Fundamental bioscience news: 2012

December

Bacterial suicide: assembly of a lethal molecular machine - News - 24 December
How can bacteria protect themselves from lethal infection by viral parasites? One extreme way is for individual cells to commit suicide…
Pheromone helps mice remember where to find a mate - Press release - 14 December
Scientists have found that male mice produce a pheromone that provokes females and competitor males to remember a preference for the place where…

A tenth of quirky creature’s active genes are foreign - Press release - 16 November
Up to ten per cent of the active genes of an organism that has survived 80 million years without sex are foreign, a new study reveals…
Have you heard the one about the South American cricket…? - Press release - 16 November
…It has ears like ours. Scientists studying a species of South American bush cricket with some of the smallest ears known have discovered…
Viruses evolve to prevent bacterial hosts from committing suicide - News - 9 November
University of Cambridge researchers have discovered an extraordinary way that bacterial parasites prevent their hosts from killing themselves…
High-flying geese take low profile over Himalayas - Press release - 2 November
Bar-headed geese are star fliers of the bird world. As well as being striking looking creatures, they have become famous for…

Killer whales offer menopause clues - Press release - 17 September
An international team of scientists has found the answer to why female killer whales have the longest menopause of any non-human species…
Birds barometer evolved from fish sense organ - Press release - 6 September
Latest research shows that the ‘paratympanic organ’ (PTO) – the innate barometer in the middle ear of birds – evolved from a fish sense organ…

Research raises doubts about whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred - Press release - 14 August
New research funded by BBSRC) raises questions about the theory that modern humans and Neanderthals at some point interbred, known as hybridisation…
Evolutionary molecule identified - News - 8 August
Researchers at the University of Dundee have identified a molecule that could play a key role in how cells develop into the building blocks of life…

Chewing not just for mammals - News - 6 June
Scientists are challenging our fundamental knowledge of how animals eat. In a paper published in The Anatomical Record, they showed that the tuatara…
A post-coital switch: mapping the changing behaviours in the female fruit fly’s mind - Press release - 1 June
If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then it shouldn’t be surprising that their neural circuits differ…

Mystery of the domestication of the horse solved - Press release - 9 May
Research reconciles competing theories about the origin of the domestic horse…
Courtship in the cricket world - Press release - 1 May
Everyone wants to present themselves in the best light - especially when it comes to finding a partner…