In the course of human history, something wonky happened to the levels of genetic diversity on the X chromosome -- scientists just can't agree on what. Two research teams reported conflicting reports about X chromosome diversity yesterday (Nov. 13) at the __American Society of Human Genetics__ linkurl:meeting;http://www.ashg.org/2008meeting/ in Philadelphia, with differing interpretations about human mating and migration. Because males only carry one X chromosome, sex-biased evolutionary forces

Beauty may be skin deep, but our body's outer coating has an ugly side, too: microbes. Researchers reported at the __American Society of Human Genetics__ linkurl:meeting;www.ashg.org/2008meeting/ in Philadelphia today (Nov. 13) that they have drawn up a head-to-toe map of the microorganisms crawling on our skin. "The skin is two square meters of ecosystems comprised of a variety of habitats and niches, and each of these habitats harbors its own microflora," said linkurl:Elizabeth Grice,;http:/

Two large-scale genetic analyses have turned up a trio of new sites associated with autism, including a large-effect allele that seems to reduce the risk of developing the debilitating brain disorder, researchers reported today (Nov. 12) at the__ linkurl:American Society of Human Genetics__ meeting;http://www.ashg.org/2008meeting/ in Philadelphia. Last year, the Autism Genome Project Consortium performed the largest genome-wide linkage scan to date with around 10,000 SNPs in 1,181 families wit

Former University of Iowa molecular biologist, Jusan Yang, falsified several figures in an unpublished manuscript and at two scientific meetings, the US Public Health Service's Office of Research Integrity (ORI) linkurl:reported;http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-014.html last week. Yang, a postdoc in linkurl:John Engelhardt's;http://elab.genetics.uiowa.edu/ lab from 1997-2002 and an assistant research scientist in linkurl:Curt Sigmund's;http://neuroscience.grad.uiowa.edu

Five years after construction first started, then stopped, then started again, Oxford University's controversial animal research lab officially opened its doors today (Nov. 11). Construction of the £18 million ($28 million) linkurl:Biomedical Sciences Building;http://www.ox.ac.uk/animal_research/the_biomedical_sciences_building/index.html began in 2003, but was linkurl:suspended;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22297/ in 2004 for 16 months after the contractors pulled out in th

Scientists have discovered a surprising link in the trade-off between reproducing and aging -- fat metabolism. A fat-burning enzyme in __Caenorhabditis elegans__ is activated after germline stem cells stop proliferating, leading to leaner and longer-lived worms, according to research published today (Nov. 6th) in__ linkurl:Science.;http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/322/5903/957 __"It has been known for a long time that there is a positive correlation between lifespan and caloric restri

Forensic experts have obtained a DNA profile of the unknown killer of a schoolgirl raped and shot dead 62 years ago near Swansea, Wales. Scientists isolated the killer's DNA from a semen stain on the raincoat of the 12-year-old victim, Muriel Drinkwater, and examined linkurl:short tandem repeats;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/13102/ (STRs) on the Y-chromosome. Y-STR haplotypes are often used in linkurl:genealogical testing,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/13524/ and p

The European Commission unveiled a linkurl:draft protocol;http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/pdf/com_2008_543.pdf on animal welfare today (Nov. 5) that proposes to ban testing on great apes including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans. The pan-European initiative would extend a ban already in force in Austria, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden across the entire 27-member bloc. The ban, however, would not greatly affect current research, because no testing

The Chiapas catfish's chocolate-brown color and white chin barbels are truly enigmatic. Credit: Courtesy of John Lundberg" />The Chiapas catfish's chocolate-brown color and white chin barbels are truly enigmatic. Credit: Courtesy of John Lundberg In February 2005, John Lundberg, an evolutionary biologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, obtained molecular data from a tissue sample that

Student filmmakers vie for top prize at the Ecological Society of America's film fest

It was 1994, and Scott Simonet of Amgen's molecular genetics department in Thousand Oaks, Calif., was looking at some strange X-rays. He had engineered five transgenic mouse lines to overexpress a mysterious secreted protein. The mice looked and behaved normally, but that ordinariness was only skin-deep. "On the X-rays, it was pretty obvious that the long bones had higher bone mineral density," says

Chimps testing the Ebola vaccine bait Credit: Courtesy of IDT Biologika. Credit: Andrea Schaenzler" />Chimps testing the Ebola vaccine bait Credit: Courtesy of IDT Biologika. Credit: Andrea Schaenzler At the Leipzig zoo's Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center last summer, a 3-year-old female gorilla named Kibara was going berserk. She had just been given a new type of food, deep-red colored candies with a rich mango scent. Kib