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Thursday, July 4, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


New insights into how antibiotics damage human cells suggest novel strategies for making long-term antibiotic use safer

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:06 PM PDT

Scientists have discovered why long-term treatment with many common antibiotics can cause harmful side effects -- and they have uncovered two easy strategies that could help prevent these dangerous responses.

Exercise reorganizes the brain to be more resilient to stress

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:06 PM PDT

Physical activity reorganizes the brain so that its response to stress is reduced and anxiety is less likely to interfere with normal brain function.

Great ape genetic diversity catalog frames primate evolution and future conservation

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:05 AM PDT

A catalog of great ape genetic diversity, the most comprehensive ever, elucidates the evolution and population histories of great apes from Africa and Indonesia. The resource will aid in conservation efforts to preserve natural genetic diversity in populations. Scientists and wildlife conservationists from around the world assisted the genetic analysis of 79 wild and captive-born great apes. They represent all six great ape species: chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla, and western lowland gorilla, and seven subspecies, as well as 9 humans.

Development of hands and feet may help unlock evolution's toolkit

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:02 AM PDT

Thousands of sequences that control genes are active in the developing human limb and may have driven the evolution of the human hand and foot, a comparative genomics study has found.

DNA markers in low-IQ autism suggest heredity

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:02 AM PDT

Researchers who compared the DNA of patients with autism and intellectual disability to that of their unaffected siblings found that the affected siblings had significantly more "runs of homozygosity," or blocks of DNA that are the same from both parents. The finding suggests a role for recessive inheritance in this autism subgroup and highlights homozygosity as a new approach to understanding genetic mechanisms in autism.

First supper is a life changer for lizards

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:02 AM PDT

For young lizards born into this unpredictable world, their very first meal can be a major life changer. So say researchers who report evidence that this early detail influences how the lizards disperse from their birthplaces, how they grow, and whether they survive. A quick or slow meal even influences the lizards' reproductive success two years later in a surprising way.

Military sonar can alter blue whale behavior: Human-made noises cause ocean giants to move away from feeding spots

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 09:06 AM PDT

Some blue whales off the coast of California change their behavior when exposed to the sort of underwater sounds used during US military exercises. The whales may alter diving behavior or temporarily avoid important feeding areas, according to new research.

New mechanism for human gene expression discovered

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 09:05 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered the first human "bifunctional" gene -- a single gene that creates a single mRNA transcript that codes for two different proteins, simultaneously. Their finding elucidates a previously unknown mechanism in our basic biology, and has potential to guide therapy for at least one neurological disease.

New knowledge about early galaxies

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 07:14 AM PDT

The early galaxies of the universe were very different from today's galaxies. Using new detailed studies carried out with the ESO Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers have studied an early galaxy in unprecedented detail and determined a number of important properties such as size, mass, content of elements and have determined how quickly the galaxy forms new stars.

Epigenetic changes to fat cells following exercise

Posted: 03 Jul 2013 07:13 AM PDT

Exercise, even in small doses, changes the expression of our innate DNA. New research has described for the first time what happens on an epigenetic level in fat cells when we undertake physical activity.

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