How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing color and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin’s day. Now, scientists have found “hot spots” in the butterflies’ genes that they believe will explain one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world.
A new vaccine to prevent the deadly malaria infection has shown promise to protect the most vulnerable patients — young children — against the disease, according to an international team of researchers. The vaccine seems to replicate in children the natural protective immunity that adults develop after years of intense exposure to malaria. A child [...]
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Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers — the source of long-standing human health concerns — from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics.
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Researchers believe they may have discovered how the hormone progesterone acts to prevent preterm birth.
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Agricultural scientists are discovering more about what goes on inside malting barley grains as they germinate, or sprout, in the malt house.
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Researchers studying 120 British youth from inner-city areas found that mothers who became depressed when pregnant were four times as likely to have children who were violent at 16. This was true for both boys and girls. The mothers’ depression, in turn, was predicted by their own aggressive and disruptive behavior as teens.
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A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines’ processing components or “qubits.” Now, a physicist has discovered how to do just that — demonstrating a method that [...]
Groundbreaking research could lead to the development of more potent drugs or a vaccine for malaria. Scientists have scored a world first in successfully using transcriptional profiling to uncover hitherto unknown gene expression (activity) patterns in malaria.
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The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. Researchers in Spain have presented an innovative technique that enables plant leaves to be studied using ultrasound in a quick, simple and noninvasive fashion.
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Fewer African Americans than Caucasians develop multiple sclerosis, statistics show, but their disease progresses more rapidly, and they don’t respond as well to therapies, a new study by neurology researchers has found.