Multidisciplinary collaborative research teams are essential in modern day science - climate scientists need to make more accurate numerical models and genome data in biology can be overwhelming and that means working with experts in other fields – but working as part of a team with experts outside a researcher's discipline can create its own problems so a group of researchers has published a commentary outlining a new field of study that could help resolve problems facing interdisciplinary research teams.
The new area of study, which they called the "science of team science," or SciTS (rhymes with sights), would focus on what works and what doesn't when teams of scientists are working together to accomplish an overarching research goal.
Micro air vehicles (MAVs) under development by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research are on track to evolve into robotic, insect-scale devices for monitoring and exploration of hazardous environments, like collapsed structures, caves and chemical spills.
Researchers say they have found 13 genes linked to human body mass.
Starting with DNA samples extracted from Icelanders' white blood cells banked in 1991 and 2002 by scientists there as part of the AGES–Reykjavik study of individuals in the general population, scientists used a customized, genome-wide profiling method dubbed CHARM (comprehensive high-throughput arrays for relative methylation) to look for regions that were the most variable, all chemically marked by DNA methylation.
The DNA methylation analyses revealed epigenetic fingerprints which are unique to each individual and remain stable over time and may also be associated with various common traits including risks for common, complex diseases such as cancer and other conditions.
