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Heterogeneous parallel computing combines various processing elements with different characteristics that share a single memory system. Normally multiple cores (like the 'multicores' in some smart phones or personal computers) are combined with graphic cards and other components to process large quantities of data.

The Kansas prairie seems like the very picture of beauty and simplicity, with undulating fields of corn and wheat stretching as far as the eye can see.

But below ground, the soil bears witness to the incredible diversity and chaos of life within even the smallest patch of ground. Just a teaspoonful of Kansas soil contains tens of thousands of microbial species.

Now scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have untangled that Kansas-based mess of microbes more fully than scientists have ever done for a sample of soil.

Tomato plants deter attacks from a parasitic plant that's known to ravage crops by detecting one of its peptides, a new study reveals. Worldwide, parasitic plants cost billions of dollars in crop losses, but a better understanding of how some plants fend off invaders could help efforts to mitigate these losses. Cuscuta reflexa is a parasitic, leafless vine that infects the stems of most dicotyledonous plants -one exception is Solanum lycopersicum, a species of tomato.

Researchers have developed a technique to generate miniature light beams that are twisted in orientation, similar in shape to a helix. While such a feat has been achieved on larger scales using bulky devices, the ability to create the same effect on a microscale has remained elusive; tapping into angled light on smaller scales could lead to important advances in telecommunication and information technologies, by increasing the rate of the information transmission.

When a plant evolves new traits, it can get a little boost in terms of its ability to spread through a uniform landscape, and a big boost in terms of its ability to spread through a landscape that's "patchy," a new experimental study shows. The results suggest that when predicting how fast certain species -- including invasive species -- will spread, accounting for any evolutionary changes they are undergoing is critical.

Scientists from the University of British Columbia have shown that there is a genetic basis to the migratory routes flown by songbirds, and have narrowed in on a relatively small cluster of genes that may govern the behaviour.

"It's amazing that the routes and timing of such complex behaviour could be genetically determined and associated with a very small portion of the genome," said researcher Kira Delmore, lead author of the paper published today in Current Biology.

According to new research it could be difficult to improve the health of the English bulldog, one of the world's unhealthiest dog breeds, from within its existing gene pool. The findings will be published in the open access journal Canine Genetics and Epidemiology.

The English bulldog's limited genetic diversity could minimize the ability of breeders to recreate healthy phenotypes from the existing genetic stock, which were created by human-directed selection for specific desired physical traits.

New research by University of Iowa scientists helps explain how a hormone system often targeted to treat cardiovascular disease can also lower metabolism and promote obesity.

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) controls blood pressure and is important for cardiovascular health. Many of the drugs used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart failure block or inhibit the RAS.

Official government statistics on traffic deaths in southwest India significantly misrepresented the number of pedestrian and motorcycle deaths in the region over a two-year period, casting doubt on the reliability of that country's government data on traffic fatalities, a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.

There are likely to be many more pedestrian and motorcycle deaths in India than official government figures state, suggests research published online in the journal Injury Prevention.

Police reports of the actual toll of road traffic injuries differ substantially from official statistics, the study shows, prompting the authors to urge researchers and policy makers to steer clear of government stats on this topic until the problem has been fixed.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY - Reducing levels of antioxidants in pancreatic cancer cells can help kill them, newly published research reveals, suggesting an entirely new treatment strategy for the notoriously lethal illness, in which less than 5 percent of patients survive 5 years.

An international team of researchers has discovered the mutation responsible for a rare, newly identified genetic disorder that causes craniofacial abnormalities and developmental delays. The mutation disrupts normal protein transport within cells, shedding light on a fundamental process in cell biology and early human development.

Overall incidence of type 2 diabetes has stabilised over recent years, according to a new study published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes), whilst mortality has declined, suggesting that increasing prevalence of the disease within the population may be attributed not to increasing numbers but to longer survival of patients with diabetes. The findings were not equal across the population, however: significant differences are noted based on gender, age, and socioeconomic status.

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have taken another crucial step towards understanding how plants initiate flowering.

This new development uncovers a previously unidentified step in the process of vernalisation, which links an important gene responsible for flowering time to the proteins that regulate it.

This new finding could contribute towards the development of new varieties of crops adapted to produce the food we need in a changing climate.

Women could prevent contracting the mosquito-borne Zika virus while pregnant by timing the first months of pregnancy with seasonal declines in mosquito activity, according to a new paper. The paper is the first to suggest that women in the numerous countries affected by the Zika virus epidemic can still safely pursue motherhood rather than forgo pregnancy altogether.