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iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the sub-tropical north-eastern corner of South Africa has become famous for its birdlife, crocodiles and hippopotamuses that frolic in the warm estuarine waters of Lake St Lucia.

The Neanderthal genome included harmful mutations that made the hominids around 40% less reproductively fit than modern humans, according to estimates published in the latest issue of the journal GENETICS. Non-African humans inherited some of this genetic burden when they interbred with Neanderthals, though much of it has been lost over time. The results suggest that these harmful gene variants continue to reduce the fitness of some populations today. The study also has implications for management of endangered species.

As a new tool in CRISPR genome editing, Cpf1 has sparked an explosion of interest for its attributes that differ from Cas9: It requires only a single RNA that CRISPR RNA assembly is simpler; its staggered cleavage patterns may facilitate substituting existing DNA with desired sequences; and it recognizes thymidine-rich DNA sequences, which has been less explored than the guanosine-rich sequences recognized by Cas9. In sum, Cpf1 is expected to broaden the scope of CRISPR genome editing target sites with enhanced efficiency.

For most of the last 45,000 years Europe was inhabited solely by hunter-gatherers. About 8,500 years ago a new form of subsistence - farming - started to spread across the continent from modern-day Turkey, reaching central Europe by 7,500 years ago and Britain by 6,100 years ago. This new subsistence strategy led to profound changes in society, including greater population density, new diseases, and poorer health. Such was the impact of farming on how we live that scientists have debated for more than 100 years how it was spread across Europe.

Roads present a serious threat to bat populations, indicating that protection policies are failing.

The University of Exeter experts studied data collected across Europe and concluded that roads present "a real and growing danger" to protected bat populations. The research, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), concluded bats were often reluctant to cross roads, disrupting their ability to reach feeding and roosting areas. The group also identified more than 1,000 bat fatalities caused by collisions with cars.

Microorganisms can better withstand the heavy metal uranium when glutathione is present, a molecule composed of three amino acids. Scientists from the German based Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Bern in Switzerland have now proven this resilience by closely examining cell heat balance. They discovered that glutathione is an effective decontamination agent. The studies provide important insights into bioremediation of mining waste piles and other contaminated areas with the help of bacteria or plants.

Many marine invertebrates have complex life histories in which the planktonic larval phase acts as the vehicle to connect otherwise disjointed benthic adult populations which are mostly non-mobile. Larval swimming behaviors in response to various chemical, biological and physical cues have important implications for the adult populations, but to date, most studies on larvae-flow interactions have focused on competent larvae near settlement.

Cell biologists' most notorious approach to detect and semi-quantify proteins, western blotting, could well be on its way down. Professor Sven Eyckerman (VIB/UGent) and colleagues developed a set of universal protein tags that warrant protein quantification via targeted proteomics techniques. The development and applications of these new tags - named Proteotypic peptides for Quantification by SRM (PQS) - are described in the online, open access journal Scientific Reports.

FRANKFURT. Birds have a light-dependent compass in their eyes. This compass gives them information about the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Prof. Roswitha Wiltschko's research group at Goethe University Frankfurt, together with French colleagues, has elucidated how this compass works at the molecular level.

People with type 2 diabetes could be helped by the discovery of a gene linked to leanness.

A drug that affects the activity of the gene has been shown to reduce the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in obese mice.

Researchers say an improved version of the medicine could be developed as a therapy for people with the condition.

The treatment improved sensitivity to insulin - a hormone that controls blood sugar levels - and could also help obese people reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

MPs have expressed an overwhelming willingness to use a proposed new service to swiftly link them with academics in relevant areas to help ensure policy is based on the latest evidence.

The government is pursuing a drive towards evidence-based policy, yet policy makers still struggle to incorporate evidence into their decisions. One reason for this is limited easy access to the latest research findings or to academic experts who can respond to questions about evidence quickly.

In these areas, the number of species can be accurately controlled; however species numbers tend to be relatively low and the food webs therefore not very complex. In a new study, researchers have now investigated to which extent the results from such experiments translate to real landscapes. To this end, they collected all of the leaves from an area of ground measuring one square metre in 80 forests in Germany and on Sumatra (Indonesia) in order to examine the animals living there: primarily insects, spiders and snails; a total of over 12,000 individuals from almost 1,200 species.

A small survey of residents of a Florida Keys neighborhood where officials hope to release genetically modified mosquitos to potentially reduce the threat of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika finds a lack of support for the control method, according to new research from former and current students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

For seven months, three-year-old Emil Abbasov underwent chemotherapy to fight the tangerine-sized, cancerous tumor growing in his abdomen. But each time, the tumor resisted harder. Each time, he felt more side effects.

Surgery helped remove some of the tumor, but not enough. So doctors at University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital took a new approach, combining the forces of immunotherapy and chemotherapy in a nonconventional way.

After 17 rounds of the combination treatment, Emil's tumor was completely gone.

For those worried about the burden of old age, a recent Harvard study has some good news.