Culture
People - or more specifically just Swedes - are more like chimpanzees than previously known. This is indicated in a genetic mapping of one thousand Swedish individuals, where new DNA sequences that should be included in the reference genome have been identified. The study is published today in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Fish has been a predominant and high-quality protein and oil source in the human diet since ancient times. A new study by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Zinman Institute of Archaeology and the Oranim Academic College examined traditional fish preparation employed by fisherfolk in Panama and Egypt, revealing patterns of modifications to the fishes' skeletons, which are comparable to those found among fish remains recovered in archaeological sites.
In the arms race between predators and prey, each evolves more and more sophisticated ways of catching or escaping from the other. Rachel Page, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Ximena Bernal, associate professor at Purdue University, review in Functional Ecology how bats use both private and social information to attack their prey.
For every question about bird poop, uric acid appears to be the answer.
Why are bird droppings so hard to remove from buildings? Uric acid.
Why are they white and pasty? Uric acid.
Why are they corrosive to car paint and metal structures? Uric acid.
AMHERST, Mass. - This week, representatives of 195 member governments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are meeting at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco with dozens of climate scientists who have prepared a draft "Summary for Policymakers" of their "Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)."
There are no scales for weighing black holes. Yet astrophysicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have devised a new way for indirectly measuring the mass of a black hole, while also confirming its existence. They tested the new method, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, on the Messier 87 active galaxy.
The cells of our immune system constantly communicate with one another by exchanging complex protein molecules. A team led by researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now revealed how dedicated cellular control proteins, referred to as chaperones, detect immature immune signaling proteins and prevent them from leaving the cell.
"Keep your eyes on the road."
With the recent advances in vehicle-assisted safety technology and in-car displays, this old adage has a new meaning, thanks to two new applications of eye-tracking technology developed by researchers at the University of Missouri.
Designing a better collision avoidance warning
Observing how someone's eyes change -- specifically the pupil -- while they respond to an alert given by a vehicle collision avoidance warning could one day help scientists design safer systems.
An international research team including scientists from the University of Cologne, Germany, numerous Iranian universities and the University of Sydney, Australia, has shown that today's Iranian population is composed of partially highly heterogeneous ethnic groups, exhibiting a high degree of genetic variation. In many cases, their source goes back many thousands of years.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), is the most common childhood cancer. Children with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop ALL than children without Down syndrome. Historically, children with Down syndrome and ALL had more complications from treatment and a poorer outcome. However, outcomes are improving as we learn more about ALL in Down syndrome and how to best provide treatment and supportive care.
Sponges form an extensive animal phylum with over 7,500 species worldwide, which occur in a wide range of habitats in the ocean. A special feature of this animal phylum is their ability to filter seawater, through which these organisms obtain their food. In doing so, certain sponge species can move up to 24,000 litres through their body per day. The surrounding seawater contains a wide range of viruses - on average, one millilitre of water contains 10 million viruses.
SALT LAKE CITY - Everyone is a mutant but some are prone to diverge more than others, report scientists at University of Utah Health.
ANN ARBOR--Reading about a child abuse case or someone burglarizing homes often stirs feelings of disgust, anger and disbelief when it's learned the perpetrator's family or friends did nothing to stop it or report it to police.
But when it's your own family member or friend who committed the crime, you're less likely to do anything as well, according to a new University of Michigan study.
UCLA evolutionary biologist Blaire Van Valkenburgh has spent more than three decades studying the skulls of many species of large carnivores -- including wolves, lions and tigers -- that lived from 50,000 years ago to the present. She reports today in the journal eLife the answer to a puzzling question.
Scientists have identified the stem cells that allow tapeworms to regenerate and found that their location in proximity to the head is essential, according to a new study in eLife.
These novel insights can help explain how tapeworms grow in their human and animal hosts and could be helpful in finding new ways to target these parasites.