A tiny single-celled organism that plays a key role in the carbon cycle of cold-water oceans may be a lot smarter than scientists had suspected.

Researchers report the first evidence that a common species of saltwater algae – also known as phytoplankton – can change form to protect itself against attack by predators that have very different feeding habits. To boost its survival chances, Phaeocystis globosa will enhance or suppress the formation of colonies based on whether nearby grazers prefer eating large or small particles.

If you have bad kids, it may not be your fault.

Well, it could still be your fault, because it's biology and genetics is part of biology, but you can't control genetics. At least you then you wouldn't have to feel guilty about being a lousy parent.

Either way there's a real effort on to blame everything except the actual delinquent kids and a new study in Psychological Science advances that cause. Rutgers University psychologist Daniel Hart and colleagues write that they can use a a Skin Conductance Response (SCR) test, along with some family history, to predict delinquency.

Great news for imbibers. A new study suggests that alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis and more of it is better than less. The study says three glasses of wine, for example, has positive effects but 10 glasses a week is even better.

Mixotrophs are species of algae that act as "plants" when they produce their own food and as “animals” when they eat other plants.

Wanderson Carvalho from the University of Kalmar is studying these algae to understand their potential impact on the environment, the economy and public health issues.

In terrestrial ecosystems, plants are the only living beings capable of producing their own food, thanks to the chlorophyll and other pigments which can capture sunlight energy. With this energy and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus) from land and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere they produce organic material.

Plants are thus producers and belong to the base of the food chain.

Is it possible to scientifically measure someone’s sense of humor? Are there universally good or bad jokes that make people laugh no matter their gender, profession or cultural background?

These are some of the questions answered by the doctoral thesis Sentido del humor: construcción de la escala de apreciación del humor (Sense of humor: building of the appreciation of humor scale), carried out by Hugo Carretero Dios, researcher in the department of Social Psychology and Methodology of Behavioural Science at the University of Granada.

A new Mayo Clinic study provides evidence that DNA variations largely explain why some persons get Parkinson’s disease while others don’t, and even predict with great accuracy at what age people might develop their first symptoms.

“This represents a major paradigm shift from single gene studies to genomic pathway studies of complex diseases,” says Demetrius Maraganore, M.D., the Mayo Clinic neurologist and Parkinson’s disease specialist who led the study.

New research from Colorado State University shows that the function of all genes in mammals is based on circadian – or daily – rhythms. The study refutes the current theory that only 10 percent to 15 percent of all genes were affected by nature’s clock.

While scientists have long known that circadian rhythms regulate the behavior of the living, the study shows that daily rhythm dominates all life functions and particularly metabolism. The new study presents oscillation as a basic property of all genes in the organism as opposed to special function of some genes as previously believed.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have successfully cultured human hematopoietic stem cells from fat tissue, suggesting another important source of cells for patients undergoing radiation therapy for blood cancers.

Adipose tissue has the ability to rapidly expand or contract in accordance with nutritional constraints. In so doing, it requires rapid adjustment in its blood supply and supporting connective tissue, or stroma.

For the first time, a text has been found in Old Persian language that shows the written language in use for practical recording and not only for royal display.

The text is inscribed on a damaged clay tablet from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, now at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. The tablet is an administrative record of the payout of at least 600 quarts of an as-yet unidentified commodity at five villages near Persepolis in about 500 B.C.

“Now we can see that Persians living in Persia at the high point of the Persian Empire wrote down ordinary day-to-day matters in Persian language and Persian script,” said Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute.

If the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria behind food poisoning are starved of oxygen, they are liable to turn really nasty according to research published today. Limiting oxygen produces bacteria up to 100 times more invasive than similar bacteria grown with ample oxygen supplies.

Bjarke Christensen and Tine Licht together with colleagues from Denmark’s National Food Institute set out to investigate whether the growth conditions of Listeria bacteria just prior to being eaten had an effect on their virulence once absorbed by the gut. Guinea pigs were fed food laced with L. monocytogenes, grown either in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, or starved of oxygen. The team used fluorescent labelling to tell the bacteria strains apart.