Rice, the eponymous food of Asia, originated in China, and domesticated rice may have first appeared as far back as approximately 9,000 years ago in the Yangtze Valley of China. Previous research suggested domesticated rice may have two points of origin, India as well as China.
The genome researchers used large-scale gene re-sequencing to re-assess the phylogeny, or evolutionary history, of domesticated rice using previously published datasets, some of which have been used to argue that indica and japonica rice have separate origins. Using newer computer algorithms, however, the researchers concluded these two species have the same origin because they have a closer genetic relationship to each other than to any wild rice species found in either India or China.
Acetaminophen overdose has become the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S. How is that possible, when ingredients are printed clearly on the labels, along with warnings?
Acetaminophen's is in more than 600 over-the-counter and prescription medicines and people take billions of doses of over-the-counter pain relievers every year, but many do not pay attention to the active ingredients they contain, such as acetaminophen, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.
The first observatory experiment to study the dynamic microbial life inside Earth's crust has just been completed. During the four-year subsurface experiment, the research team deployed the first in situ experimental microbial observatory systems below the flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, which is located off the coast of Washington (U.S.) and British Columbia (Canada).
Welcome to the month of May! The time of Beltane and Walpurgis Night, flowers and maypoles and springtime dancing.
Want a May Basket? Well, um, how about a nice gall instead? Dave Hubble zooms in with some exquisite photos and shows us just what a gift a gall can be to the inquisitive mind.
Scientists have identified a biochemical abnormality behind the potentially fatal neurodegenerative Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) and, using several models of the disease, were able to reverse the problem in what may be a crucial step towards a cure for humans. Currently, the disease is incurable and the patients’ increasing neurodegeneration cannot be stopped.
John Hunter had a gift for dissection. As a child he was an unexceptional student. At age 20, he journeyed to London in the midst of Britain's rise as a scientific power to assist at his brother's anatomy school. There he displayed a gift for finely dismantling the human body into its discrete parts.
Hunter went on to become a surgeon, at the time a vocation that put him on the same social footing as shoemakers or metal smiths. With little modern medical knowledge to guide them through the inner workings of their patients, surgeons were tradesmen. Hunter changed that.
Schrödinger’s cat is in a quantum superposition of two states, namely |Dead> and |Alive>. If we open the box and find the cat dead, where is the living one? You all know the answer: In the ‘parallel universe’ where I pull the cat out alive. Let me add a twist that only a true cat hater can come up with.
Arctic Ice May 2011The great thing about the scientific method is that we can figure out what will happen if we do something before we do it. Scientists figured out long ago that burning fossil fuels and putting CO2 into the atmosphere at a great rate would affect the planet's climate systems. Which it has. One of the predictions about the effect of dumping CO2 into the atmosphere was that the Arctic would be affected most. Which it has been. Scientists predicted an Arctic acceleration or amplification: a process where positive feedbacks become ever stronger with ever less Arctic ice. Ice loss is accelerating.
In 2008, when concerns about the birth place of future nominee and then campaign winner Barack Obama first surfaced, most felt like he should just show a birth certificate. He didn't want to 'dignify' it then, to a point where it has dogged him for years
and finally he showed the document, laying the issue to rest for all but the kookiest on the right.
Too many older adults are taking "excessive" doses of drugs for thyroid problems and that has been linked to an increased risk of fractures, according to a new study. The study raises concern that treatment targets may need to be modified in the elderly.
