The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns’ heart rates, says a small study published in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The research team assessed the variability in the heart rate of 43 newborn babies, none of whom was critically ill or premature.

The risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease differ between the sexes, with stroke in men, and depression in women, critical factors, according to research published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

French researchers based their findings on almost 7000 people over the age of 65, drawn from the general population in three French cities. None had dementia, but around four out of 10 were deemed to have mildly impaired mental agility (mild cognitive impairment) at the start of the study.

Their progress was assessed two and four years later. In all, just over 6.5% of those deemed to be cognitively impaired developed dementia over the next four years. In just over half, no change was seen. Just over one in three reverted to normal levels of cognitive agility.

A nationwide consortium has completed the first sequence-based map of structural variations in the human genome, giving scientists an overall picture of the large-scale differences in DNA between individuals. The project gives researchers a guide for further research into these structural differences, which are believed to play an important role in human health and disease.

The project involved sequencing the genomes of eight people from a diverse set of ethnic backgrounds: four individuals of African descent, two of Asian descent, and two of European background.

The researchers created what's called a clone map, taking multiple copies of each of the eight genomes and breaking them into numerous segments of about 40,000 base pairs, which they then fit back together based on the human reference genome. They searched for structural differences that ranged in size from a few thousand to a few million base pairs. Base pairs are one of the basic units of information on the human genome.

Fungi produce a number of natural products. Some are potent toxins, like the amanitins primarily responsible for the toxicity of the death cap fungus. Others are life-saving drugs such as penicillin. Because of that diversity, the genetics of fungi have generated much interest in recent years.

Many fungi have a wealth of genes encoding for far more natural products than they actually produce, says Robert Cichewicz and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. The explanation is thought to be that when fungi do not need certain compounds, they inhibit the transcription of the DNA that codes for the proteins that make them, preventing their biosynthesis.

Knowing what these mystery compounds are could be very important for the development of new medicines, as well as for helping us to understand the ecological roles that fungi play, he says.

In a new study published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry they have shown that metabolic pathways that are normally ‘silent’ can be re-activated to make new compounds.

Research by Yale scientists shows that males and females have essentially unisex brains — at least in flies — according to a recent report in Cell designed to identify factors that are responsible for sex differences in behavior.

The researchers showed that a courting “song and dance” routine that only male flies naturally perform — one wing is lifted and wiggled to make a humming “song” — can also be triggered in female flies by artificially stimulating particular brain cells that are present in both sexes. It isn’t what you’ve got — it’s how you use it, the authors say.

“It appears there is a largely bisexual or ‘unisex brain.’ Anatomically, the differences are subtle and a few critical switches make the difference between male and female behavior,” said senior author Gero Miesenboeck, formerly of Yale University and now at the University of Oxford.

Scientists at The Australian National University are a step closer to understanding the rare Hartnup disorder after discovering a surprising link between blood pressure regulation and nutrition that could also help to shed light on intestinal and kidney function.

The team from the University’s School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology together with colleagues from the University of Sydney set out to study nutrient uptake in the intestine and discovered an essential role of a protein called ACE2 in the process. ACE proteins cut off a small part of a precursor molecule generating a hormone, which regulates blood pressure. ACE inhibitors are widely prescribed drugs that reduce the risk of heart failure and protect against the long-term effects of diabetes.