http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/topic.php?q=Biology Latest Biology news provided by Science Centric en-gb Copyright 2010, Science Centric contact@sciencecentric.com (Stanislav Abadjiev) Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:19:00 GMT Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:19:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss/ http://www.sciencecentric.com/images/sc_logo_news.jpg http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/topic.php?q=Biology Around 30 to 40 million years ago, grasses on Earth underwent an epic evolutionary upheaval. An assemblage capitalised on falling levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide by engineering an internal mechanism to concentrate the dwindling CO2 supply that, like a fuel-injection system in a car, could more efficiently convert sunlight and nutrients into energy... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020913-brown-biologist-solves-mystery-tropical-grasses-origin http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020913-brown-biologist-solves-mystery-tropical-grasses-origin Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:19:00 GMT A study published in Science, by researchers at Rothamsted Research (an institute of the BBSRC), the Met Office, the Natural Resources Institute, and the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and York, sheds new light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020765-migrating-insects-fly-the-fast-lane http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020765-migrating-insects-fly-the-fast-lane Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:56:00 GMT Prions are a special class of proteins best known as the source for mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases. Despite this negative reputation, according to a new report in the February 5th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, a prion may also have important and very positive roles in brain function. The researchers suggest that a prion-like protein may participate in memory in higher eukaryotes, from sea slugs on up... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020764-prion-leaves-lasting-mark-on-memory http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020764-prion-leaves-lasting-mark-on-memory Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:53:00 GMT In the natural stream communities of Trinidad, guppy populations live close together, but evolve differently. Upstream, fewer predators mean more guppies but less food for each; they grow slowly and larger, reproduce later and less, and die older. Downstream, where predators thrive, guppies eat more, grow rapidly, stay small, reproduce quickly and die younger... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020759-yes-ecology-shapes-evolution-but-guppies-show-reverse-also-true http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020759-yes-ecology-shapes-evolution-but-guppies-show-reverse-also-true Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:38:00 GMT The best way to track a moving object with a flashlight might be to aim it to one side, catching the object in the edge of the beam rather than the centre. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals that bats, which 'see' with beams of sound waves, skew their beams off-centre when they want to locate an object. The research, which recently appeared in Science, shows that this strategy is the most efficient for locating objects... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020737-aiming-the-side http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020737-aiming-the-side Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:32:00 GMT Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020723-an-answer-another-life-big-questions http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020723-an-answer-another-life-big-questions Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:50:00 GMT How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing colour and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin's day. Now, scientists at Cambridge have found 'hotspots' in the butterflies' genes that they believe will explain one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020710-how-the-butterflies-got-their-spots http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020710-how-the-butterflies-got-their-spots Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:10:00 GMT New research conducted at the University of Maryland's bat lab shows Egyptian fruit bats find a target by NOT aiming their guiding sonar directly at it. Instead, they alternately point the sound beam to either side of the target. The new findings by researchers from Maryland and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel suggest that this strategy optimises the bats' ability to pinpoint the location of a target, but also makes it harder for them to detect a target in the first place... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020708-zen-bats-hit-their-target-by-not-aiming-at-it http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020708-zen-bats-hit-their-target-by-not-aiming-at-it Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:04:00 GMT Researchers from the University of Minnesota have found that the hydrodynamic environment of fish can shape their physical form and swimming style. The research, available on the Journal of Experimental Biology Web site, was sponsored by the National Science Foundation's National Centre for Earth-surface Dynamics... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020707-research-finds-water-movements-can-shape-fish-evolution http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020707-research-finds-water-movements-can-shape-fish-evolution Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:01:00 GMT Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania studying oocytes in mice, the immature egg cells necessary for sexual reproduction, have demonstrated an unusual behaviour in microRNA, or miRNA, activity that may be the first event in reprogramming the differentiated oocyte into pluripotent blastomeres of the embryo. MicroRNAs are a member of the family of small RNAs, the so-called dark matter of the biological world... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020426-penn-biologists-determine-microrna-activity-is-suppressed-mouse-ovum http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020426-penn-biologists-determine-microrna-activity-is-suppressed-mouse-ovum Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:02:00 GMT A team of University of Toronto chemists have made a major contribution to the emerging field of quantum biology, observing quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis in marine algae... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020425-scientists-find-quantum-mechanics-at-work-photosynthesis http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020425-scientists-find-quantum-mechanics-at-work-photosynthesis Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:44:00 GMT Invasive plants could become even more prevalent and destructive as climate change continues, according to a new analysis of data stretching back more than 150 years... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020421-invasive-plants-are-beneficiaries-climate-change-thoreau-woods http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020421-invasive-plants-are-beneficiaries-climate-change-thoreau-woods Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:31:00 GMT The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. A team of researchers from the CSIC Institute of Acoustics and the Agri-Food Research and Technology Centre (CITA) of Aragon has just presented an innovative technique that enables plant leaves to be studied using ultrasound in a quick, simple and non-invasive fashion... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020408-leaves-whisper-their-properties-through-ultrasound http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020408-leaves-whisper-their-properties-through-ultrasound Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:32:00 GMT The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain that released hormones into the blood and was connected to various sensory organs. The evidence comes not from a newly found fossil but from the study of microRNAs - small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression - in animals alive today. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have discovered that these molecules are found in the exact same tissues in animals as diverse as sea anemones, worms, and humans, hinting at an early origin of these tissues in animal evolution. Their findings, published today in Nature, also open new avenues for studying the current functions of specific microRNAs... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020276-microrna-glimpse-into-the-past http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020276-microrna-glimpse-into-the-past Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:10:00 GMT Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery made a surprising discovery when they extracted ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the skeletons buried at the site: the 2,000-year-old bones revealed a maternal East Asian ancestry... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020239-dna-testing-on-2000-year-old-bones-italy-reveal-east-asian-ancestry http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020239-dna-testing-on-2000-year-old-bones-italy-reveal-east-asian-ancestry Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:19:00 GMT A common plant virus lures aphids to infected plants by making the plants more attractive, but when the insects taste the plant, they quickly leave for tastier, healthier ones. In the process, the insects rapidly transmit the disease, according to Penn State entomologists... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020225-virus-pulls-bait-switch-on-insect-vectors http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020225-virus-pulls-bait-switch-on-insect-vectors Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:37:00 GMT Biologists have known for long that ecology, the interaction between organisms and their environment, plays a significant role in forming new species and in modifying living ones. The traditional view is that ecology shapes evolution. The environment defines a template and the process of evolution by natural selection shapes organisms to fit that template... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020222-evolution-impacts-environment-challenging-traditionally-held-view http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020222-evolution-impacts-environment-challenging-traditionally-held-view Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:28:00 GMT In 2009, soybeans represented an almost $30 billion industry in the U.S. alone, making soybeans the second-most profitable crop next to corn. Worldwide, soybeans have been used in human foods and livestock feed for centuries and have been a key component in industrial products, such as plastics and soy biodiesel, an environmentally friendly fuel. A team of researchers, including University of Missouri researchers, recently completed a study identifying 1.1 million base pairs of DNA in the soybean genome, including more than 90 distinct traits that affect plant development, productive characteristics, disease resistance, seed quality and nutrition, which could lead to extensive crop improvements... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020217-researchers-fight-world-hunger-by-mapping-the-soybean-genome http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020217-researchers-fight-world-hunger-by-mapping-the-soybean-genome Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:13:00 GMT Researchers at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have found several genes that lead to increased risk for an SLE-like autoimmune disorder in dogs. This is the first time scientists have found genes behind such a complex disease. The study is being published today in the Web edition of Nature Genetics... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020211-dog-studies-reveal-strong-risk-factors-sle http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020211-dog-studies-reveal-strong-risk-factors-sle Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:55:00 GMT Sharing is a behaviour on which day care workers and kindergarten teachers tend to offer young humans a lot of coaching. But for our ape cousins the bonobos, sharing just comes naturally... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020203-peter-pan-apes-never-seem-learn-selfishness http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10020203-peter-pan-apes-never-seem-learn-selfishness Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:31:00 GMT