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2015 | Soraya de Chadarevian – Human Population Studies and the World Health Organization

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…

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Discovery of Consoling Behavior in Prairie Voles May Benefit Autism Research

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…

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Dog Domestication May Have Increased Harmful Genetic Changes, UCLA Biologists Report

The domestication of dogs may have inadvertently caused harmful genetic changes, a UCLA-led study suggests. Domesticating dogs from gray wolves more than 15,000 years ago involved artificial selection and inbreeding, but the effects of these processes on dog genomes have been little-studied. UCLA researchers analyzed the complete genome sequences of 19 wolves; 25 wild dogs from 10 different countries; and…

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Epigenetics: How Social Behavior Can Be Reprogrammed In Ants…And Possibly Humans, Too

While many believe behavior is largely defined by genetic makeup and environmental factors, new research suggests certain drugs can have a life-altering, permanent influence over an individual’s character. The study, out of the University of Pennsylvania, experimented with changing the social behavior of Florida carpenter ants by injecting a drug into their brains, each one playing a different role in the colony. The researchers focused…

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Scientists Sequence First Ancient Irish Human Genomes

A team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, and the information buried within is already answering pivotal questions about the origins of Ireland’s people and their culture. The team sequenced the genome of an early farmer woman, who lived near Belfast some 5,200 years ago,…

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Researchers Identify Intelligence Gene Networks

A group of scientists led by Imperial College London researcher Michael Johnson has identified two ‘gene networks’ associated with human cognitive abilities. “We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant. This research highlights some of genes involved in human intelligence, and how they interact with each other,” said Dr…

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