• Our Pilot Podcast: SMAHC, Sex, and Celiac

    Updated: 2011-02-23 17:20:40
    We are pleased to announce a new way to keep up with research news from the University of Chicago Medical Center, in the form of a regular audio podcast. Because we are all about evolution at ScienceLife, we will start by posting the pilot episode - Episode #0, if you will - and asking for [...]

  • Sweeping Out Selective Sweeps

    Updated: 2011-02-21 17:29:17
    The ultimate genetic detective story is solving the mystery of human evolution. Since it became possible to look at genetic sequences in humans and their primate relatives, geneticists have hunted for the footprints of how humans evolved. But finding the most significant places in the genome that changed since humans and chimpanzees split off from [...]

  • The Most Genes in an Animal?

    Updated: 2011-02-08 15:25:47
    Researchers have discovered that the animal with the most genes--about 31,000--is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea. By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced. The water flea's genome is described in a Science paper published this week by members of the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, an international network of researchers led by the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics (CGB) at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington and the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute........

  • Scientists discover 7 new species of fish

    Updated: 2011-02-05 13:25:00
    Things are not always what they seem when it comes to fish�something researchers at the Smithsonian Institution and the Ocean Science Foundation are finding out. Using modern genetic analysis, combined with traditional examination of morphology, the researchers discovered that what were once believed to be three species of blenny in the genus Starksia are actually 10 distinct species. The team's findings appear in the scientific journal ZooKeys, Feb. 3........

  • Seeking Social Genes

    Updated: 2011-02-02 20:04:22
    In order understand the evolution of complex societies, scientists are sequencing the genomes of social insects. The most recent data, published this week in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from several species of ants, including the red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus.......

  • Home and Away: Are Invasive Plant Species Really That Special?

    Updated: 2011-02-02 20:04:22
    Invasive plant species are a serious environmental, economic and social problem worldwide. Their abundance can lead to lost native biodiversity and ecosystem functions, such as nutrient cycling. Despite substantial research, however, little is known about why some species dominate new habitats over native plants that technically should have the advantage........

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