An international team of researchers sequenced nuclear and mitochondrial DNA that had been extracted from the leg of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, China and found that the human from 40,000 years in China is related to many people on multiple continents.

Analyses of this individual's DNA showed that the Tianyuan human shared a common origin with the ancestors of many present-day Asians and Native Americans. In addition, the researchers found that the proportion of Neanderthal and Denisovan-DNA in this early modern human is not higher than in people living in this region nowadays.

“Physics is a male-dominated field, and the assumption is that a woman has to overcome hurdles and face down biases that men don’t. But that just isn’t so. Women in physics are familiar with this misconception and acknowledge it mostly with jokes.”

In Europe, where over 19 million students are in tertiary education, they are looking for ways to improve the teaching skills of scientists in order to teach more effectively the next generation of innovators.  It would seem obvious that reducing the anti-science mentality of the culture would be the obvious step but the sociologists argue instead that the position of 'teacher researcher' should be created under the social sciences banner.

In a genome-wide analysis of 13 metastatic prostate cancers done on men who died of metastatic prostate cancer and whose tissue samples were collected after a rapid autopsy, scientists found consistent epigenetic signatures across all metastatic tumors in each patient. 

The discovery of stable epigenetic marks that sit on the nuclear DNA of cancer cells and alter gene expression, defies a prevailing belief that the marks vary so much within each individual's widespread cancers that they have little or no value as targets for therapy or as biomarkers for treatment response and predicting disease severity. 

A new image from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile shows a beautiful view of clouds of cosmic dust nebula NGC 1999 in the region of Orion. While these dense interstellar clouds seem dark and obscured to visible-light observations, APEX’s LABOCA camera can detect the heat glow of the dust and reveal the hiding places where new stars are being formed. But one of these dark clouds is not what it seems.

Predicting weather events is more mysticism than science and it's only after the fact that predictions are recalibrated to try and hone in on more accuracy.  Hurricane Sandy in the eastern United States was predicted to be a super-storm but by the time it hit New York City was a regular old tropical storm, though one that became a welcome $17 billion federal stimulus plan and a call for action on global warming that did not cause it.

Optimal Monitoring has produced a free eBook about the Department of Energy and Climate Change consultation period, which is open until the end of January.

 The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has invited companies to influence the latest Climate Change Bill and UK government energy policy. This consultation period on the UK draft Energy Bill is open until January 31st, 2013 and asks for ideas on how the Government can help businesses reduce their energy usage and therefore their cost. Carbon monitoring software provider Optimal Monitoring has created a free guide which addresses the opportunities the DECC consultation period presents for businesses and landlords to influence the Energy Bill.