The beginning of life on Earth is a hotly contested area of science (not to mention religion); with current theories focusing on how RNA (ribonucleic acid)-like molecules developed into a more complex form of RNA-based life, which then transformed into cellular life based on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and proteins. Now, an acceleratedin vitro experiment shows […]
Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have observed an astonishing double helix shaped nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers, writing in Nature, estimate the nebula to be around 80 light years in length and situated only 300 light years away from the massive black hole at the center of the […]
A study conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has shown that DNA itself can be a catalyst for cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Normal DNA is said to become problematic when it twists in the opposite direction to its familiar right hand spiral, thereby becoming what researchers have dubbed […]
With the H5N1 bird flu virus now spreading into Western Europe, governments are at last seriously focusing on what can be done to avert a pandemic if it mutates into a strain that can be passed from human to human. Behind the scenes, scientists are scrambling for answers in the knowledge that current anti-viral stockpiles […]
Researchers have traced social behavior traits, such as monogamy, to differences in the length of seemingly non-functional DNA, sometimes referred to as junk DNA. In the study, researchers at the Yerkes Primate Research Center and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience examined whether the junk DNA associated with the vasopressin receptor gene affected social behavior in […]
