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News | Archive (27 January 2009)
The vicuna - 'back from the brink' in South America
— 17:56 GMT | BiologyThe success of international and local efforts to bring South America's llama-like vicuna back from the brink of extinction holds valuable lessons for Australia, according to the co-author of a new book on the project, CSIRO's Professor Iain Gordon. 'The vicuna has seen a resurgence in its numbers due to the reintroduction of indigenous methods of fleece production,' he says…
'Great speciators' explained: It's intrinsic
— 17:56 GMT | BiologyNew molecular research shows that birds within the family Zosteropidae - named white eyes for the feathers that frame their eyes - form new species at a faster rate than any other known bird. Remarkably, unlike other rapid diversifications, which are generally confined in their geography, white eyes have managed to diversify across multiple continents and far-flung islands spanning much of the eastern hemisphere. The research was published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
Roadkill study could speed detection of kidney cancer
— 17:56 GMT | HealthLarge-scale data mining of gene networks in fruit flies has led researchers to a sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarker for human renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. In the journal Science, published early online 22 January, a team based at the University of Chicago shows that the biomarker known as SPOP is produced by 99 percent of clear cell renal cell carcinomas but not by normal kidney tissue…
Move over, sponges
— 17:56 GMT | BiologyA new and comprehensive analysis confirms that the evolutionary relationships among animals are not as simple as previously thought. The traditional idea that animal evolution has followed a trajectory from simple to complex - from sponge to chordate - meets a dramatic exception in the metazoan tree of life. New work suggests that the so-called 'lower' metazoans (including Placozoa, corals, and jellyfish) evolved in parallel to 'higher' animals (all other metazoans, from flatworms to chordates). It also appears that Placozoans - large amoeba-shaped, multi-cellular animals - have passed over sponges and other organisms as an animal that most closely mirrors the root of this tree of life…
Gene may lead to early onset of brain tumour
— 17:56 GMT | HealthPeople with a particular gene variant may be more likely to develop brain tumours, and at an earlier age, than people without the gene, according to a study published in the 27 January 2009, print issue of Neurology(R), the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology…
Daily school recess improves classroom behaviour
— 17:56 GMT | HealthSchool children who receive more recess behave better and are likely to learn more, according to a large study of third-graders conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University…
Omega-6 fatty acids: Make them a part of heart-healthy eating
— 17:56 GMT | HealthOmega-6 fatty acids - found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds - are a beneficial part of a heart-healthy eating plan, according to a science advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association…
Gene-engineered flies are pest solution
— 17:56 GMT | BiologyFor the first time, male flies of a serious agricultural pest, the medfly, have been bred to generate offspring that die whilst they are still embryos. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology describe the creation of the flies that, when released into a wild population, could out-compete the normal male flies and cause a generation of pests to be stillborn - protecting important crops…
The pseudogap persists as material superconducts
— 17:56 GMT | TechnologyFor nearly a century, scientists have been trying to unravel the many mysteries of superconductivity, where materials conduct electricity with zero resistance…
Gene therapy demonstrates benefit in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
— 17:56 GMT | HealthResearchers have reported the first clinical evidence that gene therapy reduces symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, an important milestone for this promising treatment which has endured a sometimes turbulent past. Described in the February issue of the journal Human Gene Therapy the findings stem from a study of two patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis conducted in Germany and led by an investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC)…
True causes for extinction of cave bear revealed
Richest planetary system discovered