Gut bugs and mother tongues shed light on pacific map

This week, two studies published in the journal Science found evidence from bugs that live inside our guts and the words that come out of our mouths, that both shed light on how ancient human ancestors migrated out of Asia and spread across the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean, a subject that has ke...

Time to retrieve junk DNA from the trashcan

Scientists have discovered a role for the DNA that makes up the majority of the genome but which had previously been written off as rubbish. Writing in the journal Molecular Cell, Edinburgh University researcher David Tollervey and his colleagues explain how these non-coding segments of DNA, which...

The need for speedy sperm

When it comes to being a male fish, life can be tough when the lady in your life gets around a bit and mates with lots of other males. It means that to make sure you produce lots of offspring you must compete with all the other guys on the scene, and more specifically your sperm has to be up to the ...

MOF's and Molecular Sieves

Metal-Organic Frameworks, or MOFs, are a promising species of molecules which have enormous internal surface areas. They can be used to selectively grab hold of chemicals such as hydrogen or methane for fuel, or even act as a molecular sieve, scrubbing carbon dioxide from waste gasses......