Life Sciences and Chemistry

Early humans came out of Africa again and again.

There were at least three major waves of early human migration out of Africa, our DNA suggests. Apparently the wanderers made love, not war: gene patterns hint that later emigrants bred with residents.

Human origins are contentious. Most researchers agree that there have been several major migrations out of Africa. Some hold that human populations in many regions evolved in parallel after Homo erectus left Africa around two mi

Gloves are coming off in ancient bacteria bust-up.

A claim to have found evidence of the oldest living things on Earth is being fiercely contested. The argument looks set to run and run, and no one may win, but it may lead to a better understanding of the origins of life on our planet.

The debate is academic, but its implications are not. The ’fossil bacteria’ in question are around 3.5 billion years old. That’s roughly one billion years older than the only confirmed fossil

Under the agreement, the two companies will work to develop affinity-based products for use in the production processes for protein-based pharmaceuticals. The development of these products will be based on Affibodies™, a novel class of small, robust affinity proteins designed to bind desired protein targets. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

“The use of Affibodies™ opens up new possibilities for large-scale protein purification for production of protein based pharmaceuti

Ancestors of the flightless figurehead of extinction island-hopped.

The flightless dodo’s ungainly shape hid an island-hopping past, say researchers. DNA from the extinct bird has revealed its place in the pigeon family tree, and suggests how it came to end up on its home, and graveyard, the island of Mauritius 1 .

The dodo’s strange appearance led to centuries of wrangling over its ancestry. “It’s the figurehead of extinction, yet little is known about its e

The reindeer`s antlers make the beauty and the pride of a male, being a reliable weapon during spring tournaments. In autumn the antlers are no longer needed, so reindeers shed the antlers and grow them up anew in the next season. With the majority of the reindeer types, the male sex hormones control the growth of the antlers. But the reindeer`s doe has also got antlers. A pregnant doe carries antlers throughout winter, as the antlers help a doe to get food from under the snow, to keep off predators

New technique could help rapid detection of infecting organisms in hospitals and prove authenticity of foods such

Researchers at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA) are about to put ultra-violet Raman spectroscopy through its paces as a new technique for studying biological materials.
Dr Roy Goodacre and colleagues in the Institute of Biological Sciences have been awarded a grant worth £306,291 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop an