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Since the 2001 launch of the Human Genome Project, which released a first draft of the entire sequence of human DNA, many researchers have dedicated themselves to creating a library of comprehensive, species-specific genetic sequence "maps" available for study. Scientists at LSU recently took part in the International Rhesus Macaque Sequence and Analysis Consortium, which successfully detailed the full DNA sequence of the rhesus macaque, the third primate – including humans – to undergo sequencing. The results will be published in the journal Science on Friday, April 13.

People who inherit two mutant copies of any one of about 12 genes that make the proteins of the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway develop FA, which is characterized by increased incidence of cancer and bone marrow failure, among other things.

However, individuals with just a single mutant copy of one of these genes are also at increased risk of developing cancer. This occurs when the remaining "good" copy of the gene becomes mutated in a specific cell type, allowing that cell type to form a tumor.

The results of a new study suggest that bacteria that cause diseases like bubonic plague and serious gastric illness can turn the genes that make them infectious on or off.

Knowing how disease-causing bacteria, like Yersinia pestis and E. coli, do this may one day help scientists create drugs that control the expression of these genes, thereby making the bacteria harmless, said Vladimir Svetlov, a study co-author and a research associate in microbiology at Ohio State University. The findings appear in the April 13 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

At MIT, researchers are working on an early version of intelligent, robotic helpers--a humanoid called Domo who grasp objects and place them on shelves or counters. Domo is the "next generation" of earlier robots built at MIT-Kismet, which was designed to interact with humans, and Cog, which could learn to manipulate unknown objects.

In the futuristic cartoon series "The Jetsons," a robotic maid named Rosie whizzed around the Jetsons' home doing household chores--cleaning, cooking dinner and washing dishes. The technology is not quite there yet.

The powerful earthquake struck suddenly, shaking the seven-story building so hard it bent, cracked and swayed in response.

Scientists of the MiniBooNE [1] experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermilab [2] today (April 11) announced their first findings. The MiniBooNE results resolve questions raised by observations of the LSND [3] experiment in the 1990s that appeared to contradict findings of other neutrino experiments worldwide. MiniBooNE researchers showed conclusively that the LSND results could not be due to simple neutrino oscillation, a phenomenon in which one type of neutrino transforms into another type and back again.

Scientists have reported what is thought to be one of the world’s greatest mass death of corals ever recorded as a result of the earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia on 28 March 2005.

Michael Marmor, MD, wanted to know what it was like to see through the eyes of an artist. Literally.

Unique three-dimensional solar cells that capture nearly all of the light that strikes them could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems while reducing their size, weight and mechanical complexity.

A disturbingly high prevalence of self-reported drinking and driving has been found among Spanish health professionals. Published today in BMC Public Health, the study reveals that Spanish doctors and nurses are self-reporting drink driving at even higher rates than other university graduates.

Scientists from the Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow have completed work on the inner heart of an experiment which seeks to find out what has happened to all the antimatter created at the start of the Universe. Matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang but somehow the antimatter disappeared resulting in the Universe, and everything in it, including ourselves, being made of the remaining matter.

The primary source of doubt about studies of global warming, economics and medical issues is how well the scientists compiling the data know their statistics.

The European Science Foundation’s three-year SACD network developed new methods for extracting key structural features within the data including outlying values that may be particularly significant within increasingly large and complex data sets.

Working with fruit flies, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a protein required for two neighboring cells to fuse and become one "super cell."

Most cells enjoy their singular existence, but the strength and flexibility of muscles relies on hundreds or even thousands of super cells that make large-scale motion smooth and coordinated, such as flexion of a bicep.

Bacterial infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli are frequently resistant to two or more antibiotics (multi-drug resistant). Because introduction of new antibiotics will not eliminate the problem of multi-drug resistance (mdr), mdr type infections constitute a major health threat, especially to patients that acquire such infections nosocomially.

Coleoptera (beetles) are one of the most successful groups of organisms on Earth. Their success in evolutionary terms is recognised by their extreme adaptive diversity (occupying almost every possible ecological niche) and their longevity (fossils from the Palaeozoic, 280 million years ago). But most of all, their success is indisputable in their sheer species numbers: with over 350,000 named species and many more to be described, they constitute about one fourth of all species on the Planet.