Showing 20 articles starting at article 661

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Archaeology: General, Biology: Developmental

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Peru's first great empire, the Wari, stretched for more than a thousand miles over the Andes Mountains and along the coast from 600-1000 CE. The pottery they left behind gives archaeologists clues as to how the empire functioned. In a new study researchers showed that rather than using 'official' Wari pottery imported from the capital, potters across the empire were creating their own ceramics, decorated to emulate the traditional Wari style. To figure it out, the scientists analyzed the pottery's chemical make-up, with help from laser beams.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Meiotic recombination assures genetic variation during breeding. During meiotic prophase I, chromosomes are organized in a loop-base array by a proteinaceous structure called meiotic chromosome axis which is critical for meiotic recombination and genetically diverse gametes. An international research team reports the application of a TurboID (TbID)-based approach to identify proteins in proximity of meiotic chromosome axes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Not only known but also new meiotic proteins were uncovered.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A whole new world of antibiotics is waiting inside the viruses that infect bacteria. Scientists are making it easier to study them.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered artefacts produced by old world monkeys in Thailand that resemble stone tools, which historically have been identified as intentionally made by early hominins. Until now, sharp-edged stone tools were thought to represent the onset of intentional stone tool production, one of the defining and unique characteristics of hominin evolution. This new study challenges long held beliefs about the origins of intentional tool production in our own lineage.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The skeleton, tendons, and glands of a functional jaw all derive from the same population of stem cells, which arise from a cell population known as neural crest. To discover how these neural crest-derived cells know to make the right type of cell in the right location, researchers focused on a particular gene, Nr5a2, that was active in a region of the face that makes tendons and glands, but not skeleton. To understand the role of Nr5a2, the scientists created zebrafish lacking this gene. These mutant zebrafish generated excess cartilage and were missing tendons in their jaws.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have created a radical new view of how immune cells recognise threats such as viruses. The discovery could be used to design better vaccines and to gain a deeper insight into autoimmune diseases and allergies.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Most cells in the bodies of living things duplicate their contents and physically separate into new cells through the process of cell division. But across many species, germ cells, those that become eggs or sperm, don't fully separate. They remain interconnected through small bridges called ring canals and cluster together. In a new study, researchers uncover how it is that germ cells in fruit flies form these ring canals, a finding that they say will provide new insights into a widely shared feature of development and into diseases in which cell division is disrupted.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Germination is a crucial stage in the life of a plant as it will leave the stage of seed resistant to various environmental constraints (climatic conditions, absence of nutritive elements, etc.) to become a seedling much more vulnerable. The survival of the young plant depends on the timing of this transition. It is therefore essential that this stage be finely controlled. Botanists have now discovered the internal thermometer of seeds that can delay or even block germination if temperatures are too high for the future seedling. This work could help optimize plant growth in a context of global warming.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New methodology and tools provide an opportunity to watch in unprecedented detail as a phage attacks a bacterium.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Obese fruit flies are the experimental subjects in a study of the causes of muscle function decline due to obesity. In humans, skeletal muscle plays a crucial role in metabolism, and muscle dysfunction due to human obesity can lead to insulin resistance and reduced energy levels.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered evidence of horse riding by studying the remains of human skeletons found in burial mounds called kurgans, which were between 4500-5000 years old. The earthen burial mounds belonged to the Yamnaya culture. The Yamnayans had migrated from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to find greener pastures in today's countries of Romania and Bulgaria up to Hungary and Serbia.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The findings offer a new way to understand how some ants become total layabouts.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Some cities only last a century or two, while others last for a thousand years or more. Often, there aren't clear records left behind to explain why. Instead, archaeologists piece together clues from the cities' remains to search for patterns that help account for why certain places retained their importance longer than others.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of bee researchers has integrated a calcium sensor into honey bees to enable the study of neural information processing including response to odors. This also provides insights into how social behavior is located in the brain.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A newly published study of a stalagmite found in Cave of the Mounds reveals previously undetected history of the local climate going back thousands of years. Researchers describe evidence for an ice age punctuated by massive and abrupt warming events across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A large Bronze Age debris deposit in Mycenae, Greece provides important data for understanding the history of animal resources at the site, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A world-first model of paleoclimate and hydrology in Iran has highlighted favourable routes for Neanderthals and modern human expansions eastwards into Asia. The findings reveal that multiple humid periods in ancient Iran led to the expansions of human populations, opening dispersal route across the region, and the possible interactions of species such as Neanderthals and our own Homo sapiens.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists recently developed an efficient way to transplant pancreatic islets and demonstrated that the method can effectively reverse type 1 diabetes in nonhuman primates.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered a strong immunological effect of the molecule LecB -- and a way to prevent it.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study reports on genomic data from a 23,000-year-old individual who lived in what was probably the warmest place of Europe at the peak of the last Ice Age. The oldest human genome recovered from the southern tip of Spain adds an important piece of the puzzle to the genetic history of Europe.