Squirrels that gamble win big when it comes to evolutionary fitness

Imagine overhearing the Powerball lottery winning numbers, but you didn’t know when those numbers would be called — just that at some point in the next 10 years or so, they would be. Despite the financial cost of playing those numbers daily for that period, the payoff is big enough…

Genes that cause rare hidden cancer revealed

Several genes that cause sarcoma have been identified in the first comprehensive genetic map of sarcomas, generated by research led by Omico, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and UNSW Sydney. The research has wide implications for people living with sarcoma and their families — allowing detection of the cancer…

Tracing the flow of water with DNA

Environmental DNA analysis of microbial communities can help us understand how a particular region’s water cycle works. Basel hydrogeologist Oliver Schilling recently used this method to examine the water cycle on Mount Fuji. His results have implications for other regions worldwide. Where does the water come from that provides drinking…

Massive fuel-hungry black holes feed off intergalactic gas

Research led by the University of Southampton has revealed how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are feeding off gas clouds which reach them by travelling hundreds of thousands of light years from one galaxy to another. An international team of scientists has shown there is a crucial link between the interaction…

How pancreatic cancer defies treatment

Pancreatic cancer is the third deadliest cancer in the United States, after lung and colorectal, though far less common. It is also among the hardest to effectively treat, with pancreatic cancer stem cells quickly developing resistance to conventional and targeted treatments, such as chemotherapy and emerging immunotherapies. As a result,…

How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through sand

Pushing a shovel through snow, planting an umbrella on the beach, wading through a ball pit, and driving over gravel all have one thing in common: They all are exercises in intrusion, with an intruding object exerting some force to move through a soft and granular material. Predicting what it…

Discovery of anti-cancer chemistry makes skullcap fit for modern medicine

The evolutionary secrets that enable the medicinal herb known as barbed skullcap to produce cancer fighting compounds have been unlocked by a collaboration of UK and Chinese researchers. The CEPAMS collaboration used DNA sequencing technology to assemble the genomic sequence of skullcap (Scutellaria barbata) known in China as banzhilian. This…

Lower bacterial diversity is associated with irritable bowel syndrome

People with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have lower bacterial diversity in the intestine than do healthy people, according to a team of Korean investigators. The investigators believe that theirs is the first analysis to find a clear association between IBS and reduced diversity in the microbiota of the gut. The…

Plague trackers: Researchers cover thousands of years in a quest to understand the elusive origins of the Black Death: Researchers studied more than 600 genome sequences of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague

Seeking to better understand more about the origins and movement of bubonic plague, in ancient and contemporary times, researchers at McMaster University, University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, have completed a painstaking granular examination of hundreds of modern and ancient genome sequences, creating the largest analysis of its…

Specific immune response to Epstein-Barr virus discovered

Medical science has not yet been able to explain why the Epstein-Barr virus triggers infectious mononucleosis (IM) in some people with initial infections and not in others. But now, a research team led by Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl, head of the Center for Virology at MedUni Vienna, has identified a specific immune…

Violence was widespread in early farming society

Violence and warfare were widespread in many Neolithic communities across Northwest Europe, a period associated with the adoption of farming, new research suggests. Of the skeletal remains of more than 2300 early farmers from 180 sites dating from around 8000 — 4000 years ago to, more than one in ten…

Bacterial electricity: Membrane potential influences antibiotic tolerance

The electrical potential across the bacterial cell envelope indicates when bacteria no longer operate as individual cells but as a collective. Researchers at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Biological Physics have discovered this connection between the electrical properties and the lifestyle of bacteria. Although bacteria are single cellular organisms,…

New research quantifies the ‘wow’ factor of sunrise and sunset

A new study has identified the impact that fleeting natural events, such as sunrises and sunsets, can have on people, and sought to quantify their effects for the first time. Despite a large body of research examining the impacts of nature on our mental health, most studies have assessed these…

Active matter theory explains fire-ant group behavior

Ants are social insects and the Solenopsis invicta species — known as the fire ant — is no exception. The social interactions of this invasive insect, which comes from South America, are framed within the context of the theory of Active Matter, which would explain the ants’ group behaviour as…

An unprecedented look at colorectal cancer

In the United States, turning 45 brings with it a rather unpleasant rite of passage: the beginning of regular colonoscopies, in which an endoscope equipped with a light and a camera is used to visually check the colon for signs of cancer. Relatively slow-growing, colorectal cancer can often be treated…

Turning a poison into food

Methanogens are microorganisms that produce methane when little or no oxygen is present in their surroundings. Their methane production — for example in the digestive tract of ruminants — is relevant for global carbon cycling, as methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, but can also be used as an…