One of the riddles of mammal evolution explained: the strong conservation of the number of trunk vertebrae. Researchers of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the University of Utah show that this conservation is probably due to the essential role of speed and agility in survival of fast running mammals. They measured variation in vertebrae of 774 individual mammal skeletons of…
In 2011, experiments that allowed the potentially deadly H5N1 flu virus to spread between mammals ignited intense discussions about whether such research should be done at all, much less published. But most of the debate occurred after the research had been carried out. Kenneth Oye, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, thinks that the discussion…
ISG director, Eric Vilain, recently gave a provocative TEDx talk on Sports, Genes and Fairness, at the very heart of Society and Genetics matters. Feel free to share and post anywhere, and enjoy! http://youtu.be/nu9GnW4HD18
A variation in the CHD8 gene has a strong likelihood of leading to a type of autism accompanied by digestive problems, a larger head and wide-set eyes. “We finally got a clear-cut case of an autism-specific gene,” said Raphael Bernier, University of Washington associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and clinical director of the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s.…
Old World monkeys have undergone a remarkable evolution in facial appearance as a way of avoiding interbreeding with closely related and geographically proximate species, researchers from New York University and the University of Exeter have found. Their research provides the best evidence to date for the role of visual cues as a barrier to breeding across species. “Evolution produces adaptations…
There was a time when parents of newborns were perfectly content to know only a few basic things about their babies: their height, their weight, their apgar score, and which side of the family should get the credit for making the kid so adorable. But a graduate student at the University of California, Davis named Razib Khan wanted to know…