Jul
20
2009
It may be you’ve heard a rumor that males are on the brink of extinction.
Whatever you may think of that prospect, the rumor is false. But over the past decade, numerous studies have hinted that the Y chromosome, a male necessity, is going the way of the dodo.
Though other studies have suggested this idea may [...]
Tags: Genes, PLOS Genetics, sex chromosomes, X-chromosome, Y-chromosome
Jun
23
2009
Genomewide association studies have had some success in finding DNA variants associated with increased risk for bipolar disorder. But researchers from the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University in England have taken these studies a step further by looking for common functional themes running through the GWAS data. Their results, published [...]
Tags: American Journal of Human Genetics, bipolar disorder, Crohn's disease, Genes, GWAS
May
28
2009
Type 1 diabetes is on the rise in European children, says a new report.
Researchers studied type 1 diabetes data collected between 1989 and 2003 at 20 centers in 17 European countries. Their results, published online yesterday in the Lancet, show that more children, especially younger children, are being diagnosed with the disease each year. Based [...]
Tags: culture, diabetes, environment, evolution, Genes
Aug
18
2008
Throughout the history of our species there has been one constant: movement. Since the origin of Homo sapiens nearly 200,000 years ago in East Africa, humans have journeyed around the globe, ultimately inhabiting every continent save Antarctica.Scientists have traditionally used archaeology, and more recently genetics, to understand the timing and scope of these ancient migrations. [...]
Tags: agriculture, Bantu, Genes, Historical Linguistics, Indo-European