Evolutionary geneticists have published a ground-breaking study that characterizes the common ancestor of all life on earth, LUCA (last universal common ancestor). Their findings show that the 3.8-billion-year-old organism was not the creature usually imagined.
Scientists have discovered a gene mutation that impairs the placenta and also is influential in cancer development.
Continue reading about Study Of Placenta Unexpectedly Leads To Cancer Gene
Hundreds of trillions of bacteria make their home in the vertebrate gut. Though many of these microbes perform helpful duties for their host, others — the pathogens — are unwelcome visitors, causing disease. New research unveils a key survival circuit, which activates a signaling cascade, switching on or off a suite of genes necessary to [...]
Continue reading about Gut Instinct: Salmonella Bacteria’s Molecular Tactics To Cause Illness
Spinal muscular atrophy, a neurodegenerative disorder that causes the weakening of muscles, is the leading cause of infant death and occurs in 1 in 6,000 live births. While trans-splicing (a form of molecular therapy) has had impressive results as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy in cell-based models of disease, scientists have been unable to [...]
Continue reading about Molecular Therapy For Spinal Muscular Atrophy Closer To Clinical Use
Scientists have figured out why a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine used in 1966 to inoculate children against the infection instead caused severe respiratory disease and effectively stopped efforts to make a better one. The findings could restart work on effective killed-virus vaccines not only for RSV but other respiratory viruses, researchers say.
Researchers have created a new tool called the “Dirty War Index” based on the laws of war, a tool which identifies rates of prohibited or highly undesirable (”dirty”) war outcomes, such as torture, child injury and civilian death.
A selection of this week’s stories from Science’s new policy blog
Intention matters when we hurt others
Continue reading about Pain: ‘Tis Better to Receive–Accidentally
Deer and insects are a boon for invasive plants