Migration between different communities of bacteria is the key to the type of gene transfer that can lead to the spread of traits such as antibiotic resistance, according to researchers. While horizontal gene transfer - also known as bacterial sex - has long been acknowledged as central to microbial evolution, why it is able to exert such a strong effect has remained a mystery. 

But now scientists at Oxford University have demonstrated through mathematical modelling that the secret is migration, whereby movement between communities of microbes greatly increases the chances of different species of bacteria being able to swap DNA and adopt new traits.

The study sheds new light on how the spread of traits such as antibiotic resistance is able to happen.

Most people who take up cigarette smoking, and place themselves at greater risk of cancer and lung ailments, start when they are young. A new RAND Corporation analysis finds the answer may be as simple as hiding them.

The scholars created a laboratory replica of a convenience store to examine whether limiting displays of cigarettes in retail outlets can reduce the intention of young people to begin smoking. Researchers found an 11 percent reduction in cigarette smoking susceptibility when the tobacco 'power wall' was hidden compared to when the display of tobacco products was visible behind the cashier.  

Previous research has shown that the sugar sucrose plays a role in controlling key fruit genes involved in sugar metabolism. Efforts to control these genes succeeded in increasing the sugar content in fruit but also resulted in stunted growth.

Carnegie Mellon University scientists have discovered a crucial difference in the way learning occurs in the brains of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Published in NeuroImage, Sarah Schipul and Marcel Just examined how the brains of typical and ASD individuals gradually became adapted to visual patterns they were learning, without awareness of the pattern, or implicit learning.

Our Sun is a relatively quiet star that only occasionally releases solar flares or blasts of energetic particles that threaten satellites and power grids. You might think that smaller, cooler stars would be even more sedate. However, astronomers have now identified a tiny star with a monstrous temper. It shows evidence of much stronger flares than anything our Sun produces. If similar stars prove to be just as stormy, then potentially habitable planets orbiting them are likely to be much less hospitable than previously thought.

Signaling molecules of the Wnt family are ubiquitous in biology. From cnidaria to man, they are responsible for forming the basic shape of all organisms. Without Wnt, our body would not have a top or bottom, front or rear. In addition, Wnt controls numerous other development processes in the body. Overly active Wnt signaling, on the other hand, promotes carcinogenesis.

Wnt binds to receptors on the cell surface and fulfils its "classic" functions via a highly complex cascade of protein interactions in the cell's interior. At the end of this intracellular signaling pathway, specific genes in the nucleus are read (transcribed) - the known Wnt signal stimulates transcription.