Astronomers from Germany, Bulgaria and Poland have used a completely new technique to find an exotic extrasolar planet. The same approach is sensitive enough to find planets as small as the Earth in orbit around other stars. The group used Transit Timing Variation to detect a planet with 15 times the mass of the Earth [...]
It has been a basic principle of evolution for more than a century that plants and animals can adapt genetically in ways that help them better survive and reproduce. Biologists now document a clear example of a new mechanism for evolution.
The mammalian fucose mutarotase enzyme is known to be involved in incorporating the sugar fucose into protein. Female mice that lack the fucose mutarotase (FucM) gene refuse to let males mount them, and will attempt copulation with other female mice. Researchers created the FucM mouse mutants in order to investigate the role of this enzyme [...]
Continue reading about Gene knockout makes female mice masculine
Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by climate scientists.
Continue reading about Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039
Scientists have discovered two potent human antibodies that can stop more than 90 percent of known HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory, and have demonstrated how one of these disease-fighting proteins accomplishes this. According to the scientists, these antibodies could be used to design improved HIV vaccines, or further developed to prevent [...]
Continue reading about Antibodies found that prevent most HIV strains from infecting human cells
An international team of geoscientists has uncovered geological differences between two segments of an earthquake fault that may explain why the 2004 Sumatra Boxing Day Tsunami was so much more devastating than a second earthquake generated tsunami three months later.
Using a small molecule decoy, scientists have induced epigenetic reprogramming in human and mouse breast cancer cells, reducing the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells by 80 percent.
On 10 July, ESA’s Rosetta will fly past 21 Lutetia, the largest asteroid ever visited by a satellite. After weeks of manoeuvres and a challenging optical navigation campaign, Rosetta is perfectly lined up to skim by at 3162 km. Rosetta is expected to pass Lutetia at a relative speed of 54 000 km/hr, when both [...]
Continue reading about Rosetta lines up for spectacular asteroid flyby
A new study spearheaded by Spanish scientists demonstrates a causal relationship between the onset of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), caused by a protein called a prion, and general surgery.
Continue reading about Surgery linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, according to Spanish study
Continued support for off-shore oil drilling by Gulf Coast residents who are dealing with one of the most devastating environmental disasters in US history might seem surprising, but new research shows that local factors such as unemployment and population growth influence views about the value of environmental conservation and regulation.
Continue reading about Why some communities embrace environmental conservation and others don’t