If you are a male barn swallow in the United States or the Mediterranean with dark red breast feathers, you're apt to wow potential mates. But if you have long outer tail feathers in the United States, or short ones in the Mediterranean, the females may not be so impressed.
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"Whooo ... are ... you?" asked the hookah-smoking caterpillar of Alice, in Wonderland. Asking the question of the caterpillar instead, an international team of scientists have published their findings from the sequencing, annotation, and exploration of the genome of the tobacco hornworm moth. The project involved 114 scientists from 50 research institutions worldwide, including from the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the University of Geneva (UNIGE).
BETHESDA, MD--The problem of persistence has long troubled undergraduate programs hoping to guide promising students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups into science careers, but a new study by science education researchers at the University of Wisconsin says that the problem appears to be translating students' initial interest into confidence that they can proceed in science.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital immunologists have identified the protein trigger in the body's quick-reaction innate immune system that specifically recognizes the influenza virus in infected cells and triggers their death.
Washington, DC - August 12, 2016 - Gingivitis, a common and mild form of gum disease can progress to periodontitis, a more serious infection that damages the soft tissue of the gums and sometimes even destroys the bone supporting the teeth. An international team of researchers and clinicians has charted the microbial ecology of the mouth at all stages of this progression, in nearly 1,000 women in Malawi. This work is laying a foundation of knowledge that could lead to better oral health.
In Switzerland, between 300,000 and 700,000 patients per year visit a doctor due to acute diarrhoea. Until now, the financial burden on the Swiss health care system had been completely unclear. The study, recently published in the scientific journal Epidemiology & Infection, estimates the costs entailed until a patient is cured.
Mouse models are extensively used in pharmaceutical and medical research, and it is known that the communities of microbes in their intestine can have a significant impact on the research output. However, there is still insufficient information available about many bacteria inhabiting the intestine of mice. For the first time, a collection of cultured bacterial strains provides comprehensive information on the mouse gut microbiota: Scientists at the Technical University of Munich were able to isolate, characterize, and archive a hundred strains, including 15 hitherto unknown taxa.
Cell division is a fundamental process of life, producing two cells from one single cell at each cell division. During animal development, a fertilized egg divides many times, increasing the number of cells, which are precisely organized within the animal's body. How many times a cell undergoes cell division and how the two daughter cells are positioned after the division can be critical for shaping the animal.
Black children and young adults are about half as likely as their white counterparts to get mental health care despite having similar rates of mental health problems, according to a study published today [Friday, Aug. 12] in the International Journal of Health Services. Hispanic youth also get only half as much mental health care as whites.
University of Utah chemists have found that the Zika virus contains genetic structures similar to other viruses in the Flaviviridae family, and that these structures may serve as potential antiviral drug targets.
Some of the world's most important discoveries - penicillin, vulcanized rubber and Velcro, to name a few - were made by accident. In fact, it's been said that upward of half of all scientific discoveries are by chance.
Add vortex ring freezing to that long list of "accidents."
Plants produce volatiles, air-borne organic chemical compounds, to attract pollinators and seed dispersers, and to repulse plant-eating animals and microbes. Humans have used them for thousands of years as perfumes and spices. A study published on August 11th in PLOS Pathogens reports that virus infection can change a plant's volatile profile to increase reproductive success of the infected--virus-susceptible--host, and might so counteract the selective pressure that favors evolution of plant resistance.
Highlight
DALLAS, Aug. 11, 2016 - Proactive strategies for promoting good heart health should begin at birth, yet most American children do not meet the American Heart Association's definition of ideal childhood cardiovascular health, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.