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A team of researchers from the University of California, Davis and the University of Washington have demonstrated that the conductance of DNA can be modulated by controlling its structure, thus opening up the possibility of DNA's future use as an electromechanical switch for nanoscale computing. Although DNA is commonly known for its biological role as the molecule of life, it has recently garnered significant interest for use as a nanoscale material for a wide-variety of applications.

Researchers have discovered that swans' wariness is partly determined by their genes. The research, which is published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, suggests that swans which are genetically predisposed to be timid are more likely to live in non-urban areas, and the findings could have important implications for releasing animals bred in captivity into the wild.

Scientists have developed a technique to perform dietary analysis of fish by analysing microscopic tooth wear.

The process, which involves taking moulds of the teeth similar to those a dentist might take, used focus variation microscopy to digitally capture details of the tooth surfaces, zooming in to an area just 1/7th of a mm in width, around the same as that of a human hair.

Women who used contraceptive implants or injections after an initial termination were among those with an increased likelihood of a repeat abortion in the long term, finds a study published online in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.

The large UK study found that women who used either implants or the contraceptive injection Depo-Provera were more likely to have another abortion 2-5 years after the first termination compared to those who used other methods.

Athens, Ga. - The billions of marine microorganisms present in every liter of seawater represent a structured ecological community that regulates how the Earth functions in practically every way, from energy consumption to respiration. As inhabitants of the largest environment on Earth, microbial marine systems drive changes in every global system.

LA JOLLA, CA - December 10, 2015 - A new study, led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), shows how different pharmaceutical drugs hit either the "on" or "off" switch of a signaling protein linked to asthma, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

"The long-term goal is to use this knowledge to help discover new drugs," said TSRI Professor David Millar, senior author of the study.

A single dose of psilocybin, the major hallucinogenic component in magic mushrooms, induces long-lasting decreases in anxiety and depression in patients diagnosed with life-threatening cancer according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

In the face of adverse conditions, people might feel tempted by two radically different options -- hunker down and wait for conditions to improve, or press on and hope for the best. It would seem that trees employ similar options when the climate turns dry and hot.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The anti-hormone therapy tamoxifen can reduce breast cancer recurrence by about half in women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer. But it works better in some women than others. Researchers are not sure why.

"We do know that some tumors are inherently resistant to tamoxifen because of tumor genetic changes," says Daniel L. Hertz, Pharm.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and member of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (Dec. 10, 2015) -- Many science researchers struggle with translating their research findings to legislative policies and health practices, causing the majority of new findings to remain largely inside the scientific community. With more than 300 million monthly users, Twitter's success has piqued the interests of many science researchers as a possible tool to publicize new research findings.

Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is an emerging fungal pathogen that has caused recent die-offs of salamanders in Europe. Laboratory experiments have shown that it can kill some North American species as well, confirming a serious threat to salamander populations on the continent.

A Pearl (a short essay) published on December 10th in PLOS Pathogens summarizes what is known about the threat posed by the pathogen, discusses current initiatives in the USA, Canada, and Mexico to mitigate the threat, and calls for the creation of a North American Bsal Strategic Plan.

11 December 2015 - The Periodic Table of Protein Complexes, published today in Science, offers a new way of looking at the enormous variety of structures that proteins can build in nature, which ones might be discovered next, and predicting how entirely novel structures could be engineered. Created by an interdisciplinary team led by researchers at the Wellcome Genome Campus and the University of Cambridge, the Table provides a valuable tool for research into evolution and protein engineering.

ATLANTA-Research-funded Ph.D. recipients earn high wages after graduation, participate in national and international labor markets, and make an important impact on local economic development, according to a new study.

Almost 40 percent of these Ph.D. graduates enter industry, where they are disproportionately hired at large and high-wage establishments in technology and professional service industries. They also earn higher-than-average salaries, all of which contribute to economic growth.

Male prairie voles that roam widely looking for mates have poorer spatial memory than their faithful male counterparts, who better recall locations of rough encounters with other males and thus stay closer to home, a new study shows. The study suggests that promiscuity some prairie voles exhibit may be related to gene expression that's heritable. North American prairie voles are most often monogamous, forming couples and raising their young together.

An emerging fungal pathogen that has caused recent die-offs of salamanders in Europe, faces a formidable foe in North America: the Amphibian Survival Alliance and its partners, who today published a paper outlining the conservation community's proactive efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of the disease in the United States, Canada and Mexico.