The Human Dynasty

New data on a prehistoric warm period allow for more accurate predictions of future climate and improved understanding of today’s warming. Past warm periods provide real data on climate change and are natural laboratories for understanding the global climate system. Scientists examined fossils from 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago, known as the mid-Pliocene warm period.

(Indiana University) Larry J. Zimmerman, Ph.D., an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis professor of anthropology and museum studies at the School of Liberal Arts, and Jessica Welch, an IUPUI student and a formerly homeless woman, have completed a unique study of the material culture of the homeless. The researchers discovered that the problem of homelessness is broader and much more complex than previously thought.

(United States Geological Survey) New data on a prehistoric warm period allow for more accurate predictions of future climate and improved understanding of today’s warming. Past warm periods provide real data on climate change and are natural laboratories for understanding the global climate system. Scientists examined fossils from 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago, known as the mid-Pliocene warm period. Research was conducted by the Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping group, led by the US Geological Survey.

Cells can turn on tumor-promoting growth circuits by falsely reporting critical genetic information during the process of transcription: making RNA from DNA. Damage to the DNA making up a gene can lead to a misreading of the gene as it is made into RNA, a process called transcriptional mutagenesis. Transcriptional mutagenesis could represent an additional way DNA damage contributes to tumor formation.

Researchers have developed an unlimited number of pure insulin-producing cells from mouse embryonic stem cells. The cells, which have the same sub-cellular structures as the insulin-producing cells naturally found in the pancreas, were highly effective in treating diabetes in the mouse model.

Five genetic risk markers for prostate cancer may allow physicians to adapt screening approaches for men at high-risk, particularly African-American men, according to new research.

MyHeritage, one of the world's most popular family Web sites, today announced a partnership with FamilyTreeDNA, the company that pioneered DNA testing for genealogic research. In addition to MyHeritage's innovative Smart Matching and Research technologies, members can now also use information contained in their DNA to find present-day relatives who share a common ancestor from many hundreds of years ago. FamilyTreeDNA users can take advantage of MyHeritage's site to not only further research family history, but also stay connected with current family members around the world. (PRWeb Nov 20, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/DNAtesting/familynetwork/prweb1636664.htm

Scientists in Tennessee are reporting that a gene therapy technique called gene silencing shows promise for improving the effectiveness and expanded use of transplants of insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes.

How knowing your genes could change your life

(University of Exeter) New research could explain why females of many species have multiple partners. Females of most species, including many mammals, mate with multiple partners. The driving forces for this practice, known as ‘polyandry’, have been a mystery for evolutionary biologists for decades. This research suggests that polyandry could be the result of females adapting to avoid producing offspring carrying selfish genetic elements that reduce male fertility.