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Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert. Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London. Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times. “Human social change often changes...

To understand where fat comes from, you have to start with a skinny mouse. By using such a creature, and observing the growth of fat after injections of different kinds of immature cells, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Rockefeller University have discovered an important fat precursor cell that may in time explain how changes in the numbers of fat cells might increase and lead to obesity. The finding could also have implications for understanding how fat cells affect conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. "The identification of white adipocyte progenitor cells provides a means for identifying...

But family environment can tip the balance for better or worseTALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Birds of a feather flock together, according to the old adage, and adolescent males who possess a certain type of variation in a specific gene are more likely to flock to delinquent peers, according to a landmark study led by Florida State University criminologist Kevin M. Beaver. "This research is groundbreaking because it shows that the propensity in some adolescents to affiliate with delinquent peers is tied up in the genome," said Beaver, an assistant professor in the FSU College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Criminological research...

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, together with American colleagues, have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode, thereby gaining insight into the evolution of parasitism. In their work, which has recently been published in Nature Genetics, the scientists from Professor Ralf J. Sommer’s department in Tübingen, Germany, have shown that the genome of the nematode consists of a surprisingly large number of genes, some of which have unexpected functions. These include a number of genes that are helpful in breaking down harmful substances and for survival in a strange habitat: the Pristionchus uses beetles as...

The path from the lab to the marketplace for genetically modified cows, pigs and chickens has been clearly spelled out for the first time....But the only engineered animal to reach consumers thus far is a pet fish that glows in the dark.

The principal rationale for the $3 billion spent to decode the human genome was that it would enable the discovery of the variant genes that predispose people to common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. A major expectation was that these variants had not been eliminated by natural selection because they harm people only later in life after their reproductive years are over, and hence that they would be common. This idea, called the common disease/common variant hypothesis, drove major developments in biology over the last five years. Washington financed the HapMap, a catalog of common genetic variation in the human...

Genetics is often charged as providing a brave new world for science and now it seems that new research into the makeup of brewing yeasts in lager could revolutionise the very taste of beer, new research claims. In a study appearing online in the journal Genome Research, scientists from Stanford University in California say they have been able to identify the origins of Saccharomyces pastorianus yeast, a ‘hybrid’ organism used in lager. Such a breakthrough may help scientists and brewers to better understand how to manipulate the individual yeast strains that contribute to taste, colour and even aroma variation in...

The violence and despair of the inner city are real. So's the problem of street crime. The longer we allow these problems to fester, the easier it becomes for white America to see all blacks as menacing and for black America to see all whites as racist. To close that gap, we're going to have to do more than denounce Mr. Murray's book. We're going to have to take concrete and deliberate action. For blacks, that means taking greater responsibility for the state of our own communities. Too many of us use white racism as an excuse for self-defeating behavior....

HHMI investigators have detected a multitude of broken, missing, and overactive genes in pancreatic and brain tumors, in the most detailed genetic survey yet of any human tumor. Some of these genetic changes were previously unknown and could provide new leads for improved diagnosis and therapy for these devastating cancers. The discoveries, described in two reports published September 4, 2008, in Science Express, which provides early electronic publication of selected Science papers, emerged from the sequencing of nearly all the known protein-making genes in pancreatic cancers and in the most common form of brain tumors, glioblastomas. The study adds numerous...

Genes alone don’t make the man — after all, humans and chimps share roughly 98 percent of their DNA. But where, when and how much genes are turned on may be essential in setting people apart from other primates. A stretch of human DNA inserted into mice embryos revs the activity of genes in the developing thumb, toe, forelimb and hind limb. But the chimp and rhesus macaque version of this same stretch of DNA spurs only faint activity in the developing limbs, reports a new study in the Sept. 5 Science. The research supports the notion that changes in...

When DNA from hundreds of people is pooled together, it has been impossible to identify any individuals. In what could be a boon for crime-fighters, however, a statistical technique now makes the task possible--allowing forensic detectives to determine whether a suspect handled a gun, for example. But the technique also creates a privacy concern about health data; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, is now backpedaling on a policy mandating genetic sharing developed just 8 months ago for fear that the health information of people who participated in the studies could be identified. The authors of the...

The same gene that affects a rodent's ability to mate for life may affect human marriages, Swedish and U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Men carrying a common variation of gene involved in brain signaling were more likely to be in unhappy marriages than men with the other version, the team at the Karolinska Institute found. Although they are not sure what the genetic changes do to a man's behavior, some other research suggests it has to do with the ability to communicate and empathize, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We never looked at...

Down syndromeDefinitionDown syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes mental retardation and other problems. The condition varies in severity, so developmental problems may range from mild to serious. Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of severe learning disabilities in children, occurring in one in every 700 infants. Every year, as many as 6,000 babies are born with Down syndrome in the United States. The condition is named after John Langdon Down, the doctor who first identified the syndrome. There's no medical cure for this condition. But increased understanding of Down syndrome and early interventions make a big difference...

Imagine the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus, with some genes derived from bacteria that repel certain common pests? No? You obviously are not alone. Fr Sean McDonagh says that if gluten-free hosts are verboten, then you can count on genetically modified wheat being off limits as well.Genetically-modified (GM) wheat may not be be suitable under canon law to be used to make hosts for the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist, it's been claimed. Fr Sean McDonagh, a Columban priest and well-known commentator on environmental issues, questions whether the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith which oversees Catholic...

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it had cracked the long-unsolved anthrax case, the turning point cited by the bureau was its identification of a laboratory flask as the source of the anthrax. The dots, or in this case more than a thousand separate anthrax samples, were connected with the help of a group of scientists working secretly for some seven years. They succeeded by using a combination of new techniques not even invented in late 2001 when the anthrax-laced letters were sent, and that most old-fashioned attribute of expert scientists and detectives: a trained eye. Now, in their...

...The invention of the PCR techniques has led to further refinements of the DNA fingerprinting techniques, which has given science the ability to obtain a human being's DNA fingerprinting – and therefore his or her identity – from a single cell. There can no longer be any doubt that each human being is totally unique from the very beginning of his or her life at fertilization. (Mark, P. 19-21.) The significance of methylation of cytosine was unknown until 1985. It has a profound significance in understanding...that the human being is whole and complete at fertilization. A human being at an...

Q. WHEN YOU GAVE A RECENT SPEECH AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ADVOCATING GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS, SOMEONE SITTING NEAR ME SAID, “OH GREAT, OUR STATE DEPARTMENT IS PUSHING G.M. FOOD. SHE’S THE AMBASSADOR FROM MONSANTO.” WHAT’S YOUR RESPONSE? A. How do I answer him? My answer is: There’s almost no food that isn’t genetically modified. Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution. Things change because our planet is subjected to a lot of radiation, which causes DNA damage, which gets repaired, but results in mutations, which create a ready mixture of plants that people can choose from to improve agriculture. In...

Biologists have constructed a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between its various populations. All the populations are quite similar, but the differences are sufficient that it should be possible to devise a forensic test to tell which country in Europe an individual probably comes from, said Manfred Kayser, a geneticist at the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The map shows, at right, the location in Europe where each of the sampled populations live and, at left, the genetic relationship between these 23 populations. The map was constructed by Dr. Kayser, Dr. Oscar Lao and...

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) have shown how broken sections of chromosomes can recombine to change genomes and spawn new species.

TRONDHEIM, Norway, August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recently published Norwegian study of prenatal detection of trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) reveals that 84% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the country are aborted. The study also concludes with the observation that "based solely on maternal age and second-trimester ultrasound imaging, the prenatal detection rate of trisomy 21 cases was poor and remained unchanged throughout the 18-year study period."The study was conducted by the Norwegian National Center for Fetal Medicine and published in the August 2008 issue of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.The research was based on data obtained from...

Microbial biologists, including the University of Oregon's Jessica L. Green, may not have Jimmy Buffett's music from 1977 in mind, but they are changing attitudes about evolutionary diversity on Earth, from oceanic latitudes to mountainous altitudes. In two recent National Science Foundation-funded papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Green and colleagues show that temperature, not productivity, primarily drives the richness of bacterial diversity in the oceans, and that life, both plant and microbial, by altitude in the Rocky Mountains may be close, but not exactly, to what biologists have theorized for years. Swedish naturalist and botanist...

August 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One of the untouchable dogmas of the homosexualist movement is the assertion of the existence of a "gay gene", or a genetic marker that causes same-sex attraction. The assertion of a genetic factor in homosexual preference has never been demonstrated by scientists and now at least one prominent campaigner in the British homosexualist movement has admitted this fact. Peter Tatchell, an Australian-born British homosexual activist who founded the "direct action" group OutRage! that specialises in media stunts such as disrupting Christian religious services, wrote on Spiked Online that he agrees with the scientific consensus that...

Researchers have spent decades probing the causes of depression, schizophrenia and insomnia in humans. But a new study may have uncovered key insights into the origins of these and other conditions by examining a most unlikely research subject: worms. The project, which was led by Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist Kenneth Miller, Ph.D., examined the way eye-less microscopic worms known as C. elegans shy away from certain kinds of light. The researchers made several key findings, chief among them that exposing paralyzed C. elegans to ultraviolet light restored normal levels of movement in the worms. Miller's group at OMRF traced...

Stanford University researchers peering at history's footprints on human DNA have found new evidence for how prehistoric people shared knowledge that advanced civilization. Using a genetic technique pioneered at Stanford, the team found that animal-herding methods arrived in southern Africa 2,000 years ago on a wave of human migration, rather than by movement of ideas between neighbors. The findings shed light on how early cultures interacted with each other and how societies learned to adopt advances.

Ideas Planted in Darwin's Time In the nineteenth century, scientists were already observing that plant roots naturally seek out the wetter regions in soil. Although the phenomenon is well documented, scientists until recently had no clue as to how the mechanism worked, or how to make it better. New insights from the Tel Aviv University study could lead to plants that are super water seekers, say researchers.

Are you really lazy? Would you rather just sit around the house and watch TV all day instead of actually producing and trying to contribute to society? In the political world many conservatives would call those people Democrats but they may have now finally have found an excuse for their lifestyle of living off other people's hard work and money. It is the laziness gene. New Excuses for Workers: Laziness Gene is Discovered Is there really a laziness gene? Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained it this way on CNN, "Well, there is some preliminary research now actually looking at this very...

Female transsexuals may have their genes to blame for feeling like they belong to the wrong sex. Scientists identified a specific gene variant in female-to-male transsexuals that meant they had been exposed to higher levels of sex hormones during their early development. Almost half the female-to-male transsexuals in the study carried the gene variant.

Genome deletions raise chances of developing mental illness.Rare genetic changes associated with a heightened risk of schizophrenia have been revealed by two independent studies.The surveys have identified sections of the human genome that, when deleted, can elevate the risk of developing schizophrenia by up to 15 times compared with the general population.Schizophrenia is a serious mental health problem and affects around 1 in every 100 people at some point during their lives. Genetic factors are thought to account for more than 70% of cases. But unlike many diseases with a genetic basis — and in common with many other psychiatric...

Two large studies of schizophrenia patients have yielded the most convincing evidence yet that the disease can be caused by mistakes in genes. The researchers linked a much higher risk for schizophrenia to three chromosomal regions that are missing chunks of DNA. Although only a tiny fraction of patients carried these particular glitches, similar errors may help explain other cases of the disease. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder involving hallucinations and delusions that affects as many as 1 in 100 people; it often runs in families. So far, searches for common genes linked to schizophrenia have been unsuccessful. In...

Two groups of researchers hunting for schizophrenia genes on a larger scale than ever before have found new genetic variants that point toward a different understanding of the disease. The variants discovered by the two groups, one led by Dr. Kari Stefansson of Decode Genetics in Iceland and the other by Dr. Pamela Sklar of the Massachusetts General Hospital, are all rare. They substantially increase the risk of schizophrenia in those affected but account for a tiny fraction of the total number of cases. This finding, coupled with the general lack of success so far in finding common variants for...

-- Moving closer to the causes and effective treatment of schizophrenia, researchers say they've found specific gene variations linked to the condition. Specifically, three rare deletions in the human genome appear to raise the risk of developing the devastating brain disease considerably. "These findings give a great deal of hope -- for individuals with schizophrenia and their families and loved ones and caregivers -- that we're moving towards an understanding of the causes of the disease," said Dr. Pamela Sklar, corresponding author of a paper appearing inNatureand director of genetics at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Working in the solitude of an Austrian monastery, one 19th-century holy man managed to unravel the basic principles of heredity with just a handful of pea species that he bred and crossbred, counted and catalogued with monastic discipline. While plant and animal genes were Gregor Mendel's original focus, his ideas later made sense of our complex human workings, too, kicking off the scientific discipline of genetics. An unconventional scientist Today, Mendel is revered as the father of genetics, but the Austrian's work on heredity didn't initially make the kind of big splash in the science world achieved, for example, by...

Neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory found that a previously unsuspected set of genes links nature and nurture during a crucial period of brain development. The results, reported in the July 8 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could lead to treatments for autism and other disorders thought to be tied to brain changes that occur when the developing brain is very susceptible to inputs from the outside world. Nature--in the form of genes--and nurture--in the form of environmental influences--are fundamentally intertwined during this period. "Our work points to how a disorder...

When it comes to memory it is clear that men and women are simply not on the same wavelength. While men may fail to match a woman's ability to remember the date of an anniversary, they are better at storing a seemingly endless cache of facts and figures. Scientists believe they have now uncovered the reason for this difference between the sexes – they make the memories in different ways.

RESEARCHERS believe they have discovered two genes which allow people to hold their drink. Carriers of one or both genes can process alcohol through the body quickly. One effect is that it halves the chance of developing mouth, throat and oesophageal cancer.

<p>Twins with different skin colors — one black and the other white — have been born in Berlin, Germany.</p> <p>Doctors say it is an extremely rare occurrence, but it is possible if genes combine in a certain way.</p> <p>The twin boys, named Ryan and Leo, are the offspring of a mixed-race couple.</p>

Twins with different skin colors — one black and the other white — have been born in Berlin, Germany. The twin boys, named Ryan and Leo, are the offspring of a mixed-race couple

Kirstie Alley When the formerly svelte actress gained quite a few pounds post-"Cheers," she seemed like an ideal candidate to endorse Jenny Craig. All she had to do was tell women she got back her formerly fabulous figure thanks to Jenny. There was just one problem -- she couldn’t stop gaining weight. So unfortunately for Kirstie, she was replaced by Valerie Bertinelli, who was soon seen on TV fitting into her "skinny jeans" again.

Enlarge ImageSmoking gun. People with certain variations in nicotine-receptor genes face a greater risk of becoming hooked on cigarettes into adulthood.Credit: Hendrike Peer pressure may push teens to start smoking, but their DNA keeps them hooked on the nicotine buzz into their adult years. So says a new study that finds that people with variations in particular genes are more likely to become addicted if they start smoking during early adolescence. The work may explain why some people find it harder to kick the habit and also underscores the importance of preventing children from smoking in the first place....

Dr. Wilson was not picking a fight when he published “Sociobiology” in 1975, a synthesis of ideas about the evolution of social behavior. He asserted that many human behaviors had a genetic basis, an idea then disputed by many social scientists and by Marxists intent on remaking humanity. Dr. Wilson was amazed at what ensued, which he describes as a long campaign of verbal assault and harassment with a distinctly Marxist flavor led by two Harvard colleagues, Richard C. Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould. The new fight is one Dr. Wilson has picked. It concerns a central feature of evolution,...

Three genes may play a strong role in determining why some young men raised in rough neighborhoods or deprived families become violent criminals, while others do not, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. One gene called MAOA that played an especially strong role has been shown in other studies to affect antisocial behavior -- and it was disturbingly common, the team at the University of North Carolina reported. People with a particular variation of the MAOA gene called 2R were very prone to criminal and delinquent behavior, said sociology professor Guang Guo, who led the study. "I don't want to say...

Genes Missing in Autism Needed for Learning-Triggered Brain Growth Surprising findings from a gene study have set the world of autism research spinning on a new axis. The new study shows that many of the different genes linked to autism -- and many of the new autism genes discovered in the course of the study -- are part of a network that allows a child's brain to build new connections in response to experience. The good news is that a surprisingly large number of these mutant genes affect the on/off switches that control experience-triggered brain development. That's much better than...

In the current issue of Nature, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Hinxton, UK, present the most precise map of genetic recombination yet. The study sheds light on fundamental questions about genetic shuffling and has implications for the tracking of disease genes and their inheritance.

Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region's most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares to review the school's admission policy. The rising concentration of Asian Americans at T.J. mirrors demographic trends in other elite math and science magnet schools. In New York, the selective and specialized Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School have Asian American majorities, although about 10 percent of...

James P. Evans, a physician and molecular biologist, teaches genetics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He also directs the school’s Clinical Cancer Genetics Services, counseling patients about genetic testing. On weekends Dr. Evans, under the auspices of the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center — a Congressionally mandated program — teaches the nation’s judges about genetics. Dr. Evans, 49, was interviewed recently in New York; he had come to speak at the World Science Festival. Q. WHY DO JUDGES NEED TO KNOW THEIR GENETICS? A. Because they are frequently trying cases that hinge on genetics....

Enlarge ImageDoggie diversity. Researchers have linked pointing, herding, and other canine traits to specific gene variations.Credit: Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition The adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks may have some basis in truth, or at least in DNA. It turns out that a pointer's point, a border collie's herding instinct, and several other canine characteristics may be hard-wired in dogs' genes, according to a new study. The advance could help breeders weed out diseases in man's best friend and shed light on the genetic basis of certain human disorders. Since humans first domesticated dogs...

Why are some people gay? Most researchers who study sexual orientation think that both genetic and environmental factors play a role, but the relative contributions of each remain unclear. A new study of Swedish twins reinforces earlier findings that environmental influences--including the environment in the womb--may play a greater role than genes. Scientists studying complex human behaviors often turn to twin studies. Researchers look at both identical and fraternal twins to see how often they share a trait--a parameter called concordance. The greater the concordance among genetically identical twins compared with fraternal twins--who share only half of their genes--the more...

Homosexual behaviour is largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors, according to findings from the world's largest study of twins. Writing in the scientific journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm report that genetics and environmental factors (which are specific to an individual, and may include biological processes such as different hormone exposure in the womb), are important determinants of homosexual behaviour. Dr Qazi Rahman, study co-author and a leading scientist on human sexual orientation, explains: "This study puts cold water on any concerns that we...

Why do people vote? Genetic variation in political participation A groundbreaking new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system. The research, conducted by political scientists James H. Fowler, Christopher T. Dawes (of UC San Diego) and psychologist Laura A. Baker (of University of Southern California), appears in the May issue of the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA). "Although we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation," note the...

Last Wednesday, as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger prepared to tell a biotechnology industry convention in San Diego that his state “is one of the best places to set up shop”, Kári Stefansson was opening a letter that had just landed on his desk at deCODE genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland. The letter read: “It has come to the attention of the California Department of Public Health…that deCODEme Genetics is in violation of California law” for failing to have a clinical laboratory licence in the state and offering genetic tests to consumers resident in the state without a physician's order. It gave...