The Y chromosome is a symbol of maleness, present only in males and encoding genes important for male reproduction. But a new study has shown that live mouse progeny can be generated with assisted reproduction using germ cells from males which do not have any Y chromosome genes. This discovery adds a new light to discussions on Y chromosome gene…
Humans have been successful at treating a host of diseases. Yet some continue to elude medicine’s best attempts. Now, researchers at the University of Iowa have revealed how these diseases replicate by tracing the precise steps through which they use a gene absent in humans, called thyX, to code an enzyme to produce thymine. In a paper published online Jan. 28…
In 2010, a large study in Denmark found that women who suffered an infection severe enough to require hospitalization while pregnant were much more likely to have a child with autism (even though the overall risk of delivering a child with autism remained low). Now research from MIT, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the University of Colorado, and New…
ISG professor, Soraya de Chadarevian, has published a paper titled “The Future Historian: Reflections on the Archives of Contemporary Sciences” in Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 55 (2016) 54-60 Abstract: Historians working on recent science work close to where the archives are created or become accessible. Based on this experience, the essay presents a reflection…
ISG professor, Soraya de Chadarevian, has published a paper titled “Human Population Studies and the World Health Organization.” in Dynamis 2015; 35 (2): 359-388 ABSTRACT: This essay draws attention to the role of the WHO in shaping research agendas in the biomedical sciences in the postwar era. It considers in particular the genetic studies of human populations that were pursued under…
Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have discovered that a social laboratory rodent, the prairie vole, shows an empathy-based consoling response when other voles are distressed. This is the first time researchers have shown consolation behavior in rodents, and this discovery ends the long-standing belief that detecting the distress of others and acting to relieve that…