique seascapes for both people and wildlife—including the only colony of Southern rockhopper penguins on continental Argentina’s 3,000-mile coast. Located to the south of Puerto Deseado in the province of Santa Cruz, Parque Marino Isla Pingüino – which translates to “Penguin Island Marine...

Many people ask themselves -- how did life begin ... where did we come from? Scientists take this one step further and ask -- how did non-living molecules come together in that primordial ooze to form the polymers of life? Yea, probably not exactly the type of question most would think to ask, but it is pertinent all the same. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that small molecules could have acted as...

And you thought they were just stingy little bug-aholics. A study from the University of Haifa reveals bees prefer nectar with small amounts of nicotine and caffeine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all. "This could be an evolutionary development intended, as in humans, to make the bee addicted," states Prof. Ido Izhaki, one of the researchers who conducted the study. Flower nectar is primarily comprised of sugars, which provide energy for the potential pollinators. But the floral nectar...

Faster than a growing wheat grain, more powerful than a third generation synchrotron, and able to leap diet deficiency in a single bound ... it's Healthy Flour! Pioneering research combining plant breeding and high-intensity x-rays is being used by scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to explore the possibility of developing wheat which could be used to make potentially life-saving mineral enriched flour. The research is highlighted in the latest issue...