UT Arlington researchers focusing on the Amazon recently found that widespread conversion from rainforest to pastureland has significant effects on microorganism communities that may lead to a reduction in the region's role as a reservoir for greenhouse gas.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest terrestrial reservoir or "sink" for carbon dioxide, a gas that has been linked to climate change. Through photosynthesis, the Amazon absorbs 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year in a process that requires input of nitrogen.

Breast cancer runs in families; however, genetic predisposition (such as being BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers) explains only a portion of this observation. Epigenetic changes (modifications in the genome that alter gene expression but do not affect the DNA sequence per se) have been shown to also play a role in breast cancer risk.

The gene that has provided spring barley with resistance to powdery mildew for over 30 years increases susceptibility to newly-important disease Ramularia leaf spot.

Scientists confirm the trade-off in a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Since 1980, the mlo gene has transformed mildew from the most important disease of barley to an occasional nuisance in wetter areas of the UK.

"Having suspected that one of the most successful and widely-used resistances to an important crop disease has the detrimental effect of increasing susceptibility to another, we took a closer look," says Professor James Brown from the John Innes Centre.

The biological term "symbiosis" refers to what economists and politicians usually call a win-win situation: a relationship between two partners which is beneficial to both. The mutualistic association between acacia plants and the ants that live on them is an excellent example: The plants provide food and accommodation in the form of food bodies and nectar as well as hollow thorns which can be used as nests. The ants return this favor by protecting the plants against herbivores. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now found that ants also keep harmful leaf pathogens in check. The presence of ants greatly reduces bacterial abundance on surfaces of leaves and has a visibly positive effect on plant health.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Julie Boergers, Ph.D., a psychologist and sleep expert from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, recently led a study linking later school start times to improved sleep and mood in teens. The article, titled "Later School Start Time is Associated with Improved Sleep and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents," appears in the current issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In a finding that overturns the conventional view that large old trees are unproductive, scientists have determined that for most species, the biggest trees increase their growth rates and sequester more carbon as they age.

In a letter published today in the journal Nature, an international research group reports that 97 percent of 403 tropical and temperate species grow more quickly the older they get. The study was led by Nate L. Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center. Three Oregon State University researchers are co-authors: Mark Harmon and Rob Pabst of the College of Forestry and Duncan Thomas of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

If you work in politics or culture, you are probably quick to attribute fast-food consumption as the major factor causing rapid increases in childhood obesity. Scholars the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report that fast-food consumption is simply a byproduct of a much bigger problem: poor all-day-long dietary habits that originate in children's homes.

The break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana about 130 Million years ago could have led to a completely different shape of the African and South American continent - with an ocean south of today's Sahara desert.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences used plate tectonic and three-dimensional numerical modeling to highlight the importance of rift orientation relative to extension direction as key factor deciding whether an ocean basin opens or an aborted rift basin forms in the continental interior.

Low oxygen conditions often persist inside tumors, but they are sufficient to initiate a molecular chain of events that transform breast cancer cells from being rigid and stationery to mobile and invasive.

A recent study highlighted the importance of hypoxia-inducible factors in promoting breast cancer metastasis.

Many men have been a little overexcited on the dance floor and showed off moves that have never been seen before. Blame alcohol. 

Testosterone has a similar effect. A little too much and the frequency of overzealous wooing behavior may increase, but the quality won't go up with it.

For the male canary, the ability to sing a pitch-perfect song is critical to wooing female canaries and as the seasons change, so does song quality and frequency.