Category Archives: News & Archives

Exposure to Pesticides Results in Smaller Worker Bees

Exposure to a widely used pesticide causes worker bumblebees to grow less and then hatch out at a smaller size, according to a new study by Royal Holloway University of London. The research, published today in theJournal of Applied Ecology, reveals that prolonged exposure to a pyrethroid pesticide, which is used on flowering crops to…

Symphony of Life, Revealed: New Imaging Technique Captures Vibrations of Proteins, Tiny Motions Critical to Human Life

Like the strings on a violin or the pipes of an organ, the proteins in the human body vibrate in different patterns, scientists have long suspected. Now, a new study provides what researchers say is the first conclusive evidence that this is true. Using a technique they developed based on terahertz near-field microscopy, scientists from…

The greatest challenge facing the molecular biology community today is to make sense of the wealth of data that has been produced by the genome sequencing projects. Traditionally, molecular biology research was carried out entirely at the experimental laboratory bench but the huge increase in the scale of data being produced in this genomic era…

UV Light Makes Mushrooms Rich in Vitamin D

The dog days of summer are a distant memory and so are the long bright sunny days. But for many people, sunlight is an essential source of vitamin D. The human body needs vitamin D to maintain bone health and helps regulate the immune system. The ultraviolet light in sunlight actually converts cholesterol in your…

Sunlight Adaptation Region of Neanderthal Genome Found in Up to 65 Percent of Modern East Asian Population

With the Neanderthal genome now published, for the first time, scientists have a rich new resource of comparative evolution. For example, recently, scientists have shown that humans and Neanderthals once interbred, with the accumulation of elements of Neanderthal DNA found in up to 5 percent in modern humans. Are there any advantages to the retention…

Dark streaks that hint at seasonally flowing water have been spotted near the equator of Mars1. The potentially habitable oases are enticing targets for research. But spacecraft will probably have to steer clear of them unless the craft are carefully sterilized — a costly safeguard against interplanetary contamination that may rule out the sites for…

‘It’s Alive! It’s Alive!’ Maybe Right Here on Earth

Here in a laboratory perched on the edge of the continent, researchers are trying to construct Life As We Don’t Know It in a thimbleful of liquid. Generations of scientists, children and science fiction fans have grown up presuming that humanity’s first encounter with alien life will happen in a red sand dune on Mars,…

Ask a science teacher: What makes ice float?

The simple answer is that ice is less dense than water. The question then becomes: Why is ice, which is water in solid form, lighter than water in its liquid form? Something must be happening to water when it freezes. One molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, or H2O. The…

New Results Send Mars Rover on a Quest for Ancient Life

When the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater 16 months ago, its goal was to find a place on Mars that was habitable 4 billion years ago. It has done that, and now a spate of new findings is driving the mission in a new direction: searching for traces of ancient life. Leaders of the 400-strong Curiosity…

Coffee or Beer? The Choice Could Affect Your Genome

Coffee and beer are polar opposites in the beverage world. Coffee picks you up, and beer winds you down. Now Prof. Martin Kupiec and his team at Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have discovered that the beverages may also have opposite effects on your genome. Working with a kind of yeast…

Category Archives: News & Archives

Exposure to Pesticides Results in Smaller Worker Bees

Symphony of Life, Revealed: New Imaging Technique Captures Vibrations of Proteins, Tiny Motions Critical to Human Life

Why is bioinformatics important?

UV Light Makes Mushrooms Rich in Vitamin D

Sunlight Adaptation Region of Neanderthal Genome Found in Up to 65 Percent of Modern East Asian Population

Water seems to flow freely on Mars

‘It’s Alive! It’s Alive!’ Maybe Right Here on Earth

Ask a science teacher: What makes ice float?

New Results Send Mars Rover on a Quest for Ancient Life

Coffee or Beer? The Choice Could Affect Your Genome