Body

MADISON, Wis. -- Drosophila erecta is an African fruit fly with a big problem: The male sexual organ is so rough that sex acts, almost literally, as a two-edged sword -- necessary for reproduction, but physically injurious.

Because evolution places reproduction as first among equals, females have developed overlapping solutions to their dilemma. First, as Amir Yassin, a scientist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Laboratory of Genetics recently discovered, females have evolved protective armor plates in their reproductive tract.

Using a new computer science approach, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Columbia University and Stanford University discovered a distinctive molecular feature -- a biomarker -- that identified colon cancer patients who were most likely to remain disease-free up to five years after surgery. The biomarker, a protein called CDX2, also helped the researchers identify Stage II colon cancer patients who are most likely to benefit from chemotherapy after surgery.

People of the Neolithic age around 6,000 years ago were closely connected both in life and death. This became evident in a detailed archaeological and anthropological of a collective grave containing 50 bodies near Burgos, northern Spain. In the pioneering study, researchers used a whole array of modern methods to examine the way of life in the region at that time. Published in the academic journal PLOS ONE, the research was conducted by anthropologists at the University of Basel and archaeologists from the University of Valladolid.

For roughly a century, researchers have been trying to figure out how different female cuckoos manage to lay such a variety of different egg colors to match different host birds. Now, a group of researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has come up with an answer to this puzzle, in cooperation with researchers from all over Europe and Asia.

The short answer is that "the female bird decides everything," says researcher Frode Fossøy.

HANOVER, N.H. - Jan. 21, 2016 - Certain types of debt that parents take on may have adverse effects on children's socioemotional well-being according to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Dartmouth published by the journal Pediatrics.

Can adjustments in the presentation of food make a difference in the choices, especially among people living in poverty? Are clients at food pantries likely to make the healthiest food choices? New research published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research suggests that food pantry clients deal with a number factors that can lead to a less healthy choice and that simple adjustments in the pantry set-up may help increase healthy choices.

The oral drug ivacaftor appears to be safe and could be beneficial to young children between the ages of 2 and 5 with a specific type of cystic fibrosis, according to new research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. The findings also suggest a potential window of opportunity in early life when organ damage could be mitigated.

NEW YORK, NY (January 20, 2016)--A multicenter research team has identified a biomarker that predicts which stage II colon cancer patients may benefit from chemotherapy after surgery to prevent a recurrence of their disease.

The study was published today in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cancer cells are normal cells that go awry by making bad developmental decisions during their lives. In a study involving the fruit fly equivalent of an oncogene implicated in many human leukemias, Northwestern University researchers have gained insight into how developing cells normally switch to a restricted, or specialized, state and how that process might go wrong in cancer.

Quebec City, Jan. 20, 2016 -- Researchers from Université Laval and Quebec's Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks have shown that the DNA suspended in lake water can be used to effectively estimate the abundance of fish living in it. The details of this new approach, which could revolutionize how fish stocks are managed in lakes, are presented in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Melanoma is the most dangerous and lethal form of skin cancer. But just how long will a patient survive following the removal of a melanoma tumor?

A more definitive answer to that question could come from new studies at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. Researchers there have discovered an inherited genetic marker that might provide clinicians with a personalized tool to gauge an individual's survival and determine which patients require closer monitoring in the years following surgery.

From the middle-school child considering the premier brands of soccer shoes, to the college graduate weighing which graduate test prep course to take, a common marketing message from consumer brands is "you will perform better with us."

In a new study, Frank Germann, of the Department of Marketing in the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, and colleagues Aaron Garvey of the University of Kentucky and Lisa Bolton of Penn State University examine if such performance brands can cause a placebo effect.

Oil from genetically modified (GM) oil seed crops could replace fish oil as a primary source of the beneficial Omega 3 fatty acid EPA - according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Researchers studied the effect in mice of consuming feed enriched with oil from glasshouse-grown genetically engineered Camelina sativa, developed at the agricultural science centre Rothamsted Research.

The goal of the research was to discover whether mammals (using mice as a model) can absorb and accumulate EPA from this novel source of omega-3s.

A new carnivorous dinosaur species named Dracoraptor hanigani uncovered in the south of Wales is possibly the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur from the UK, according to a study published January 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Martill from the University of Portsmouth, England, and colleagues from National Museum Wales and University of Manchester.

Baleen whale calves develop oxygen-carrying myoglobin as they mature, and exercise may drive the key component of early development, according to a study published January 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rachel Cartwright from the California State University, Channel Islands, and colleagues.