Placental pregnancy is a radical phenotype which arose only once in evolutionary history. Professor Günter Wagner and colleagues have conducted genome-wide analysis on cells from an array of pregnant animals to reveal that ancient transposable elements were the likely vehicles for the origin of this mammalian trait.
Soot formation during combustion is a highly important process, both in terms of safety in space and in terms of pollution back on Earth. A team of Yale engineers has been invited by NASA to perform combustion experiments in space to develop mathematical models of this process.
University of Cape Town Professor Kelly Chibale and colleagues have perfected a novel compound that could kill malaria parasites in a single dose.
University of Washington engineers have taken the first steps on a potentially groundbreaking path by “programming” chemical reactions reproducibly and specifically using modified DNA.
Public health professor Kaveh Khoshnood investigates the complexities of syringe exchange programs, which have the potential to drastically decrease HIV infection rates among urban drug users.
A novel single-molecule approach using “optical tweezers” provides new detail into the process of membrane fusion.