Genetics & Molecular Biology

Barcoding- Cracking The Species Code For Plants

Plants are obviously essential to our survival and that of most other animals on earth but it is easy to overlook how they have become discretely embedded into our everyday lives; plants provide us with food, medicines, and raw materials used by our indust ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2009 - 10:45am

Ribosome- 'Universal' Molecular Machine May Hold Clues To Origin Of Life

A major mystery about the origins of life may be resolved if a new hypothesis holds up, says  a study published in Nature.   Two Université de Montréal scientists have proposed a new idea for how a 'universal molecular machine', the ribosome, mig ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2009 - 11:17am

Implications of The Sexual Attraction Exception

There was a study done over a decade ago by Claud Wedekind in which 44 men wore the same T-shirt for three days, refraining refrained from deodorants and scented soaps so they wouldn’t interfere with their smell.  Thereafter women sniffed the shirts and in ...

Blog Post - James Hawkins - Apr 21 2010 - 8:28am

Discovery? Genetic Pathway Why Human Teeth Form In A Single Row

A system of opposing genetic forces determines why mammals develop a single row of teeth, while sharks sport several, according to a study published today in the journal Science. When completely understood, the genetic program described in the study may he ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 26 2009 - 4:34pm

The Yeast Pathway To Understanding Parkinson's Disease

Teams of scientists from Australia and the United States have used yeast and mammalian cells to discover a connection between genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson's disease.  Yeasts are single cell organisms, used widely in biological researc ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2009 - 3:46pm

Estrogen Reason Why Women Store Fat More Efficiently Than Men

Women can take pride that they are more efficient than men in many ways, including one that is not so great; storing fat. It's a paradox women have discussed for generations – their apparent ability to store fat more efficiently than men, despite eati ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 10:51am

Pheromones- Some Females Can Smell Reproductive Fitness And Even Ancestry In Males

A female moth selects a mate based on the scent of his pheromones. An analysis of the pheromones used by the European Corn Borer (ECB, Ostrinia nubilalis) shows that females can discern a male's ancestry, age and possibly reproductive fitness from the ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 9:25pm

Resurrection In Evolution: IRGM Gene's Death And Rebirth

Researchers have discovered that a long-defunct gene was resurrected during the course of human evolution. This is believed to be the first evidence of a doomed gene – infection-fighting human IRGM – making a comeback in the human/great ape lineage. The tr ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2009 - 10:25pm

Complex Trait Prediction- Eye Color From DNA Technique Is 90 Percent Accurate

You might think that predicting eye color is easy because we all learned in high school about recessive genes and eye color is a great example of those.    But it isn't easy.  In fact, human eye color, which is determined by the extent and type of pig ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 9 2009 - 12:08pm

Jurassic Park In A Swiss Lake

It makes sense that ecological changes caused by humans affect natural biodiversity and, in some cases, can even cause permanent displacement of a species. Unless science revives it. Researchers from Eawag and from two German universities (Frankfurt and Ko ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2009 - 11:58am