Body

The turkey dinner is a staple part of Christmas Day, but new research at the University of Leicester reveals that the history of the much loved poultry is in fact rather varied and unexpected.

Brooklynne Fothergill, from the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, has found that the turkey was not always used as a meat product. It was initially domesticated as a source of feathers, as well as being used for symbolic purposes by the indigenous peoples of North America.

When a hungry harbour seal sets off in pursuit of a fish diner, the animal has a secret weapon in its tracking arsenal: its whiskers. Detecting hydrodynamic trails in water with their sensitive whiskers, seals easily track passing fish even in the most turbid conditions. Wolf Hanke from the University of Rostock, Germany, explains that blindfolded seals can track passing mini-submarines for a distance of 40m before the wake peters out.

The widely used cancer drug bevacizumab may cause severe loss of protein from the kidney into the urine that can lead to significant kidney damage and can compromise the efficacy of cancer treatment, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that physicians should monitor patients' kidney health when prescribing this angiogenesis inhibitor.

A drug commonly used to treat gout may help maintain kidney disease patients' health, according to an analysis appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The research is the first to show that allopurinol treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) decreases inflammation, slows the progression of kidney disease, and reduces patients' risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event or being hospitalized.

The transition from colonies of individual cells to multicellular organisms can be achieved relatively rapidly, within one million generations, according to a new mathematical model, published June 10 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, that simplifies our understanding of this process.

SEATTLE – How is it that some people who apparently freeze to death, with no heart rate or respiration for extended periods, can be brought back to life with no long-term negative health consequences? New findings from the laboratory of cell biologist Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, may help explain the mechanics behind this widely documented phenomenon.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered that an unexpected cellular response plays an important role in breaking down and inhibiting the formation of excess scar tissue in wound healing.

Their study was published online this week in Nature Cell Biology.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Isolating a gene that allows a type of fern to tolerate high levels of arsenic, Purdue University researchers hope to use the finding to create plants that can clean up soils and waters contaminated by the toxic metal.

The fern Pteris vittata can tolerate 100 to 1,000 times more arsenic than other plants. Jody Banks, a professor of botany and plant pathology, and David Salt, a professor of horticulture, uncovered what may have been an evolutionary genetic event that creates an arsenic pump of sorts in the fern.

By tinkering with a type of fungus that lives in association with plant roots, researchers have found a way to increase the growth of rice by an impressive margin. The so-called mycorrhizal fungi are found in association with nearly all plants in nature, where they deliver essential nutrients—specifically phosphate—to plants in return for sugar.

Dar es Salaam, 10 June 2010 - As Kenya once again grapples with high levels of aflatoxin contamination, which has rendered at least 2.3 million bags of maize unfit for human and livestock consumption, international experts announced today that they have identified a local non-toxic form of the fungus responsible for aflatoxin that can be used to control contamination through a novel biological control approach, which is entirely safe and effective.

Type 2 adult-onset diabetes causes insulin-like hormones to circulate through the body. A new study finds this has a surprisingly positive effect on reducing the rate of prostate cancer in men, but is bad news for women: Type 2 diabetes may double the risk of female genital and other cancers.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The combination of decitabine and carboplatin appears to improve the outcome of women who have late-stage ovarian cancer. In an upcoming issue of the journal Cancer (online today), Indiana University researchers report four of 10 patients who participated in a phase I clinical trial had no disease progression after six months of treatment. One patient experienced complete resolution of tumor tissue for a period of time.