biology

A new genetic study has identified the genes involved in the biological process that determines whether we are left-handed or right-handed. Specifically, British and Dutch scientists have found a relationship with the laterality of the hand and a network of genes involved in the moment when the embryo stops being a ball of cells and becomes an organism with a differentiation between the right side. (dominant in 90% of humans) and the left, which is also manifested in a difference between the cerebral hemispheres.

Are we all Martians? This is what seems to be deduced from a new discovery made by Steven Benner, from the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology (USA). At a conference in Florence, Italy today, the Annual Conference of the European Geochemistry Association, Benner will tell the assembled geochemists that an oxidized mineral form of the chemical element molybdenum, which was almost certainly crucial to the origin of life, it may have been available only on the surface of Mars and not on Earth.

According to research carried out at the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom), the mechanisms of the human foot are not as unique as previously thought. In a new study based on the analysis of more than 25,000 human steps collected on sensitive tape and published by the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists have shown that despite having abandoned life in trees long ago, Human feet have retained enormous flexibility, similar to the feet of great apes, such as orangutans and chimpanzees, which remain largely arboreal.

Two evolutionary biologists from Michigan State University (USA) have shown that evolution punishes the selfish, because selfishness is not evolutionarily sustainable. On the contrary, cooperating pays off in the long run.

Starfish have primitive eyes on the tips of their arms that allow them to visually track their surroundings, according to new research led by marine biologist Anders Garm of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). These eyes, capable of forming images, could constitute an essential stage in the evolution of vision in the animal world.

Mosquito means "little fly". These insects belong to the Diptera order and to the Cullicidae family (Culicids). They transmit some of the most serious diseases for man, such as dengue or yellow fever. In fact, it is estimated that there are more deaths associated with mosquitoes than with any other animal in the world. Around 3,500 different species have been described around the world. These are some of the most common.

At the end of their life, after having divided fifty or more times, our cells often rest and "retire." They enter a state known as senescence in which they are still active but cannot duplicate more, and which is associated with aging and cancer prevention. Now, research in which the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) has participated reveals a new detail: by secreting a cocktail of factors, senescent cells can transmit their "retirement" state to other nearby cells.

The extract of a yellow-flowered plant that grows in mountainous areas such as the Alps and the Pyrenees, and which has been used for years by Scandinavians and Russians as a natural remedy to combat stress, has been shown to be able to extend life around 24%, at least in flies.