A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds. The eruption in the Emeishan province of south-west China unleashed around half a million cubic kilometres of lava, covering an area 5 times the size of Wales, and wiping out marine life around the world. Unusually, scientists were able ...

Oxidative stress has been linked to aging, cancer and other diseases in humans. Paradoxically, researchers have suggested that small exposure to oxidative conditions may actually offer protection from acute doses. Now, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have discovered the gene responsible for this effect. Their study, published in PLoS Genetics on May 29, explains the underl...

Portions of the brain that activate when people view pictures of objects compared to scrambled images can also be activated by touch alone, confirms a new report published online on May 28th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. "That`s the nub of the paper," said Harriet Allen of the University of Birmingham. "Part of the brain is for object processing irrespective of the s...

Honey bee colony losses nationwide were approximately 29 percent from all causes from September 2008 to April 2009, according to a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is less than the overall losses of about 36 percent from 2007 to 2008, and about 32 percent from 2006 to 2007, that have been reported in ...

Hospitalized patients who receive acid-suppressive medications such as a proton-pump inhibitor have a 30 percent increased odds of developing pneumonia while in the hospital, according to a new study. With the introduction of proton-pump inhibitors, used primarily in the treatment of ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease, the use of acid-suppressive medications has increased significantly ove...

Michigan State University plant scientists have identified two new genes and two new enzymes in tomato plants. Those findings led them to discover that the plants were making monoterpenes, compounds that help give tomato leaves their distinctive smell, in a way that flies in the face of accepted thought. Such research could help researchers find new ways to protect plants from pests. Based on year...

A dog born with a deadly disease that prevents the body from using stored sugar has survived 20 months and is still healthy after receiving gene therapy at the University of Florida — putting scientists a step closer to finding a cure for the disorder in children. Called glycogen storage disease type 1A, the genetic disease stops the body from being able to correctly store and use sugar betw...

Patients living with migraine have strong reason for new optimism concerning a positive future. Two review articles and an accompanying editorial, "The Future of Migraine: Beyond Just Another Pill," in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are the basis for an ironic premise. "Migraine is a potentially chronic, progressive disease that substantially affects patients, familie...

Even microbes are governed by the principle of supply and demand – at least at the genetic level. Not all of their gene products, the blueprints for proteins, are required at all times. That means most of their genes only become active when they are needed, as is the case in higher organisms. In the simplest case, a transcription factor will activate the gene in question at the right time. G...

The widely-used Affymetrix Whole-Transcript Gene 1.0 ST (sense target) microarray platform, normally used to assay gene expression, can also be utilized to interrogate exon-specific splicing. New research shows scientists how to monitor alternative splicing activity on a genome-wide scale, without investing in new exon microarray technologies. Alternative splicing produces a variety of mRNA transc...