Cuba on 30 June became the first country in the world to receive validation from the World Health Organization (WHO) that it has eliminated mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and syphilis. Low-level transmission still occurs there: in 2013, three babies were born with congenital syphilis and two with HIV. But the country has met the official WHO criteria for elimination: …
Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered that planarians, commonly used in high-school biology labs to study regeneration and the primitive nervous system, are actually quite sophisticated when it comes to modeling the response of the developing human nervous system to potentially toxic chemicals. The researchers published their findings in the current issue of the journal Toxicological Sciences. “Because planarians…
Bats are dying by the millions, and there’s no sure way to stop the plague of white-nose syndrome that could cause major ecological change and even extinctions, say biologists at Southern Connecticut State University. “About 7 million bats have died since its initial discovery in 2006” in the Howe Caverns west of Albany, New York, said Wisniewski. The little brown…
Chimpanzees are capable of metacognition, or thinking about one’s own thinking, and can adjust their behavior accordingly, researchers at Georgia State University, Agnes Scott College, Wofford College and the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York have discovered. Their findings, published June 6 in the journal Cognition, suggest chimpanzees share with humans the capacity for metacognitive monitoring, which reflects…
A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge has described for the first time in humans how the epigenome — the suite of molecules attached to our DNA that switch our genes on and off — is comprehensively erased in early primordial germ cells prior to the generation of egg and sperm. However, the study, published in the…
Men and women often enter relationships with different long-term goals. In the animal world, differences in approaches to reproductive success can lead to sexual conflict. In a new study, scientists show that sexual conflicts can evolve rapidly in natural populations, driven by competition among males for mating success. Now, in a new study, scientists of the University of Oregon and…