Researchers have developed and used a new technique to connect the dots in the genomic puzzle. Just as dots have to be connected to visualize a full picture, the researchers connected regulatory elements called promoters and enhancers and showed their physical interactions over long distances within the mouse and human genomes.

The ability to map promoter-enhancer interactions in the human genome has huge potential in understanding the genetic basis of disease.

In a study of how people interacted with avatars in World of Warcraft, women received less help from fellow players than men when they operated an unattractive avatar - even less than when they used a male avatar, according to a paper in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

This matches beliefs about how appearance stereotypes affect men and women in the real world. Some women believe they are more likely to suffer negative consequences based on their appearance than men are. 

A new soybean with significantly reduced levels of three key proteins responsible for both its allergenic and anti-nutritional effects has been created. Soybean is a major ingredient in many infant formulas, processed foods and livestock feed used for agriculture.

Perhaps Lance Armstrong needs to get his Tour de France victories back - a new study shows that winning all of those may not have been because of performance-enhancing drugs, it may have been spite of them, which would make his successes all that more amazing.

Two ocean hot spots have been linked to the hottest summers on record for the central United States, in 1934 and 1936. Those two summers and the "Dust Bowl" that saw farming devastated were accompanied by the worst drought in America of the last 1,000 years.

In 1934, giant dust storms and drought covered more than 75 percent of the country and affected 27 states severely. Silt from storms even covered the decks of ships 200 miles off the east coast. 

In biology class you learned that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the main component of our genetic material and it is formed by combining four parts: A, C, G and T (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine), called bases of DNA. These bases combine in thousands of possible sequences to provide the genetic variability that enables the wealth of aspects and functions of living beings.

In the early 1980s, the four "classic" bases of DNA sort of got a fifth - methyl-cytosine (mC), derived from cytosine, which was later linked to epigenetic mechanisms because it is able to switch genes on or off depending on the physiological needs of each tissue.