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he Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA, tiny molecules that help control how genes are expressed. Their findings unlocked new areas of research into the roles these molecules play in human health. Researchers are exploring microRNA treatments for cancer, hepatitis and heart disease. Ambros and Ruvkun were postdoctoral fellows in the 1980s in the laboratory of biologist Robert Horvitz, who won the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his research in gene regulation. In Horvitz’s lab, they studied the roundworm C. elegans to better understand the role genes play in...

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Wednesday prompted by a decade-long CBS News California investigation into California's newborn genetic biobank. We still won't know who is using your DNA for research, or what the research is for, but the California Department of Public Health must now reveal the number of newborn DNA samples that California is storing and the number of DNA samples that the state sells to researchers each year. In response to our decade-long investigation, lawmakers introduced several bills this year that were intended to shed light on how the state is amassing and using California's newborn DNA...

One of the new OSD species – a hydrothermal vent limpet, Lepetodrilus marianae. Credit: Chong Chen, Hiromi Kayama Watanabe, and Miwako Tsuda ================================================================================= Ocean biodiversity is under significant threat due to global changes, but new initiatives like the Ocean Species Discoveries, coordinated by the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, aim to rapidly describe and publish findings on marine species. This innovative approach reduces the usual decades-long delay in species description, directly contributing to the conservation efforts needed to protect vulnerable marine habitats and their undiscovered inhabitants. Accelerating Biodiversity Research Accelerating global change continues to threaten Earth’s vast biodiversity, including in the...

Afederal court in Kansas on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration's Title IX regulations from taking effect in four states, becoming the latest court to stop the new controversial rules from taking effect in August. The Department of Education's new rules expanded the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and pregnancy, and included a ban on single-sex bathroom and locker rooms. It also required schools to use pronouns based on a student's preferred gender identity. The new rules have now been stopped in 14 states as of Tuesday. [snip] “Gender ideology does not belong in public schools and we...

Nearly 60 percent of President Joe Biden’s supporters do not subscribe to the biological reality of male and female, a new Pew Research Center survey found. Fifty-nine percent of Biden voters say “whether a person is a man or a woman can be different from sex assigned at birth,” compared to 39 percent who say “gender” is “determined by sex assigned at birth.” Broken down by subgroups, Biden supporters without college degrees (47 percent) are more likely than those with degrees (30 percent) to believe in biological reality, according to the poll. In contrast, only 29 percent of young Biden...

In a pioneering study, a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital have identified a brain network essential for human consciousness. Aided by advances in ultrahigh-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, researchers discovered previously unknown pathways connecting various brain regions, forming what they termed the “default ascending arousal network” (DAAN). In findings published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers propose that this brain network plays a pivotal role in maintaining wakefulness and integrating arousal with awareness in the resting human brain. The discovery could be a significant breakthrough in understanding a range of neurological disorders while shedding...

Sen. Ted Cruz did a masterly takedown of a radical left-wing magistrate judge in a line of questions over her decision to place a 6 foot 2 inch transgender 'woman' with full male genitalia convicted of child rapes and passing child pornography into a women's prison after she dismissed warnings from prison officials. The exchange can be seen here: Absolute FIRE line of questioning from @SenTedCruz today 🔥🔥🔥 bravo! "Do they have the right to not have a 6'2" man who is a repeat serial rapist put in as their cell mate?" pic.twitter.com/TSzIMjdmmi — Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 23, 2024The...

Riley Gaines hit the nail on the head: "It's astounding that we live in a time where this headline exists."A landmark shift. Doctors assert that biology exists is a landmark shift. We live in a time of utter insanity. What next? Perhaps we won't burn witches at the stake? No longer use trial by combat to determine guilt or innocence? Give up human sacrifice?Imagine the possibilities! With a turn toward science we could soon have steam engines, too.“NHS to declare sex is biological fact in landmark shift…”Imagine you’d been in a coma for the past decade and woke up to...

It's not hard to see how the sapphire tower gets its name. Image Credit: HannaTor/Shutterstock.com Sometimes in nature, there are events that we have to wait for. Some, like the upcoming American cicadapocaplypse might not be so popular – whereas, across the pond in Birmingham, UK, botanists are thrilled to reveal the blooming of their sapphire tower. The sapphire tower plant (Puya alpestri) from the Chilean Andes can take up to 10 years to flower. The plant is a member of the bromeliad family, distantly related to the pineapple. Normally found at high elevations of up to 2,200 meters (7,218...

Last week, as the country was swept up in Caitlin Clark mania, Joe Biden — or whoever was holding his phone — sent out a pandering tweet, asking for compensation parity in women’s sports. It was a request meant to celebrate the sisterhood, but had little regard for the financial realities of professional sports. But days later, the Biden administration announced plans to kneecap lady athletes: introducing sweeping, radical changes to Title IX that would trample on fairness for females in locker rooms, sports and other single-sex spaces. All with absolutely no regard for biological reality.

Organisms known as protozoa include a wide range of organisms, most of which are free-living single-celled eukaryotes. Therefore, protozoa fit into the Domain Eukarya. Although the different phyla of the kingdom Protista are not closely related, they are nonetheless classified together because of their large differences from the other kingdoms of plants, animals and fungi. The name “protozoa” has a dynamic history, at one time including only the “animal-like” unicellular forms of life. Today, these heterotrophic protozoa are lumped together with the autotrophic algae and other simple forms of life into the Kingdom Protista. While all protozoa are eukaryotes,...

A Chaunax, a genus of bony fish in the sea toad family Chaunacidae, is seen at a depth of 1,388 meters (4,553 feet) on a seamount inside the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park. Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More than 100 new species have been discovered on an underwater mountain range off the coast of Chile. Among the never-before-seen critters seen on the expedition are corals, glass sponges, sea urchins, amphipods, lobsters, plus a gaggle of peculiar fish and squid that are already known to science (but no less strange). The discoveries come from an international group of scientists who recently...

The law firm representing Dr. Johnson Varkey said he will resume teaching by this fall ... A biology professor who was fired from a Texas community college for teaching students that X and Y chromosomes determine sex has been reinstated. First Liberty Institute, a law firm that defends religious liberty for Americans, announced .. that St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas, had reinstated Dr. Johnson Varkey, a former adjunct professor, a year after he was terminated. ... "We are happy that the Alamo Community College District voluntarily reinstated Dr. Varkey," Kayla Toney, Associate Counsel for First Liberty Institute, said....

Who could have guessed this?Not me. I bet you couldn’t have guessed it either.Shockingly, British and American researchers have published a study in the British Medical Journal that shows that, according to their statistical analysis, biological sex has a greater impact on athletic performance than gender identity.Astonishing newshttps://t.co/MXa9hhk2Ih pic.twitter.com/jWspZ4lYx1— Fiona (@DerryBanShee) December 21, 2023As far as I know, Lia Thomas had no comment.AbstractObjectives To test the hypothesis that, controlling for age, natal-sex differences in running performance are lower among non-binary athletes than in the rest of the population. To test the hypothesis that natal-male non-binary athletes outperform natal-female non-binary athletes.Methods...

A Seattle-based student learned the hard way that biology need not apply once a school district has gone woke. According to Jason Rantz, who spoke to the student's mother, the 10th-grader failed a quiz as part of an Ethnic Studies World History course because he acknowledged biological reality. (Also see: Dylan Mulvaney Suffers Total Embarrassment at Penn State)Two of the questions revolved around whether men can get pregnant and whether only men have penises. The student gave the technically correct answers but the teacher gave a failing grade because those answers ran counter to modern woke ideology surrounding gender.Many of...

The vast majority of mass shooters are male, and male biochemistry helps to explain why. Yet the person who opened fire at Nashville’s Covenant School was biologically female. ... On March 27, however, a 28-year-old female by the name of Audrey Elizabeth Hale opened fire at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in Nashville. Before police shot and killed her, Hale killed three children and three adults—Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61, according to Fox News. What explains this female mass shooter? News reports give some indication,...

Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, 58, is a Finnish-born and trained adolescent psychiatrist, the chief psychiatrist in the department of adolescent psychiatry at Finland’s Tampere University Hospital. She treats patients, teaches medical students, and conducts research in her field—publishing more than 230 scientific articles. In 2011, Dr. Kaltiala was assigned a new responsibility. She was to oversee the establishment of a gender identity service for minors, making her among the first physicians in the world to head a clinic devoted to the treatment of gender-distressed young people. Since then, she has personally participated in the assessments of more than 500 such adolescents....

Anthropologists from the largest associations of anthropologists in the world canceled an event discussing the importance of biological sex in the context of studying the human skeleton while citing "transphobia" as the reason for the panel being cut. The American Anthropological Association (AAA) and The Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) were skewered for walking back their approval for a panel event at its 2023 conference discussing biological sex. The AAA and CASCA said that it was now tightening its review process to ensure such an event wouldn't recur in the future. The event in question discussed "Sex identification whether an individual...

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Former champion gymnast Jennifer Sey laughed at soccer all-star Megan Rapinoe over her recent comments shrugging off the ability of trans athletes participating in women's sports. ... 1986 U.S. National Gymnastics gold medalist .. cited a 2017 match between the U.S. Women's Soccer team and a team made up of 15-year-old high school boys and how the pro-athletes were defeated by the group of male adolescents. ... the best women's soccer team in the world lost to 15-year-old high school boys, how - why was that? How did that happen?" Sey posed to Rapinoe. "An average high school boys team....