Extreme longevity is an emerging phenomenon that is not well understood. According to the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), living more than 100 years, which was previously exceptional, is today a frequent phenomenon. And what is more interesting: some of these centenarians reach this age in remarkably good mental and physical health.
In many animal species, due to infidelities on the part of females, part of the descendants of monogamous couples are sired by other males. However, this promiscuous behavior is difficult to explain from a biological point of view, since it can lead to the withdrawal of parental attention, in addition to the risk of transmission of sexual diseases.
For Wayne Parro's team, from the University of Georgia, in the USA, it is the presence of two versions of the same gene that determines the exact number of leaves of the white clover, Trifolium repens.
Two independent studies by researchers from the University of Washington (USA) and King's College London (UK) have identified a region of the genome linked to depression, a disease that can affect 20 percent of the population. The works have been published in the 'American Journal of Psychiatry'.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and several American universities have discovered two human genes whose variations determine individual caffeine consumption. The study is published today in the journal 'PLoS Genetics'.
A team of scientists has identified a gene called AUTS2 that regulates how much alcohol we drink. The study, conducted with the participation of 47,000 subjects, has been published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
A team of European scientists led by the German scientist Trese Leinders-Zufall has for the first time established a link between the sense of smell and pain: people with a mutation in the SCN9A gene, which makes them unable to feel pain, cannot smell either.
Researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology in Madrid have published the first partial sequence of the genome of an Iberian pig.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
