Popular Science articles about Biology & Nature

Climate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheep

Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller despite the evolutionary benefits of having a large body, researchers report in a study that shows how climate change can trump natural selection.

Learning from locusts

A similarity in brain disturbance between insects and people suffering from migraines, stroke and epilepsy points the way toward new drug therapies to address these conditions.

Virus-resistant grapevines

A good wine needs to ripen. But it's a long way to the barrel. Even before the harvest, the grapevines have to overcome all kinds of obstacles. Extremely hot or...

A question of height

Halle (Saale)/ Washington: Intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. The creation of small heat-shielded habitats and better links between...

Alzheimer's research yields potential drug target

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara and several other institutions have found laboratory evidence that a cluster of peptides may be the toxic agent in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists say the discovery...

Plants' internal clock can improve climate-change models

The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue...

Rampant helper syndrome

The Archaea are single-celled organisms and a domain unto themselves, quite apart from the so called eukaryotes, being bacteria and higher organisms. Many species live under extreme conditions, and carry...

Secrets revealed about how disease-causing DNA mutations occur

A team of Penn State scientists has shed light on the processes that lead to certain human DNA mutations that are implicated in hundreds of inherited diseases such as tuberous...

UNC study rewrites textbook on key genetic phenomenon

Because females carry two copies of the X chromosome to males' one X and one Y, they harbor a potentially toxic double dose of the over 1000 genes that reside...

Mangrove-dependent animals globally threatened

More than 40 percent of a sample of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds that are restricted to mangrove ecosystems are globally threatened with extinction, according to an assessment published in...

Key to evolutionary fitness: Cut the calories

Charles Darwin and his contemporaries postulated that food consumption in birds and mammals was limited by resource levels, that is, animals would eat as much as they could while food...

MIT researchers find new actions of neurochemicals

This is <i>C. elegans</i> expressing red fluorescent protein in dopamine neurons and green fluorescent protein in dopamine receptor-expressing neurons.

Ben-Gurion U. researchers reveal connection between cancer and human evolution

Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have discovered that gene mutations that once helped humans survive may increase the possibility for diseases, including cancer.

UCLA scientists find molecular differences between embryonic stem cells and reprogrammed skin cells

UCLA researchers have found that embryonic stem cells and skin cells reprogrammed into embryonic-like cells have inherent molecular differences, demonstrating for the first time that the two cell types are...

Scientists: Salamanders, regenerative wonders, heal like mammals, people

The salamander is a superhero of regeneration, able to replace lost limbs, damaged lungs, sliced spinal cord -- even bits of lopped-off brain.

Gene's novel role may provide key to treating liver and neurodegenerative diseases

Scientists at Singapore's Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) have made a novel discovery about how the gene, "Fas-apoptosis inhibitory molecule" (FAIM), protects both immune and liver cells from apoptosis, or programmed...

Schizophrenia linked for first time to chromosome region in study led by Stanford scientists

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have played a major role in an international effort that has shown, for the first time, that modern genetic technologies can solve the riddle...

Inbred bumblebees less successful

Declining bumblebee populations are at greater risk of inbreeding, which can trigger a downward spiral of further decline. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have provided...

Stanford discovery pinpoints new connection between cancer cells, stem cells

A molecule called telomerase, best known for enabling unlimited cell division of stem cells and cancer cells, has a surprising additional role in the expression of genes in an important...

Bioethicists lead call for public debates on future uses of stem cells

More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use...

Clocking salt levels in the blood: A link between the circadian rhythm and salt balance

New research, conducted by Charles Wingo and his colleagues, at the University of Florida, Gainsville, suggests a link between the circadian rhythm and control of sodium (salt) levels in mice.

Genetically engineered mice yield clues to 'knocking out' cancer

Deleting two genes in mice responsible for repairing DNA strands damaged by oxidation leads to several types of tumors, providing additional evidence that such stress contributes to the development of...