Life Sciences and Chemistry

A study by biological anthropologists at University of Kent has revealed that contemporary, British women who believed they had a longer time to live, were more likely to give birth to a son than women who thought that they would die earlier. According to Dr Sarah Johns, who led the research, this may be because it requires more effort to be pregnant with, give birth to, and raise a son to adulthood.

The study, which is published today in the journal Biology Letters, suggests that the sex ra

Duke University Medical Center researchers have developed a combination immune suppression and thymus transplantation technique to save infants born with complete DiGeorge Syndrome, a fatal genetic disorder.

Babies with complete DiGeorge Syndrome have no thymus, a gland important in the maturation of T cells — specialized immune cells that help protect the body against viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. The thymus teaches T cells to fight infection while not attacking the infant

Everyone knows not to get between a mother and her offspring. What makes these females unafraid when it comes to protecting their young may be low levels of a peptide, or small piece of protein, released in the brain that normally activates fear and anxiety, according to new research published in the August issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.

“We see this fierce protection of offspring is so many animals,” says Stephen Gammie, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of zo

Virginia Tech has a second Amorphophallus titanum, or “corpse plant,” ready to bloom and emit its intensely powerful stench. People are invited to tie bandanas over their noses and come see the rare and unusual plant.

The horticulture greenhouse containing the plant is open to visitors Monday through Friday, July 26-30, and August 2-6, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The likely date for the plant to bloom is Wednesday, Aug. 4, said Scott Rapier, greenhouse manager in the Department of Horticul

Scientists have developed a new screening technique to help them look for genes that change patients’ responses to cancer drugs and other medications.

Researchers looking for such connections confront an enormous hunting ground of approximately 33,000 human genes. Normally their only options for mounting a search in such a vast field are either to rely on anecdotal reports of dramatically altered patient reactions, or to conduct extensive surveys of the genes for all the proteins kn

Nature can reset the clock in certain types of cancer and reverse many of the elements responsible for causing malignancy, reports a research team led by Whitehead Institute Member Rudolf Jaenisch, in collaboration with Lynda Chin from Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The team demonstrated this by successfully cloning mice from an advanced melanoma cell.

“This settles a principal biological question,” says Jaenisch, who also is a professor of biology at MIT. “The epigenetic elements of cancer