Bird experts believed for years that once a bird learned songs, the calls stayed relatively fixed for life. But a new Cornell University study finds that male loons change their tunes when they move into a new territory.

Professor Charles Walcott poses with a toy loon in his office. His latest research provides valuable insights into the loon’s social and territorial behavior, which has implications for conservation efforts.

The study, to be published in the March iss

The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves, researchers from Yale, the University of Chicago, and the Hall Institute in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, argue in the 9 March 2006 issue of the journal Nature.

The scientists provide powerful new evidence for a 30-year-old theory, proposed in a classic paper from Mary-Claire King and Allan Wilson of Berkeley. That 1975 paper documented

Texas biologists studying a poison dart frog mimicry complex find that predator learning can effect the evolution of mimicry

Studying neotropical poison dart frogs, biologists at the University of Texas at Austin uncovered a new way that the frog species can evolve to look similar, and it hinges on the way predators learn to avoid the toxic, brightly colored amphibians.

In the Mar. 8 issue of Nature, Catherine Darst and Molly Cummings show that a harmless, colorful fr

There is the heart of gold, and then there is the heart that glows. Literally.

Cornell researchers have genetically engineered mice whose hearts glow with a green light every time they beat. The development gives researchers insights into how hearts develop in living mouse embryos and could improve our understanding of irregular heartbeats, known as arrhythmias, as well as open doors to observing cellular processes to better understand basic physiology and disease.

Imagine seeing a former high school classmate you always wanted to know better. Then imagine seeing that kid who used to push you in the hallways. Do you react differently? What happens in your brain during these encounters?

In fact, different areas of the brain react differently when recognizing others, depending on the emotions attached to the memory, a team of Cornell University research psychologists has found. The team, led by professor of psychology Robert Johnston, has bee

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified an important circuit in the spinal cord that controls the speed with which our leg muscles contract and relax. Their findings mark an important milestone in understanding the neural circuitry that coordinates walking movements – one of the main obstacles in developing new treatments for spinal cord injuries.

“Knowing which circuits are important and understanding how they control the essential aspects of walking sh

University of Nottingham researchers are targeting Europe’s biggest killer diseases — by focusing on the diet of unborn babies.

Poor nutrition in the womb and in the first months of infancy can condemn an individual to a life of poor health including higher risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Scientists believe a baby is ‘programmed’ for a lifetime of good or poor health in its first few months by the type and amount of nutrition they receive.

Scientists researching ways to detect landmines have discovered a radical new way to screen for breast cancer using microwave radar technology that could save thousands of lives.

Bristol-based Micrima Ltd, a spin-out from Bristol University, has received a £150,000 investment from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) to help the company develop this innovative technology. This is part of a funding round worth £475,000 with co-investment from priv

Results support guidelines for treatment of aortic regurgitation

Patients with leaky aortic heart valves appear to do better when the valves are replaced before significant symptoms develop, as recommended by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines, according to a new study in the Mar. 7, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“In short, we found that those patients that were operated on early enough following t

When Dr. Rui Chen, assistant professor in the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, sought to understand further the protein called Eyeless, he faced a dilemma.

Eyeless is a transcription factor, which means one of its major activities is to turn off or turn on other genes that have an effect on eye development later in the process. It is so powerful that when it is inserted into almost any tissues of the fruit fly, eyes grow – often in unexpected places.

Soy protein, almonds, plant sterol enriched margarines, oats and barley among most effective foods

Cholesterol-lowering foods such as soy protein, almonds, plant sterol enriched margarines, oats and barley may reduce cholesterol levels more effectively when eaten in combination, says a new University of Toronto study by Professor David Jenkins. The study, which appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that among the subjects who adhere

A shift toward a less-invasive endovascular procedure as an alternative to conventional surgery has reduced the risk of death for patients undergoing repair of dangerous abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), reports a study in the March Journal of Vascular Surgery.

“Our results show that vascular surgeons are saving more lives through the increased use of endovascular AAA repair–even while operating on older and less-fit patients,” said Dr. Ellen D. Dillavou, Assistant Professor of

Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have identified a compound that interferes with the pathogenic effects of Huntington’s disease, a discovery that could lead to development of a new treatment for the disease.

There is no cure for Huntington’s, a neurodegenerative disorder that now afflicts 30,000 Americans, with another 150,000 at risk. The fatal disease, which is genetically inherited, usually strikes in midlife and causes uncontrolled movements, loss of co

What have Black-eyed peas got to do with nanotechnology? As well as sharing their name with a chart-topping U.S. band, Black-eyed peas (also known as Cowpeas) are being used by scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich (JIC) [1] to grow virus particles that can be decorated with a chemical turning the particles into a kind of molecular capacitor.

Nanotechnology is the study of tiny structures in the scale of 1/100,000 of the width of a human hair and crosses the disciplines of chemis

… can inclusions bodies be good news for neurodegenerative diseases?

A potential new treatment for neurodegenerative disorders, which seems to be able to reduce the toxic protein aggregates characteristic of many of these diseases, is published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since it is believed that in most neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson and Huntington’s disease (PD and HD respectively), abnormal protein aggre

Seven years ago a number of breeders’ groups showed interest in the genetic analysis of the autochthonous breeds of horse from the Basque Country. Thus, at the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology of the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV), sheep, cows and horses native to Euskal Herria were studied. The aim of this livestock study was to find out the state of conservation of these breeds and also to identify the animals. What is more, thanks to the work of t