Love in Biological News

Is love at first sight real? Geneticists offer tantalizing clues

Leave it to geneticists to answer a question that has perplexed humanity since the dawn of time: does love at first sight truly exist? According to a study published in the April 2009 issue of the journal GENETICS ( http://www.genetics.org ), a team of scientists from the United States and Austr...

Cheap love costs the Earth

Ecology and conservation biologist at the University of Leicester, Dr David Harper, who has conducted research for over 25 years at Lake Naivasha in Kenya, today warned that cut-price Valentine roses exported for sale in the UK were 'bleeding that country dry'. Dr Harper, of the University's De...

Mosquitoes create harmonic love song before mating, study finds

ITHACA, N.Y. That pesky buzz of a nearby mosquito is the sound of love, scientists have known for some time. But a new Cornell study reports that males and females flap their wings and change their tune to create a harmonic duet just before mating. Cornell entomologists have discovered that male...

Want a reason to love your lower belly fat? It's rich in stem cells

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. Fat removed from the lower abdomen and inner thigh through liposuction was found to be an excellent source of stem cells, with higher stem cell concentrations than other areas of the body, reports a Brazilian-based study in August's Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery , th...

Why you can't hurry love

Scientists have developed a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often protracted. The study, by researchers at UCL (University College London), University of Warwick and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), shows that extended courtship enables...

New fish has a face even Dale Chihuly could love

A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert. The fish, sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island, has tan- and peach-colo...

Born with a love of speech

Do human newborns develop their preference for speech through in-utero eavesdropping, or is their penchant for speech innate? It's a bedevilling question to test, but one that's central to understanding the origins and dynamics of humans unique propensity for speech. Now a McGill University psychol...

Learning to love bacteria: Stanford scientist highlights bugs' benefits

Bacteria are bad. Mothers and doctors, not to mention the cleaning product industry, repeatedly warn of their dangers. But a Stanford University School of Medicine microbiologist is raising the intriguing idea that persistent bacterial and viral infections have benefits. Stanley Falkow, PhD, the ...

The secret love life of plants

A large portion of plant seeds is endosperm. It has the important task of nourishing the plant embryo during the early stages of its development. In flowering plants, there is a complicated double-fertilisation mechanism that arises among embryos and endosperm. They develop together into mature ...

Study Unlocks Insects?Secret for Love in the Dark

Could improve prediction of patient outcomes, lead to tailored treatmentsWhen it comes to inflammation, too much of a good thing can be deadly. In some severely injured patients, this normal healing process can develop into a lethal, whole-body response, including bloodstream infection (sepsis) and...

Grasshopper love songs give insight into sensory tuning

As anyone whose nerves have been jangled by a baby's howl or who have been riveted by the sight of an attractive person knows, nature has evolved sensory systems to be exquisitely tuned to relevant input. A major question in neurobiology is how neurons tune the strength of their interconnections to...

Argonne to showcase science and technology at community open house

...ent is free and open to the public. "The open house will be great fun for everyone," said Eric Isaacs, director of Argonne National Laboratory. "We love welcoming the community and having an opportunity to show off some of the great work we are doing to benefit our nation while inspiring public interes...

Two dietary oils, two sets of benefits for older women with diabetes

...y what we're trying to understand with nutrition is how dietary approaches can complement Westernized medicine," Belury said. "In an ideal world, we'd love it if women like those in our study could use diet, activity and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle to manage their health. But most will probably b...

A breath mint made from... coffee?

...rg. "We expected coffee would cause bad breath, but there is something inside this magic brew that has the opposite effect." Prof. Rosenberg would love to isolate the bacterial-inhibiting molecule in order to reap the biggest anti-bacterial benefits from coffee. "It's not the raw extract we will use,"...

Broecker: 'What we need are tougher measures against climate change'

...ic cost that stands within the bounds of reason". Despite everything, Broecker believes that "the next hundred years will be very interesting. I'd love to be around to see what happens. The late Roger Revelle said that this was mankind's greatest geophysical experiment, and he was pretty much right. S...

UC Riverside professor receives top scientific honor

... and present, who contributed to my success and recognition. My thanks go also to my beloved family, Natasha, Eugene, Vincent, Iris and Eli, for their love and support." The NAS is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicat...

Allscripts Integrates Electronic Health Records with Innovative Patient Kiosk

...f Springfield Clinic, a 260-provider multi-specialty physician group with 24 locations in Springfield, Ill. and the surrounding 14 counties. "Patients love the kiosk because they are in control." Springfield, who co-developed the healthcare solution with Allscripts to work on the medical kiosk from Fujits...

Liking sweets makes sense for kids

... Philadelphia (March 18, 2009) As any parent knows, children love sweet-tasting foods. Now, new research from the University of Washington and the Monell Center indicates that this heightened liking for sweetness ha...

CRG buys Genomatix' Next Generation Sequencing analysis solution

... providing a complete solution for the analysis of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data after mapping to the genome. "In regards to the machine, I love it! And I have advertised it to many colleagues," says Dr. Ramin Shiekhattar, Group Leader within the Gene Regulation Programme. "We are pursuing r...

Mountain on Mars may answer big question

... primal life forms found deep in Earth's oceans, thriving near geothermal vents. Finding a source of heat will be a challenge, they admitted. "We'd love to have the answer to that question," said McGovern, noting evidence of methane on Mars is considered by some to be another marker for life. "Spacecra...

Researchers shed new light on connection between brain and loneliness

...s a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region. Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be a...

Plants take a hike as temperatures rise

...ts were flowering farther uphill and had observed many changes he attributed to drought. Bertelsen had begun hiking the trail in 1981 and fell in love with the flora and fauna. He had just taken up macrophotography and took close-up pictures of all types of plants and animals while recording his obse...

Dog owners more likely to share germs with pets by not washing hands than by sleeping with dog

...interact with people in different ways than dogs, she said. "We have a lot to learn," Stenske said. "In the meantime, we should continue to own and love our pets because they provide a source of companionship. We also need to make sure we are washing our hands often." ...

Physical activity may not be key to obesity epidemic

...y eating more, said Richard Cooper, Ph.D., co-author of the study and chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. "We would love to say that physical activity has a positive effect on weight control, but that does not appear to be the case," Cooper said. The recent study incl...

A win-win: U-pick pumpkin farms recycle urban leaves

... NEW BRUNSWICK, NJAmericans love pumpkins. The growing popularity of rural fall festivals, grade school farm tours, and "u-pick" pumpkin farms has resulted in an increase in consumer ...

Italy's geologic history becomes a personal tale in Walter Alvarez's new book

... build Italian cities since the time of ancient Rome. "If you travel around in Italy and look at the buildings, you will see that the Italians just love ornamental stone," Alvarez said. "Even if you wander around San Francisco and look at the storefronts, you will see limestone and marble from all over...

Girls have superior sense of taste to boys

...hool age prefers soft drinks which are not sweet. Children and young people love fish and do not think of themselves as being fussy eaters. Boys have a swee...ome markedly more sensitive to sour tastes. At exactly the same time, their love of very sweet flavours starts waning. And it is here too that many more dec...

Researchers examine role of soil patterns in dam restoration

.... "By doing this research, we're asking the question, 'How much do soils matter in the restoration of these basins?'" Balster says. "As people who love to study soil we're going to say, 'A lot! Soils likely drive the whole thing.' But as scientists, we don't know yet." Answering that question is b...

New national survey says public reveres bison

... Americans are woefully out of touch with the fact that the American bison, or buffalo, is in trouble as a wild, iconic species, but they do love them as an important symbol of their countryand as an entre on the dinner table. These sentiments were found in a public survey released today by t...

UNC study: Text messaging may help children fight off obesity

... CHAPEL HILL Many children love sending and receiving text messages through their cell phones sometimes to the great annoyance of their parents. But now a new study from the Univ...

New hybrid plants could prompt more prodigious pepper production in Southwest

...ed from Canada, according to USDA data. "Ironically, our domestic fresh pepper production has been declining steadily in a region renowned for its love of peppers the American Southwest," said Dr. Daniel Leskovar, a vegetable physiologist with Texas AgriLife Research. To help Southwestern pepper...

FSU Historian's Arctic research has him sitting on top of the world

...rm goal is to publish their research in a book that will "join the voices together" to fill in holes in individual narratives. "Ultimately, I would love to see one of the very first internationally collaborative histories in which authors are able to tell a unified narrative of this fascinating region,...

ORNL nanotechnologies big winners in DOE call

...f materials useful for energy-efficient photovoltaics and an array of other applications. Using a natural fermentation process, lead researcher Lonnie love can control the size and shape of nanoscale magnetite produced in industrial size fermentors at or near room temperature. Transformational fabri...

New book dissects statistics for doctors and medical students

...ature. It will serve as an essential resource for medical students and professionals who need to understand common statistical terms. "Whether you love or hate statistics, you need to have some understanding of the subject if you want to critically appraise a paper. To do this, you do not need to k...

Exposing chicks to maternal stress leads to long-term reproductive success

...can have negative impacts on offspring following birth. To examine why a stressed mother would allow this to happen, evolutionary physiologists Oliver love and Tony Williams examined how offspring exposure to the maternally-derived stress hormone corticosterone affect maternal fitness in free-living Europ...

Risk and reward compete in brain

... That familiar pull between the promise of victory and the dread of defeat whether in money, love or sport is rooted in the brain's architecture, according to a new imaging study. Neuroscientists at the USC Brain and Creativity Institute have i...

Study: Bird diversity lessens human exposure to West Nile Virus

...ackles, house finches, blue jays, sparrows and American robins, with the robin being the most prolific carrier of WNV. Robins are anthrophilic they love being around humans and it's relatively easy for mosquitoes to take their blood meals from them because robins feed so much on the ground. Allan, h...

Stevens strengthens Dominican Republic's Early Warning System for Inundations

...vens Civil Engineering student and a native of the DR, joined the team. Parra moved to the US from the DR when she was six-years old. She always had a love for math and her uncle, a civil engineer in the DR, inspired her to study civil engineering. During the summer of 2007, her uncle gave her an opportun...

From humming fish to Puccini: Vocal communication evolved with ancient species

...us midshipman fish to the strains of a Puccini aria or, alas, even to the simplest Celine Dion melody. But the neural circuitry that led to the human love song not to mention birdsongs, frog thrums and mating calls of all manner of vertebrates was likely laid down hundreds of millions of years ago with...

New Sony PC Delivers High Performance in Ultra-Portable Package

...ntrino(R) 2 technology, the chipset designed for sizzling performance, unbelievable system responsiveness, and energy efficiency. Road warriors will love its built-in 802.11n wireless LAN capabilities making it faster and easier to connect to compatible wireless networks with greater performance and ran...