Yeast cells' ability to convert sugar into alcohol, essential for the production of beer and wine, can be attributed to a series of gene duplications that allow for optimal conversion of different types of sugars (such as sucrose and maltose) into alcohol, according to a new study in Current Biology.

The duplications arose because the genes for sugar processing are situated close to the unstable margin of the chromosome. The phenomenon appears not to be limited to alcohol production in yeast, but forms an important principle in the evolution of living organisms.

A new study has found that cities with the largest increases in immigration between 1990 and 2000 experienced the largest decreases in rates of homicide and robbery. The findings suggest that immigration may be partially responsible for the drop in crime during the decade, the author says. The study appears in Social Science Quarterly.

Drawing from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and U.S. Census data, University of Colorado sociologist Tim Wadsworth analyzed 459 cities with populations of at least 50,000. Wadsworth measured immigrant populations in two ways: those who are foreign-born and those who immigrated within the previous five years.

Writing in American Antiquity, researchers from Arizona State University and North Carolina State University say archaeologists can use computational modeling to study the long-term effects of varying land use practices by farmers and herders on landscapes.

By using these techniques, archeologists can develop alternative computerized scenarios that can be compared with traditional archaeological records, possibly enhancing previous findings of how humans and the environment interact.

Elevated levels of carbon dioxide predicted by models of climate change can drive increased production of fungal spores, including some associated with allergies and asthma, according to a new study in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Researchers have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

The development could ultimately lead to molecular systems that might one day be used for medical therapeutic devices and molecular-scale reconfigurable robots---robots made of many simple units that can reposition or even rebuild themselves to accomplish different tasks.

Results of the research have been published in Nature.

The traditional view of a robot is that it is "a machine that senses its environment, makes a decision, and then does something---it acts," said Erik Winfree, associate professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at Caltech.

In medicine, physicians often present case histories or case reports of an interesting situation/patient, along with the outcome (typically a diagnosis) and discussion.¹ On controversial cases, medical ethics can be invoked (although not quite to the expertise or depth of Dr. Pigliucci). Here's one I recently came across - whether to perform a kidney transplant for a middle-aged male with multiple co-morbidities - and I thought the implications were really interesting. I'll give you basic relevant facts and context and would like to know what you'd do.

Patient: A 50-year-old Caucasian male with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and Type 1 Diabetes.

A global Warming Skeptic Clouds The Issues


This article is written in response to Dr. Roy Spencer's claims about cloud albedo effects in an article by Cameron J English: Interview With A Global Warming Skeptic: Dr. Roy Spencer.


One of the most common arguments used by deniers of AGW is that computer models are unreliable.

Richard Dawkins suggested that the first measure of an intelligent species, should two chance to meet, would be whether they understood how they came to be. I imagine such a remarkable exchange of cosmic existentialism set on a hovering space dongle, lit only by the faint glow of distant ringed planets:

“Hey, you know about evolution?”
“Yep”

And with these words, the warmth of science would triumph over the cold curve of the ever widening Universe, at least for a moment.

It is no secret that a majority of the peer-reviewed climate change literature lays blame for global warming on human greenhouse gas emissions.

But despite the abundance of research supporting anthropogenic global warming, there is a sizable community of qualified scientists who believe the so-called consensus view on global warming is completely wrong. I wanted to find out why, so I contacted one skeptical researcher to ask.

Academics pay a lot of attention to the quality of their writings. It is generally a point of pride to publish flawless documents, and this is felt in scientific disciplines just as much as in literary ones. If I told you how much time the members of a scientific experiment such as CDF at the Tevatron or CMS at CERN (the ones I work in) spend in the review of their articles before these are sent to the publishers, you would be startled.