Biology
-
Conversation
Are there male and female brains?
Computers suggest yes, but it may just be head size.
By Cordelia Fine, University of Melbourne, and Carla Sanchis Segura, Universitat Jaume I How useful are the well-k...
-
Focus
Cosmos Q&A: Why we must value parasites
Researchers propose a global conservation plan.
Parasites don’t get great PR or a lot of consideration when we're talking conservation. An international team hopes t...
-
Is this how human sperm really move?
New research challenges centuries-old assumption.
We know what human sperm do, but it seems we may be wrong about one aspect of how they do it. Research by fertilit...
-
Filling the gaps in our genomic maps
Scientists report first complete assembly of human chromosome.
Scientists say they have determined the complete sequence of a human chromosome for the first time and at an unpreced...
-
Lab-grown cells used to study viruses
Ability to ‘fast fail’ may accelerate success.
Australian scientists have found that human airway cells grown in a laboratory can reliably be used to study respirat...
-
Understanding how brains fold and misfold
Study offers new genetic insights into a critical process.
Australian and Swiss researchers say they have new clues to how a baby’s brain folds as it develops in the womb, a pr...
-
Cancelling noise and being green
Physicists and biologists model photosynthesis.
Successful photosynthesis is in part about cancelling out noise, according to a unique new model created by a team of...
-
Human embryo model created from stem cells
Scientists explore a key stage of development.
British and Dutch scientists have developed a model to study early human development that uses human embryonic stem c...
-
Genes linked to evolution of languages
A musical background helps too, research suggests.
If you say “ma” in Mandarin, you could be saying mother, hemp, horse or scold, depending purely on your pitch. Thi...
-
Human tumours harbour unique bacteria
Study shows they are found even in ‘sterile’ tissue.
Different human tumour types harbour their own unique bacterial communities, according to a new and comprehensive mic...
-
Viewing the neurons of the heart in 3D
New virtual model may be a model for others.
Researchers in the US have reported the development of a virtual 3D heart that digitally showcases the unique network...
-
History
Friedrich Miescher gets ahead of the double helix
Swiss physician started the story of DNA.
In just over 75 years, DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid – has risen in public and scientific status from being “an obscure...