Life Sciences and Chemistry

A comparison of the newly completed, publicly available, genome sequence of the mouse with the prior sequence of the mouse from Celera Genomics Inc. and with the human genome provides a consensus view of the mouse and important insights into human genes. Hot on the heels of the mouse genome sequence published in this week’s Nature by the Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium of publicly funded laboratories, Genome Biology publishes the first comparison of this ’public’ mous

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh report in the current Journal of Medical Genetics that they have found defects in the gene that produces a common protein in urine and that these defects are linked to two inherited kidney diseases.

For six years, the researchers had studied a family from Western North Carolina that has been plagued with a rare kidney disease, trying to learn more about the genetics of the disease. Anthony J. Bleye

A totally new and highly controversial theory on the origin of life on earth, is set to cause a storm in the science world and has implications for the existence of life on other planets. Research* by Professor William Martin of the University of Dusseldorf and Dr Michael Russell of the Scottish Environmental Research Centre in Glasgow, claims that living systems originated from inorganic incubators – small compartments in iron sulphide rocks. The new theory radically departs from existing perception

Researchers at Ohio State University have identified three genes that are involved in the seasonal clock that determines when hamsters reproduce.

While researchers have learned a lot about reproductive clocks in some animals, this study is unique in helping uncover at least part of the genetic basis for determining how the reproductive system shuts off in the fall and restarts in time for spring.

“This study offers some of the first insights into how changes in gene expression are a

Pseudomonas putida has potential for use in bioremediation, promoting plant growth and fighting plant diseases

In a successful transatlantic collaboration, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, MD, and at four research centers in Germany have deciphered and analyzed the complete genome of a bacterium, i>Pseudomonas putida , that has the potential to be used to remediate organic pollutants in soil as well as to help promote plant growth and fig

Neuroscientists trying to tease out the mechanisms underlying the basis of human sympathy have found that such feelings trigger brain activity not only in areas associated with emotion but also in areas associated with performing an action. But, when people act in socially inappropriate ways this activity is replaced by increased activity in regions associated with social conflict.

Understanding the neurophysiology of such basic human characteristics as sympathy is important because some peo