Evolution News and Research

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Laboratory test of evolutionary theory confirms the importance of connections between populations

Researchers studying the evolutionary dynamics of bacteria and viruses in bubbling glass tubes have confirmed an evolutionary theory of central importance to ecologists studying more familiar flora and fauna in the wild.

13 Oct 2004

Combination of computer science and biology could aid cancer research

The technique helps to show how cells modify their own genetic makeup and may allow cancer treatments to be tailored more precisely to a patient's disease.

11 Oct 2004

Discovery could lead to the creation of naturally decaffeinated coffee plants

Chemists at Emory University have made an important advance in harnessing the ability of bacteria to make new molecules, and their discovery could eventually lead to the creation of naturally decaffeinated coffee plants.

10 Oct 2004

Research shows C. botulinum uses SONO to detect nitric oxide

A deadly bacterium's defense against a mortal molecular enemy illuminates the origins and structure of a vital protein involved in human cell signaling, University of Texas Medical School scientists report in Science Express.

8 Oct 2004

Breastfeeding women increase sexual desire among other women

Breastfeeding women and their infants produce a substance that increases sexual desire among other women, according to research at the University of Chicago.

6 Oct 2004

Reliability theory explains human aging

The quest to understand and control aging has led University of Chicago biologists Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova to draw inspiration from what might seem an unlikely source: reliability engineering.

4 Oct 2004

Drug-resistant bacteria increasingly causing infections in healthy people

An emerging form of so-called "flesh-eating bacteria" is caused by a strain that is resistant to standard first-line antibiotics. The same type of bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is causing record numbers of less-serious skin infections in children and also is emerging as a cause of pneumonia, which can be deadly

30 Sep 2004

Men more than women favor paternity testing at birth

Substantially more men than women favor routine paternity testing when a baby is born, according to a recent University of Washington survey, but the surprise to researchers is that the percentage of men favoring such testing wasn't higher.

28 Sep 2004

Research may lead to alternatives to antibiotic drugs for treating bacterial diseases

UCLA microbiologists report the discovery of a new class of genetic elements, similar to retroviruses, that operate in bacteria, allowing them to diversify their proteins to bind to a large variety of receptors.

23 Sep 2004

Resveratrol in red wine, is thought to contribute to improved cardiovascular effects associated with moderate consumption of red wine

Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the Salk Institute in San Diego, Calif., have succeeded in converting chalcone synthase, a biosynthetic protein enzyme found in all higher plants, into an efficient resveratrol synthase.

20 Sep 2004

New insights into ancient mating and migration patterns in humans

Men have been tomcatting around since time immemorial, and some traveled far from home to do it, new research suggests.

20 Sep 2004

Nicaraguan deaf children create a new sign language entirely their own

At a school in Managua, Nicaragua, deaf children are speaking a new language entirely their own, which nonetheless has remarkable similarities to the world's other languages. Researchers studying these similarities suggest this week in Science that, in fact, children give language its most fundamental, universal features just by the way they learn it.

18 Sep 2004

Strep A is showing up in increased numbers of head and neck abscesses

Head and neck abscesses are infrequent complications of upper respiratory infections, but they can occur suddenly and be rapidly progressive. If untreated, the abscesses can lead to airway obstruction, vision loss, intracranial infections, and even death.

17 Sep 2004

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Four years after publicly revealing the official draft human genetic sequence, researchers have reached the halfway point in dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the genetic sentences describing how to build a human.

16 Sep 2004

Sea urchins may provide clues to some baffling human reproductive problems

For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.

13 Sep 2004

New view of chromatin and gene activity

A genome - the DNA instructions for an organism - does not act alone. DNA is packaged with proteins into 'chromatin', which may be more or less tightly condensed. A popular proposal is that active genes are in 'open' chromatin (to allow access to them) and inactive genes are in tightly packed 'compact' chromatin.

10 Sep 2004

Studies of human genetic variation have found strong evidence for the action of natural selection

One of the most comprehensive studies of the forces that have shaped patterns of human genetic variation has found strong evidence for the action of natural selection, which may help explain why certain people are at risk for a variety of conditions and others are not.

8 Sep 2004