(Credit: National Institute for Basic Biology)
Researchers have peered into the genome of pitcher plants to see how they developed their carnivorous appetite.
Genes that once helped to regulate stress responses may have been co-opted to assist with capturing and digesting insects and other creatures. Looking at several different species an international team of researchers led by Mitsuyasu Hasebe says the same genomic regions were all altered in the same way at different times, ...read more
A Hubble composite image shows a ring of ‘dark matter’ in the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17. Courtesy NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford. (Credit: Johns Hopkins University)
According to mainstream researchers, the vast majority of the matter in the Universe is invisible: it consists of dark-matter particles that do not interact with radiation and cannot be seen through any telescope. The case for dark matter is regarded as so overwhelming that its existence is often reported as fact. Late ...read more
One woman was all that stood between thalidomide and America.
The president was beaming. The woman beside him — a brunette wearing proper gloves and hat — also smiled, shyly. She was tall, her dark hair lightly streaked with gray. This was the hero who saved the United States from the tragedy of thalidomide, a drug often prescribed to pregnant women that could result in serious birth defects such as short, flipper-like arms and legs. The year was 1962, and in a ceremony in the W ...read more
5&8: Young kids are pretty good at respecting authority, but new research claims that by just age 5, they’re already standing up to the man, as it were. And by age 8, they’re rooting for the underdog when they realize the balance of power is off.
34%: Speaking of power, a seven-year study of people in their 60s found that stressful, high-demand jobs can be good for you if you have control over your workflow: Those with high-demand, high-control jobs saw a 34 percent decrease in t ...read more
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Commercial overfishing damages fish populations, marine habitats and ecosystems — consequences that also affect people who depend on the ocean for food and work. So Google collaborated with nonprofits Oceana and SkyTruth to create Global Fishing Watch, an interactive map that, through both satellite and land-based tracking technology, gives a near real-time look at commercial fishing across the globe. The watchdog tool can show several layers of data, including current fishing activity (wh ...read more
10. The grunt work of metabolic processes is done by enzymes. These proteins act like crowd control, ensuring molecules reacting catabolically or anabolically are where they need to be.
11. The enzymes themselves are constantly losing stability and being replaced, which means metabolism is a product of … metabolism. Whoa.
12. Metabolic diseases, which are typically genetic, cause the body to produce one or more enzymes insufficiently or not at all. Metabolic syndrome (MetS), however, is a ...read more
The full text of this article is available to Discover Magazine subscribers only.
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The latest news, theories and developments in the world of science
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