http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- The Keelworm, widespread in the seas and tide-pools around Scotland and the rest of the UK, is unwittingly helping scientists at the University of St Andrews to understand the evolution of modern animals. http://www.physorg.com/news177927762.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:23:13 EST news177927762 (PhysOrg.com) -- The evolutionary history of New Zealand's many extinct flightless moa has been re-written in the first comprehensive study of more than 260 sub-fossil specimens to combine all known genetic, anatomical, geological and ecological information about the unique bird lineage. http://www.physorg.com/news177760311.html Other Sciences Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:00:02 EST news177760311 (PhysOrg.com) -- About 40 miles outside Cairo, Egypt, National Science Foundation-supported paleontologists from three American universities are revealing features of a newly discovered African primate and solving a riddle about humankind's evolutionary past. http://www.physorg.com/news175350798.html Other Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:41:42 EST news175350798 (PhysOrg.com) -- A flint hand axe that helped reveal the very ancient age of humankind goes on display at the Natural History Museum October 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news175185404.html Other Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:50:01 EST news175185404 In a special issue of Science, an international team of scientists has for the first time thoroughly described Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. This research, in the form of 11 detailed papers and more general summaries, will appear in the journal's 2 October 2009 issue. http://www.physorg.com/news173615221.html Other Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:27:38 EST news173615221 Recent research on the Cohen Y chromosome indicates the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, was established by several unrelated male lines rather than a single male lineage dating to ancient Hebrew times. http://www.physorg.com/news173003001.html Medicine & Health Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:40:02 EST news173003001 When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic placement of a group of worms called Acoelomorpha. This collection of worms, which comprises roughly 350 species, is part of a much larger group called bilateral animals, organisms that have symmetrical body forms, including humans, insects and worms. The question about acoelomorpha, was: Where do they fit in? http://www.physorg.com/news172924812.html Biology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:43:18 EST news172924812 An international team of 16 scientists today reports the first direct measurement of the general rate of genetic mutation at individual DNA letters in humans. The team sequenced the same piece of DNA - 10,000,000 or so letters or 'nucleotides' from the Y chromosome - from two men separated by 13 generations, and counted the number of differences. Among all these nucleotides, they found only four mutations. http://www.physorg.com/news170595325.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:37:16 EST news170595325 At one time or another most of us wonder where we came from, where our parents or grandparents and their parents came from. Did our ancestors come from Europe or Asia? As curious as we are about our ancestors, for practical purposes, we need to think about the ancestry of our genes, according to Cecil Lewis, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Lewis says our genetic ancestry influences the genetic traits that predispose us to risk or resistance to disease. http://www.physorg.com/news169474130.html Biology Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:09:49 EST news169474130 What do flocks of birds have in common with trust, monogamy, and even breast milk? According to a new report in the journal Science, they are regulated by virtually identical neurochemicals in the brain, known as oxytocin in mammals and mesotocin in birds. http://www.physorg.com/news169391813.html Biology Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:17:25 EST news169391813 Spanish researchers say they're a step closer to resolving a "mystery of evolution" -- why some people like Brussels sprouts but others hate them. http://www.physorg.com/news169297576.html Other Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:07:29 EST news169297576 A detailed examination of the wrist bones of several primate species challenges the notion that humans evolved their two-legged upright walking style from a knuckle-walking ancestor. http://www.physorg.com/news169137362.html Biology Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:50:02 EST news169137362 (PhysOrg.com) -- Despite its seemingly simple appearance, the humble sea sponge could have the ability to advance stem cell research, according to scientists working at UQ's Heron Island Research Station and the St Lucia Campus. http://www.physorg.com/news167928519.html Biology Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:10:01 EST news167928519 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ah, Paris. Land of the Eiffel Tower, delicious French bread and... tropical rainforests? Sacrebleu! It seems unlikely, but scientists have discovered evidence that France may have been a hot, wet tropical rainforest 55 million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news166977549.html Chemistry Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:50:02 EST news166977549 (Physorg.com) -- A microscopic single-celled organism, adapted to survive in some of the harshest environments on earth, could help scientists gain a better understanding of how cancer cells behave. http://www.physorg.com/news166877793.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:57:02 EST news166877793 (PhysOrg.com) -- For perhaps 1.8 billion years after life first emerged on Earth, a sort of evolutionary writer`s block stalled the development of organisms more complicated than single cells. Then, a burst of experimental creativity about 1.7 billion years ago brought the cell nucleus onto the scene, stashing the cell`s genetic material inside a protective inner membrane and setting the stage for the evolution of more sophisticated creatures from yeast, say, to plants and human beings. Now research shows that one of the most basic design principles of this new eukaryotic life-form - the gatekeeper to the cell nucleus known as the nuclear pore complex - is largely shared across the most distantly related eukaryotes. Its core components likely evolved once and for all and would be found in the nuclear pore complex of what is known as the last common eukaryotic ancestor. http://www.physorg.com/news166722019.html Chemistry Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:00:02 EST news166722019 According to new research published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) on July 1, 2009, a new fossil primate from Myanmar (previously known as Burma) suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa as many researchers believe. http://www.physorg.com/news165643933.html Other Sciences Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:12:49 EST news165643933 (PhysOrg.com) -- A 47-million-year-old primate fossil, a purported "missing link" between primates and humans, was unveiled this week in New York. The fossil, formally called Darwinius masillae but nicknamed Ida, could, due to it being an essentially whole skeleton, shed light on the construction of the primate family tree, says an expert on primate evolution at Washington University in St. Louis. http://www.physorg.com/news161954864.html Other Sciences Tue, 19 May 2009 13:27:10 EST news161954864 All African Pygmies, inhabiting a large territory extending west-to-east along Central Africa, descend from a unique population who lived around 20,000 years ago, according to an international study led by researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The research, published April 10 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, concludes that the ancestors of present-day African Pygmies and farmers separated ~60,000 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news158563985.html Biology Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:34:04 EST news158563985 (PhysOrg.com) -- The rise of agriculture 10,000 years ago meant the end of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle for which human beings had been optimized by millions of years of evolution and the beginning of an era where culture encourages habits unhealthy for us and for the world around, with uncertain evolutionary outcomes. http://www.physorg.com/news156100530.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:16:13 EST news156100530 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered that a long-defunct gene was resurrected during the course of human evolution. This is believed to be the first evidence of a doomed gene - infection-fighting human IRGM - making a comeback in the human/great ape lineage. http://www.physorg.com/news155563245.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:01:22 EST news155563245 Paleontologists on Thursday unveiled the oldest fossil remains of a sea turtle that lived 72 million years ago in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said. http://www.physorg.com/news155538211.html Other Sciences Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:06:29 EST news155538211 (PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 10 million years ago, a major genetic change occurred in a common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Segments of DNA in its genome began to form duplicate copies at a greater rate than in the past, creating an instability that persists in the genome of modern humans and contributes to diseases like autism and schizophrenia. But that gene duplication also may be responsible for a genetic flexibility that has resulted in some uniquely human characteristics. http://www.physorg.com/news153580868.html Biology Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:21:49 EST news153580868 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Ethiopian government, have completed the first high-resolution CT scan of the world's most famous fossil, Lucy, an ancient human ancestor who lived 3.2 million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news153146616.html Other Sciences Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:44:04 EST news153146616 Most of the rabies virus circulating in dogs in western and central Africa comes from a common ancestor introduced to the continent around 200 years ago, probably by European colonialists. In the current issue of Journal of General Virology a team of scientists from Africa, USA and France report that within this common ancestry there are distinct subspecies at country level and that there is only limited movement of virus between localities. These factors mean that, if neighbouring countries collaborate, a progressive strategy to eliminate rabies from this area of sub-Saharan Africa is possible. http://www.physorg.com/news151763027.html Biology Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:24:13 EST news151763027 In an article in today's Nature, Uppsala researcher Martin Brazeau describes the skull and jaws of a fish that lived about 410 million years ago. The study may give important clues to the origin of jawed vertebrates, and thus ultimately our own evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news151235468.html Other Sciences Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:51:08 EST news151235468 An analysis of an 18,000-year-old fossil, described as the remains of a diminutive humanlike creature, proves that genuine cave-dwelling "hobbits" once flourished in Southeast Asia, according to a Long Island anthropologist who conducted X-ray studies of a skull. http://www.physorg.com/news150654813.html Other Sciences Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:33:33 EST news150654813 In a major advance in genealogical research, African-Americans will be able to trace the routes of slave ships that transported 12.5 million of their ancestors from Africa as early as the 16th century. http://www.physorg.com/news150463617.html Technology Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:26:57 EST news150463617 The mystery of why ancient South American peoples who created the mysterious Nazca Lines also collected human heads as trophies has long puzzled scholars who theorize the heads may have been used in fertility rites, taken from enemies in battle or associated with ancestor veneration. http://www.physorg.com/news150373491.html Other Sciences Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:24:51 EST news150373491