science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 3 Μαΐου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Telling time on Saturn
How modification of an enzyme governs critical processes in sexual reproduction
Heart cells change stem cell behavior
Bigger birth weight babies at greater risk of autism

Posted: 03 May 2013 06:38 AM PDT

A University of Iowa undergraduate student has discovered that a process occurring in Saturn’s magnetosphere is linked to the planet's seasons and changes with them, a finding that helps clarify the length of a Saturn day and could alter our understanding of the Earth’s magnetosphere.

How modification of an enzyme governs critical processes in sexual reproduction

Posted: 03 May 2013 06:08 AM PDT

The Research Group headed by molecular biologist Andrea Pichler from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg has made an important discovery in meiosis research. Pichler and her group have identified a new mechanism that plays an important role in meiosis. Meiosis, also called reductional division, is a key process in sexual reproduction. It shuffles parental genetic material and thus guarantees genetic variety.

Heart cells change stem cell behavior

Posted: 02 May 2013 11:52 AM PDT

Stem cells drawn from amniotic fluid show promise for tissue engineering, but it’s important to know what they can and cannot do. A new study by researchers at Rice University and Texas Children’s Hospital has shown that these stem cells can communicate with mature heart cells and form electrical couplings with each other similar to those found in heart tissue. But these electrical connections alone do not prompt amniotic cells to become cardiac cells.

Bigger birth weight babies at greater risk of autism

Posted: 02 May 2013 08:10 AM PDT

The biggest study of fetal growth and autism ever has reported that babies whose growth is at either extreme in the womb, either very small or very large, are at greater risk of developing autism.

It is the first time that a clear link has been made between babies who grow to above average size at birth and risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder and follows from a study of more than 40,000 child health records in Sweden.