Homo sapiens appeared 180,000 years ago, but for the next hundred thousand years stuck to a comparatively small area centered around a number of central African lakes. After this time, though, the species moved out from central Africa and across the continent in what has been called the great expansion – ultimately ending up in…
How does a tabby cat earn its stripes? With the right DNA. Scientists say they’ve found the gene that sets the common tabby pattern — stripes or blotches. It’s one of several genes that collaborate to create the distinctive design of a cat’s coat, and it’s the first of the pattern genes to be identified….
Map reveals the activity of genes across the entire brain to help shed light on neurological and psychiatric conditions
A new study, published online in Biology Letters, has utilized a massive molecular dataset to reconstruct the evolutionary history of lizards and snakes. The results reveal a surprising finding about the evolution of snakes: that most snakes we see living on the surface today arose from ancestors that lived underground. The study was based on…
People with autism suffer from a pervasive developmental disorder of the brain that becomes evident in early childhood. Researchers Peter Scheiffele and Kaspar Vogt have identified a specific dysfunction in neuronal circuits that is caused by autism. In the journal Science, the scientists also report about their success in reversing these neuronal changes. These findings…
Experiments on division of labour among honeybees reveal why some worker bees are foragers while others nurse their queens
Researchers from Australia have developed a genetic test that can predict an individual’s risk of developing Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). The test will be particularly useful to detect autism in people whose families have a history of the developmental disorder. ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral…
Scientists who found well preserved woolly mammoth remains in a remote part of Russia hope they might contain the necessary material to clone the long extinct beast. The Russian-led international team found the remains, including fur and bone marrow, with some cell nuclei intact, in the Ust-Yansk area of the Yakutia region on Russia’s Arctic…
It usually takes two snakes — a female and a male — to make a litter of baby copperheads. But research now shows that copperheads and their venomous cousins cottonmouths don’t always require a partner to establish the next generation. These vipers are capable of virgin births. For some vertebrates, parthenogenesis — asexual reproduction in…
Biology is making it clearer by the day that a man’s health and well-being have a measurable impact on his future children’s health and happiness. This is not because a strong, resilient man has a greater likelihood of being a fabulous dad — or not only for that reason — or because he’s probably got…