Physical Sciences

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky. Human males have both a X and a Y chromosome but females have two X chromosomes. This means that in an early stage in the development of a woman’s fertilised egg the cells need to silence one of those two X chromosomes. This process is crucial to survival and problems with the process are related to serious genetic diseases. Both X chromosomes in a cell have a suicide gene called XIST which, if activated, seals the chromosome behind…

An international research team has discovered a gene that, when mutated, causes one of the most common forms of inherited blindness in babies. Scientists at the University of Leeds, working in collaboration with experts from other centres around the world, identified the gene, which is essential to photoreceptors in the eye, the cells that "see" light. The finding, the thirteenth gene to be linked to Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA), comes at a time of hope for the people born with the disorder. Scientists at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, recently announced the start of clinical trials…

In 1976 a research cruise in the Gulf of Alaska recorded the sighting of "brown penguins." How was it that birds that swim rather than fly and live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere turned up deep in the Northern Hemisphere? Did they migrate more than 5,000 miles from Peru? Humboldt penguins are native to the Southern Hemisphere, but North America was home to these Humboldts when they lived at Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. Credit: Dee Boersma The most probable explanation,say two University of Washington biologists, is that the creatures were hauled aboard boats – probably…

University of Michigan astronomers combined light from four widely separated telescopes to produce the first picture showing surface details on a sun-like star beyond our solar system. The image of the rapidly rotating, hot star Altair is the most detailed stellar picture ever made using an innovative light-combining technique called optical interferometry, said U-M astronomer John Monnier. Credit: Zina Deretsky (National Science Foundation) Beyond this technical milestone, the Altair observations provide surprising new insights that will force theorists to revise ideas about the behavior of…

The signature of climate change over the past 40 years has been identified in temperatures of the Indian Ocean near Australia. "From ocean measurements and by analysing climate simulations we can see there are changes in features of the ocean that cannot be explained by natural variability," said CSIRO oceanographer Dr Gael Alory. "These oceanic changes are almost certainly linked to changes in the heat structure of the atmosphere and have led to a rise in water temperatures in the sub-tropical Indian Ocean of around two degrees celsius. "At the same time, we are seeing changes in ocean…

Researchers at NIST, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Maryland and Howard University, have developed a technique to create tiny, highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from nanowires. As described in a recent paper,* the fabricated LEDs emit ultraviolet light—a key wavelength range required for many light-based nanotechnologies, including data storage—and the assembly technique is well-suited for scaling to commercial production. Micrograph of a complete nanowire LED with the end contact. The long nanowire (A) is about 110 micrometers long, a shorter nanowire (B…

by Dylan Evans Emotion: The Science of Sentiment by Dylan Evans is the featured book for this episode of the Brain Science Podcast. Thanks to Kate from the UK for suggesting this book. Listen Now The Brain Science Podcast feed is available here. Subscribe via iTunes™ Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email Show Notes This episode is a short introduction to the idea that our emotions are an essential part of our intellligence. We discuss the Basic Emotions based on the work of anthropologist Paul Eckman. We learn about culturally learned emotions such as "…

Adult bone marrow stem cells may help cure certain genetic eye diseases, according to University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers. Scientists have completed a study using mice which showed that bone marrow stem cells can switch roles and produce keratocan, a natural protein involved in the growth of the cornea—the transparent, outer layer of the eyeball. This ability of marrow cells to "differentiate" into keratocan-producing cells might provide a means for treating abnormal corneal cell growth in people. The green in this diagram shows bone marrow stem cells that have been injected into the…

Sometimes, it pays to be rare—think of a one-of-a-kind diamond, a unique Picasso or the switch-hitter on a baseball team. Now, new research suggests that being rare has biological benefits. Professor Marla Sokolowski, a biologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga who in the 1980s discovered that a single gene affects the foraging behaviour of fruit flies, has identified the benefit of rarity in populations of fruit flies with two different versions of the foraging gene. This gene is of particular interest because it is also found in many organisms, including humans. "There's…

When four forensic pathologists tell physiologists about the deaths that puzzle them, they will do so with the hope of sparking laboratory research to help define the cause of these deaths and prevent more of them. The four pathologists, all medical examiners and professors, will present their insights, as well as uncertainties, about deaths that happen as struggling individuals are arrested, as infants sleep in their cribs, and following years of drug abuse. By sharing these experiences with physiologists, the medical examiners hope to spur research to clarify how these deaths occur, how to…