(Oregon State University) An Oregon State University researcher is part of a $1.94 million grant to look for possible connections between the human microbiome and autism spectrum disorder. […]

(University of Eastern Finland) A new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows that a moderately high intake of dietary cholesterol or consumption of up to one egg per day is not associated with an elevated risk of stroke. Furthermore, no association was found in carriers of the APOE4 phenotype, which affects cholesterol metabolism and is remarkably common among the Finnish population. […]

(Kanazawa University) In a recent study published in BBA -- General Subjects, Kanazawa university researchers have used high-speed microscopy to investigate native structure and conformational dynamics of hemagglutinin in influenza A. […]

(Walter and Eliza Hall Institute) New funding is enabling Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers to develop new approaches to potentially help people with Prader-Willi syndrome, a devastating and incurable genetic condition.Research grants from the Prader-Willi Research Foundation of Australia and the US Foundation for Prader-Willi Research will enable Associate Professor Marnie Blewitt to investigate whether awakening 'sleeping' genes could overcome some of the genetic errors underlying […]

(BfR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) are natural constituents detected all over the world in more than 350 plant species and suspected to occur in more than 6,000. Plants produce them as a defence against predators. Out of more than 660 known PA and similar compounds, the 1,2-unsaturated PA in particular have a health-damaging potential. Consequently, they are undesired in foods and feeds. […]

A senior Chinese official has officially handed over a 19-year-old male giant panda to Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo. […]

Transcription is the process of synthesizing messenger RNA by RNA polymerase based on the DNA sequence of a gene and is the initial step in gene expression. In bacteria, σ factor is a key component of RNA polymerase for promoter recognition and transcription initiation. […]

Researchers from the University of Tübingen and their colleagues from Switzerland have studied hundreds of fossil carp teeth for the first time using 3-D technologies. In 4 million-year old lake sediments from what is now the Armenian highlands, they found evidence of an astonishing variety of carp. Thanks to "virtual palaeontology," the researchers identified four closely-related species of Mesopotamian barb fish, so-called scrapers. They believe that these species lived together in a […]

The world recently discovered that disastrous deterioration in the health of most of the planet's ecosystems means that a million species are threatened with extinction. This is among the findings of the most thorough ever survey of the state of the biosphere, carried out by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). […]

In the first edition of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin mentions dogs 54 times. He does so mainly because the extraordinary variation between dog breeds provides a marvellous illustration of the power of selection. For most of the roughly 15,000 years since their domestication, dogs were selected by humans for their usefulness as hunters, retrievers, herders, guards or companions. […]

Ocean microbes long thought to depend exclusively on eating turn out to have a solid, if sinister, Plan B -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com […]

They’re magical, yes, but there’s a dark side to those flickering spots of light—including, in some cases, “kleptoparasitism” -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com […]

The detection of this radioactive relic of nuclear weapons tests in a remote environment shows humanity’s far-reaching environmental impact -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com […]

Ammonia from penguin poop gets carried on Antarctic winds, fertilizing mosses and lichens as far as a mile away. Christopher Intagliata reports.  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com […]

Blocking an immune-related molecule lodged in blood vessels stops memory loss -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com […]