Life Sciences and Chemistry

UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute researchers have localized a region on chromosome 16 that is likely to contain a risk gene for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the most prevalent childhood-onset psychiatric disorder.

Their research, published in the October edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that the suspected risk gene may contribute as much as 30 percent of the underlying genetic cause of ADHD and may also be involved in a separate childhood onset disorder

A study by two North Carolina State University geneticists traces the origin and evolution of a genetic mutation that long ago led to the creation of a type of rice known as glutinous, or “sticky,” rice.

The molecular genetic research leads researchers to believe that glutinous rice – which differs from non-glutinous, or common, rice on account of a mutation in its Waxy gene that suppresses the formation of a starch called amylose – most likely originated a single time in Southeast Asia. Fu

Researchers have developed a new way to use a decade-old imaging method to directly compare the brains of monkeys with those of humans. Their report appeared in the journal Science.

The method uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) – a technique that measures blood volume and flow and blood-oxygen levels in the brain. It also provides an indirect measure of neuronal activity in different regions of the brain.

Neurons need oxygen and glucose to work. Blood carries

Structural studies of a key enzyme have revealed how dangerous strains of the bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus , become resistant to antibiotics.

Resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus , which are also called “hospital staph” because of their prevalence in hospitals, constitute 34 percent of the clinical isolates in the United States, more than 60 percent in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, and more than 50 percent in Italy and Portugal. And the emergence of strains of

A new company is helping to solve a 20-year problem in the chemicals industry.
Enviresearch, a Newcastle University ‘spin-out’, uses computer models to determine whether chemicals are environmentally friendly.

The British Government demands that chemicals undergo a rigorous testing programme, including an ‘environmental risk assessment’, before it is satisfied a substance is safe. Only then will it grant a sales licence for the UK and Europe.

Due to these strict regulations,

Sexual reproduction has many advantages — some most pleasurable — and probably leads to the long-term survival of the species concerned. During the formation of reproductive cells or gametes, sexual reproduction is accompanied by an exchange of genes between the two chromosomes inherited from the parents. Each individual arising from these gametes thus receives a veritable mosaic of parental and grandparental characteristics, and so at one and the same time resembles and differs from the parents.