Scientists have discovered that mutations in the gene DRAM2 cause a new type of late-onset inherited blindness. 

The article describes individuals from five families with a variety of DRAM2 mutations, all of which lead to loss of central vision beginning at age 30-40. Peripheral vision loss is also described in older individuals. The light-sensing rear surface of the eye (the retina) relays visual information to the brain. It's a complex layered structure, with each layer of cells carrying out clearly defined functions. 

A new paper demonstrates how XML markup using GoldenGATE can address the challenges presented by unstructured legacy data, like those presented in the widely used PDF format. 

The paper demonstrates how structured primary biodiversity data can be extracted from such legacy sources and aggregated with and jointly queried with data from other Darwin Core-compatible sources, to present a visualization of these data that can communicate key information contained in biodiversity literature.

Recently, Sheri Lederman, a 4^th grade

We may think that not wanting to live around relatives is a modern trait, but our closest anthropological relatives, modern day hunter-gatherers, choose to not live among family members as much as we think. That goes for when males and females have the choice.

Researchers have discovered that a brain protein plays a key role in controlling binge drinking, defined as drinking to the point of intoxication. They found that deleting the gene for this protein in mice ramped up alcohol consumption and prevented the brain from signaling the rewarding properties of alcohol. 

The goal of the new study was to identify the role of a member of the "G protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium channel" (GIRK) family in the behavioral and cellular responses to alcohol.

Sometimes one food fallacy can conflict with another, and so you must choose - if you like paying over 240 percent more for a gluten-free label and 200 percent more for a probiotics label, you may have to pick between them. 

The theme of fetishism and disability came up in ribald and raunchy conversation during the Talking Dirty session at the Unlimited festival held at London’s Southbank Centre in September 2014.

This is a question which was asked recently on quora: Is it possible to have a moon so reflective that when it reflects the light of the sun, it will be as if it is daylight? Anyway it is a rather fun problem, easy to work out by "back of the envelope calculations", and the answer takes us to some interesting areas of planetary physics.

Your genes may influence how sensitive you are to emotional information, according to a new study which found that carriers of a certain genetic variation perceived positive and negative images more vividly, and had heightened activity in certain brain regions.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein recently declared war on homemade soap in order to placate her corporate donors, so it is no surprise the public holds her in rather poor regard. Yet it is not just her, U.S. Congress approval ratings are at record lows across the board and a new study speculates that this may be partly due to a decline in the use of warm, agreeable language in the House.

The analysis found that the use of prosocial words -- language such as cooperate or contribute -- by lawmakers predicts public approval of Congress six months later.