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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 25, 2013 at 8:43am

Who’s Patenting Whose Genome?
A free and open-source public resource aims to bring much-needed transparency to the murky and contentious world of gene patenting.
http://www.asianscientist.com/tech-pharma/whos-patenting-genome-2013/

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 25, 2013 at 8:41am

Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults
Multiple faces and objects were used to examine sex-related preferences in infants and adults.
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Infants showed no sex-related preference but a group preference for faces.
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Male adults preferred women’s faces over objects, while females preferred men’s faces.
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This challenges an innate basis for sex-related preference in object perception.
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Sex-related preferences seem to result from maturation and social learning.
Findings of previous studies demonstrate sex-related preferences for toys in 6-month-old infants; boys prefer nonsocial or mechanical toys such as cars, whereas girls prefer social toys such as dolls. Here, we explored the innate versus learned nature of this sex-related preferences using multiple pictures of doll and real faces (of men and women) as well as pictures of toy and real objects (cars and stoves). In total, 48 4- and 5-month-old infants (24 girls and 24 boys) and 48 young adults (24 women and 24 men) saw six trials of all relevant pairs of faces and objects, with each trial containing a different exemplar of a stimulus type. The infant results showed no sex-related preferences; infants preferred faces of men and women regardless of whether they were real or doll faces. Similarly, adults did not show sex-related preferences for social versus nonsocial stimuli, but unlike infants they preferred faces of the opposite sex over objects. These results challenge claims of an innate basis for sex-related preferences for toy real stimuli and suggest that sex-related preferences result from maturational and social development that continues into adulthood.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096513001367

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 25, 2013 at 8:39am

Baby Boys Prefer Dolls To Trucks!
Infants of both sexes are most interested in objects with faces, contrary to common belief that boys prefer more “macho” vehicle and construction toys.
Researchers have found that infants of both sexes are most interested in objects with faces, contrary to common belief that boys prefer more “macho” vehicle and construction toys.

In the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, researchers tested multiple pictures of humans (men and women), dolls, stoves and cars on 48 four and five-month-old infants (24 girls and 24 boys) and 48 young adults (24 women and 24 men). Each trial contained a relevant pair of faces and objects.

The infant results showed no sex-related preferences, but they preferred faces of men and women regardless of whether they were real or doll faces over objects. Similarly, adults preferred faces to objects, but unlike infants they preferred faces of the opposite sex.

The finding adds an interesting dimension to the nature versus nurture debate around gender construction, dispelling the theory that boys prefer male-associated toys from birth.

The article can be found at: Escudero P et al. (2013) Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults.

http://www.asianscientist.com/in-the-lab/baby-boys-prefer-dolls-tru...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 25, 2013 at 8:26am

Creatures Living Together Don’t Have To Evolve Differently After All
Evolutionary scientists have long argued that species that live together must evolve in different ways in order to avoid direct competition with each other, but new research published Sunday in the journal Nature suggests otherwise.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Joe Tobias of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology studied ovenbirds, one of the most diverse families of birds in the world, in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of the processes that result in the evolution of species differences.

They found that even though bird species that occurred together were typically more varied than those that lived apart, this was “simply an artifact of species being old by the time they meet,” the researchers said. Once differences in the age of species was accounted for, they found that coexisting species tended to be more similar than those types of birds that evolved separately – the opposite of what Charles Darwin claimed in Origin of Species.

“It’s not so much a case of Darwin being wrong, as there is no shortage of evidence for competition driving divergent evolution in some very young lineages,” Dr. Tobias said in a statement. “But we found no evidence that this process explains differences across a much larger sample of species.”

“The reason seems to be linked to the way new species originate in animals, which almost always requires a period of geographic separation,” he added. “By using genetic techniques to establish the age of lineages, we found that most ovenbird species only meet their closest relatives several million years after they separated from a common ancestor. This gives them plenty of time to develop differences by evolving separately.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113034219/evolution-of-specie...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2013 at 7:28am

Confirmed: Girls Mature Faster
British scientists say female human brains do, in fact, mature faster than male brains do -- and they know why.

In a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, researchers announced the reorganization of brain connections, as an individual transitions from childhood to adulthood, begins earlier in girls and is a likely reason girls mature faster than boys during their teen years.

The study was part of the Human Green Brain project funded by the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which provides government funding for research. The project examines human brain development.

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/5087/20131222/its-been-confirmed-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2013 at 7:27am

Parasitic DNA Multiplies In Aging Tissues
The genomes of organisms from humans to corn are replete with “parasitic” strands of DNA that, when not suppressed, copy themselves and spread throughout the genome, potentially affecting health. Earlier this year Brown University researchers found that these “retrotransposable elements” were increasingly able to break free of the genome’s control in cultures of human cells. Now in a new paper in the journal Aging, they show that RTEs are increasingly able to break free and copy themselves in the tissues of mice as the animals aged. In further experiments the biologists showed that this activity was readily apparent in cancerous tumors, but that it also could be reduced by restricting calories.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113034106/parasitic-dna-multi...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2013 at 7:14am

A Call for Urgent Talks on Mutant Flu-Strain Research

The benefits and risks of "gain-of-function" research into highly pathogenic microbes with pandemic potential must be evaluated, scientists say
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-call-for-urgent-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 24, 2013 at 6:49am

Reward scientists working for human rights

Many efforts to support human rights require voluntary contributions by experts

Scientists have volunteered to assess reports of chemical attacks in Syria

Scientists should be rewarded for such public work as well as for publishing research

http://www.scidev.net/global/human-rights/opinion/reward-scientists...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 22, 2013 at 11:45am

‘Science’ also tops for 2013
While Oxford University Press, the British publisher of the Oxford dictionaries, declared those little smartphone self-portraits its winner last month, the folks at Merriam-Webster announced “science” on Tuesday.
“The more we thought about it, the righter it seemed in that it does lurk behind a lot of big stories that we as a society are grappling with, whether it’s climate change or environmental regulation or what’s in our textbooks,” said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., based in Springfield, Mass.

Science, he said, is connected to broad cultural oppositions — science versus faith, for instance — along with the power of observation and intuition, reason and ideology, evidence and tradition. Of particular note, to Merriam-Webster, anyway, is fallout from the October release of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.”

Gladwell, a popularizer of scientific thought and research in best-sellers and The New Yorker magazine, takes on the challenges of obstacles and the nature of disabilities and setbacks in the book. But he leaves science itself — according to some critics — as a rhetorical device for his main mission of storytelling.
With the explosion of information and technology, are we all scientists?

“You have scientists writing long pieces, purportedly reviews of his new book, basically criticizing him, and then his response is: ‘Hey, buddy. I’m not a scientist. I’m a writer who’s trying to promote the work of scientists. To contextualize it. To make it accessible.’ You know, ‘Don’t blame me for not being a scientist’ is basically his response,” Sokolowski said.

Jason Silva is neither scientist nor academic. He’s a “techno optimist,” filmmaker, “performance philosopher” and host of the popular “Brain Games” show on the National Geographic Channel.

“Ooh, that’s awesome,” he said upon learning of science’s dictionary shout-out. “People are increasingly scientifically minded, and that makes me very happy.”
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/entertainment/in-your-face-self...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 22, 2013 at 11:37am

Gaia 'billion-star surveyor' lifts off

The Gaia mission will make a very precise 3D map of our Milky Way galaxy
It is Europe's successor to the Hipparcos satellite which mapped some 100,000 stars
The one billion to be catalogued by Gaia is still only 1% of the Milky Way's total
But the quality of the new survey promises a raft of discoveries beyond just the stars themselves
Gaia will find new asteroids, failed stars, and allow tests of physical constants and theories
Its map of the sky will be a reference frame to guide the investigations of future telescopes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25426424#!

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