The seminar that I give most often when I am invited to speak at other universities begins with a brief introduction to genomes, sets up some comparisons between bacteria and eukaryotes, and then moves into a short overview of bacterial genome size evolution before spending the remainder of the time on genome size diversity and its importance among animals. The main things that I have to say about bacterial genomes are:

1) Unlike in eukaryotes, bacterial genome size shows a strong positive relationship with gene number (in other words, bacterial genomes contain little non-coding DNA).

In a major advance in alternative fuel technology, researchers report development of a sponge-like material with the highest methane storage capacity ever measured.

It can hold almost one-third more methane than the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) target level for methane-powered cars, they report in a new study. It is scheduled for the Jan. 23 issue of ACS’ Journal of the American Chemical Society, a weekly publication.

Hong-Cai Zhou and colleagues note that lack of an effective, economical and safe on-board storage system for methane gas has been one of the major hurdles preventing methane-driven automobiles from competing with traditional ones.

Amid growing consumer demand for more environmentally-friendly cleaning products, chemical suppliers are stepping-up their efforts to provide greener ingredients with the same effectiveness of conventional ones, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News.

Michael McCoy notes that “green” cleaning supplies were once the province of fringe industries but are now attracting the attention of big corporations in the United States and beyond. Increasingly, suppliers are generating consumer cleaning products that contain natural or naturally-derived ingredients, avoid the use of environmentally-harmful chemicals, and generate less carbon dioxide during manufacturing and use, McCoy states.

Researchers in Agricultural and Food Chemistry are reporting impressive new evidence that eating broccoli may protect against heart disease.

Researchers have known for years that broccoli is a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber that may protect against cancer, Dipak K. Das and colleagues note. Other studies also suggest that broccoli may benefit the heart, although scientists do not know how it works.

Oklahoma State researchers are developing a state-of-the-art propulsion system for the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

If successful, the propulsion system will be featured in sophisticated unmanned aircraft small enough to fit into a soldier’s pocket.

“What we want the infantrymen to be able to do is pull a pack of six or so out of their pocket and have them ready for use,” Jamey Jacob, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said. The aircraft would be used for surveillance purposes and allow soldiers to inspect hostile areas before moving through them.

An international consortium of scientists has identified multiple genes that are linked to systemic lupus erythematosus, a devastating autoimmune disease that affects between 1 million and 2 million Americans. Reporting in Nature Genetics, the scientists also confirmed earlier findings linking lupus to several other genes – highlighting the role that genetics plays in the disease.

“These findings underscore that numerous genes, which are often immune-function related, contribute to the risk of developing lupus,” said Carl D. Langefeld, Ph.D., senior author from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and co-director of the International Consortium for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Genetics (www.SLEGEN.org).

Friendships are an important part of developing social skills and cultural confidence but when antisocial teenagers interacted closely with each other and spent their time discussing such things as substance abuse or breaking the law, they tended to later engage in problem behavior, according to University of Oregon researchers.

For their study, the researchers videotaped 16- and 17-year-olds as they interacted with close friends. The UO team was seeking to find mechanisms behind the idea that antisocial behavior is predictable based on the behavior of peers.

A new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research says that women should avoid caffeine during the first trimester of pregnancy - caffeine equivalent to two cups of coffee per day was linked to a doubled risk of miscarriage compared to women who had no caffeine.

The study controlled, for the first time, pregnancy-related symptoms of nausea, vomiting and caffeine aversion that tended to interfere with the determination of caffeine’s true effect on miscarriage risk. The research appears in the current online issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Plasticity, the brain's ability to change in response to its environment, is at the heart of learning. After being awake, your brain needs sleep to refresh, research says.

A new theory from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Dr. Chiara Cirelli, associate professor of psychiatry, and Dr. Giulio Tononi, professor of psychiatry, called the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, runs against the grain of what many scientists currently think about how sleep affects learning. The most popular notion these days, says Cirelli, is that during sleep synapses are hard at work replaying the information acquired during the previous waking hours, consolidating that information by becoming even stronger.