Life Sciences and Chemistry

A physical map of the genetic makeup of a mouse – the mouse genome – is 98 percent complete and is being released online by the journal Nature. Researchers at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis played a major role in the international effort, as they did in the sequencing and mapping of the human genome.

“The mouse plays a vital role in research on human biology and disease,” says John D. McPherson, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics a

Virginia Tech student presents first findings at international geochemistry conference

Every living thing needs iron. The strategies some organisms use to accumulate iron can impact the quality of our environment and could be adapted for our use.

Imagine a falconer releasing his falcon to nab pigeons for his dinner. That is somewhat how the bacteria, Azotobacter vinelandii , acquire iron. They release siderophore molecules, called azotobactin, which nabs iron out of m

New polymer could prevent burns, food poisoning, traffic accidents

Imagine a fire door that changes color when hot, football jerseys that can tell when a player is overheating, road signs that change color indicating icy road conditions, and food packaging stamps that disappear when products have been kept at room temperature for too long. At the University of Rhode Island, chemists Brett Lucht and Bill Euler and chemical engineer Otto Gregory are working to make these products a real

When you gaze at a bowl of fruit, why don’t some of the bananas look red, some of the apples look purple and some of the grapes look yellow?

This question isn’t as nonsensical as it may sound. When your brain processes the information coming from your eyes, it stores the information about an object’s shape in one place and information about its color in another. So it’s something of a miracle that the shapes and colors of each fruit are combined seamlessly into distinct objects when you lo

Scientists in the past decade have discovered that remnants of ancient germ line infections called human endogenous retroviruses make up a substantial part of the human genome. Once thought to be merely “junk” DNA and inactive, many of these elements, in fact, perform functions in human cells.

Now, a new study by John McDonald of the University of Georgia and King Jordan at the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health, suggests for the first time th

Researchers in Oxford University¡¦s Department of Chemistry have devised a new method of selectively oxidising terpenes to produce compounds of particular interest to the perfumery, flavour and pharmaceutical industries.

Terpenes and their derivatives are commonly used in industry to modify flavours and fragrances, and new compounds for trial are continuously needed. The terpenes themselves are not of commercial interest, but rather the derivatives that commonly require stereoselective funct