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Castaway lizards offer new look at evolutionary processes

Biologists who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas have uncovered a seldom-observed interaction between evolutionary processes.

Jason Kolbe, a biologist at the University of Rhode Island (URI)--along with colleagues at Duke University, Harvard University and the University of California, Davis--found that the lizards' genetic and morphological (form and structural) traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called the founder effect.

Their research results are published online today in the journal Science.

Soy isoflavone supplements did not provide breast cancer protections

PHILADELPHIA -- Soy isoflavone supplements did not decrease breast cancer cell proliferation in a randomized clinical trial, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Lead researcher Seema A. Khan, M.D., professor of surgery at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, said the results of this study are consistent with the findings of previous studies that were designed to test cancer prevention benefits of dietary supplements.

Sediments from the Enol lake reveal more than 13,500 years of environmental history

A team of Spanish researchers have used different geological samples, extracted from the Enol lake in Asturias, to show that the Holocene, a period that started 11,600 years ago, did not have a climate as stable as was believed.

The Holocene period, which includes the last 11,600 years of our history, has always been described as a stable period in terms of climatic conditions, especially when compared to the abrupt changes that occurred in the last ice age, which ended around 10,000 years ago, giving way to the Holocene.

Collective action

If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don't have surnames, but scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the molecules that activate those switches – transcription factors – can be used in a similar way, as clues to a cell's developmental history. The study, published today in Cell, also unveils a new model for how enhancers function.

Parasites or not? Transposable elements in fruit flies

Nearly all organisms contain pieces of DNA that do not really belong to them. These "transposable elements", so called because they are capable of moving around within and between genomes, generally represent a drain on the host's resources and in certain cases may lead directly to disease, e.g. when they insert themselves within an essential host gene. The factors that govern the spread of transposable elements within a population are broadly understood but many of the finer points remain unclear.

A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?

CORVALLIS, Ore. – They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that "bat flies" have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.

For bats, that's a long time to deal with a parasite doing its best vampire impression. Maybe it is nature's revenge on the vampire bat, an aggressive blood consumer in its own right that will feed on anything from sheep to dogs and humans.

New technology to tackle treatment-resistant cancers

Free-flowing cancer cells have been mapped with unprecedented accuracy in the bloodstream of patients with prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer, using a brand new approach, in an attempt to assess and control the disease as it spreads in real time through the body, and solve the problem of predicting response and resistance to therapies.

Breastfeeding and lung function at school age: Does maternal asthma modify the effect?

Breastfeeding is associated with improved lung function at school age, particularly in children of asthmatic mothers, according to a new study from researchers in Switzerland and the UK.

How to tell apart the forgetful from those at risk of Alzheimer's disease

It can be difficult to distinguish between people with normal age-associated memory loss and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However people with aMCI are at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), and identification of these people would mean that they could begin treatment as early as possible. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Geriatrics shows that specific questions, included as part of a questionnaire designed to help diagnose AD, are also able to discriminate between normal memory loss and aMCI.

Scripps research scientists demonstrate effective new 'biopsy in a blood test' to detect cancer

LA JOLLA, CA – Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Health, and collaborating cancer physicians have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of an advanced blood test for detecting and analyzing circulating tumor cells (CTCs)—breakaway cells from patients' solid tumors—from cancer patients. The findings, reported in five new papers, show that the highly sensitive blood analysis provides information that may soon be comparable to that from some types of surgical biopsies.

Malaria kills nearly twice as many people than previously thought, but deaths declining rapidly

SEATTLE – Malaria is killing more people worldwide than previously thought, but the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Sexually transmitted infections double in older population in 10 years

Sexually active adults aged 45 and over are being encouraged to pay more thought to safe sex in line with recent figures showing that STIs in 50-90 year olds have doubled in the past ten years.

In an editorial published in the Student BMJ, Rachel von Simson, medical student at King's College London and Ranjababu Kulasegaram, consultant genitourinary physician at St Thomas' Hospital London, discuss research showing that 80% of 50-90 years olds are sexually active.

Combination drug therapy urged to battle lung cancer

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Feb. 2, 2012 — Combination drug therapy may be needed to combat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Van Andel Research Institute (VARI).

The study, "STAT3 is Activated by JAK2 Independent of Key Oncogenic Driver Mutation in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma," was published online today, Feb. 2, 2012, by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE.

Triglyceride levels predict stroke risk in postmenopausal women

NEW YORK, February 2, 2012 – Postmenopausal women may be at higher risk of having a stroke than they think.

Scientists coax shy microorganisms to stand out in a crowd

The communities of marine microorganisms that make up half the biomass in the oceans and are responsible for half the photosynthesis the world over, mostly remain enigmatic. A few abundant groups have had their genomes described, but the natures and functions of the rest remain mysterious.

Understanding how the changing global environment might affect these important ecosystem players is like trying to understand the solar system when all you can discern are the brightest objects in the sky.