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. People who identify as African-American may be as little as 1 percent West African or as much as 99 percent, just one finding of a large-scale, genome-wide study of African and African-American ancestry released today. http://www.physorg.com/news180632039.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:40:30 EST news180632039 (PhysOrg.com) -- Socially learned behavior and belief are much better candidates than genetics to explain the self-sacrificing behavior we see among strangers in societies, from soldiers to blood donors to those who contribute to food banks. This is the conclusion of a study by Adrian V. Bell and colleagues from the University of California Davis in the Oct. 12 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news174580688.html Other Sciences Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:38:44 EST news174580688 When it comes to health disparities between different groups, how society sees people in terms of race might play a greater role than genetics, according to a new University of Florida study. http://www.physorg.com/news171700657.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:10:01 EST news171700657 Are you a man or a mouse? A new paper, published in this week's issue of PLoS Biology, explores exactly what distinguishes our genome from that of the lab mouse. In the first comprehensive comparison between the genes of mice and humans, scientists from institutions across America, Sweden and the UK reveal that there are more genetic differences between the two species than had been previously thought. One-fifth of mouse genes are new copies that have emerged in the last 90 million years of mouse evolution. These large differences between genes in humans and the mouse are likely to reflect many of the differences that distinguish human and mouse biology. http://www.physorg.com/news162622136.html Biology Wed, 27 May 2009 05:49:28 EST news162622136 The genetic predisposition of cows has an effect on the fat and protein content of their milk. Researchers at Wageningen University have spent the past few years examining the scope and significance of genetic variation between cows for the differences in quality characteristics of milk. They have discovered a number of genes that contribute to this genetic variation. http://www.physorg.com/news160215986.html Biology Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:27:30 EST news160215986 A variation in the gene FOXO3A has a positive effect on the life expectancy of humans, and is found much more often in people living to 100 and beyond - moreover, this appears to be true worldwide. A research group in the Faculty of Medicine at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (CAU) has now confirmed this assumption by comparing DNA samples taken from 388 German centenarians with those from 731 younger people. The results of the study appear this week in the prestigious American scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("PNAS"). http://www.physorg.com/news152884067.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:48:16 EST news152884067 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, reported the completion of the first genomes of wild strains of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The entire genomes of two individuals of this species, one from Ireland, the other from Japan, have now been compared in great detail. They were found to be astonishingly different from each other, as Detlef Weigel and his colleagues write in Genome Research. http://www.physorg.com/news141921720.html Biology Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:42:00 EST news141921720