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Just as cells inherit genes, they also inherit a set of instructions that tell genes when to become active, in which tissues and to what extent. Now, researchers have built a device that, by allowing scientists to turn genes on and off in actively multiplying budding yeast cells, will help them figure out more precisely than before how genes and proteins interact with one another and how these interactions drive cellular functions.

Scientists have discovered how roots find their way past obstacles to grow through soil. The discovery, described in Science, also explains how germinating seedlings penetrate the soil without pushing themselves out as they burrow.

Sharks and other marine animals find food using a similar search pattern to the way people may shop, according to one of the largest analysis of foraging behavior attempted so far -- and the first such analysis of marine predators. The animals' behavior seems to have evolved as a general 'rule' to search for sparsely distributed prey in the vast expanse of the ocean. This rule involves a special pattern of random movement known as a Levy Walk, where the predators use a series of small motions interspersed with large jumps to new foraging locations. This increases the chance of finding food, however widely scattered it might be.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a gene in Asian monkeys that may have evolved as a defense against lentiviruses, the group of viruses that includes HIV. The study suggests that AIDS is not a new epidemic.

A powerful air sterilization technology has killed every biological agent with which it has been challenged, including airborne spores, viruses and bacteria in independent tests conducted for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Reassortment of the influenza A virus occurs frequently throughout its evolutionary history, according to a new study in PLoS Pathogens. The researchers found that the severe influenza epidemics of 1947 and 1951 were caused by genetic reassortment events in which two human influenza viruses of the same H1N1 strain exchanged genetic material, producing a new hybrid virus in both cases.

Investigators have discovered a dance of proteins that protects certain cells from undergoing apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. Understanding the fine points of apoptosis is important to researchers seeking ways to control this process.

Biologists have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss. Many of the regions that face the greatest habitat change in relation to the amount of land currently protected —- such as Indonesia and Madagascar —- are in globally threatened and endemic species-rich, developing tropical nations that have the fewest resources for conservation. Conversely, many of the temperate regions of the planet with an already expansive network of reserves are in countries —- such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland —- with the greatest financial resources for conservation efforts, but comparatively less biodiversity under threat.

A protein that helps lung cancer cells thrive appears to do so by blocking healthy cells' ability to fix themselves when radiation or chemicals such as nicotine damage their DNA, according to a new article. The study explains how the protein enables cancer cells to circumvent the body's own efforts to change them back into healthy cells -- or evade treatments designed to kill them.

An ability to avoid the plant equivalent of vapor lock and a favorable evolutionary history may explain the unusual drought resistance of junipers, some varieties of which are now spreading rapidly in water-starved regions of the western United States, a new study has found.

Cancer researchers have found that humans and dogs share more than friendship and companionship -- they also share the same genetic basis for certain types of cancer. Furthermore, the researchers say that because of the way the genomes have evolved, getting cancer may be inevitable for some humans and dogs.

Scientists have discovered an antibody that neutralizes two viruses classified as henipaviruses. Nipah virus (NiV) and Hendra virus (HeV) are highly infectious agents that transitioned from infecting flying foxes in the mid-1990s to causing fatal disease in humans and livestock in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and Singapore. Recent outbreaks have resulted in encephalitis and acute respiratory distress, person-to-person transmission, and up to 70 percent fatality rates.

While sampling blended biodiesel fuels purchased from small-scale retailers, researchers found that many of the blends do not contain the advertised amount of biofuel. When testing fuels listed as 20 percent biodiesel (commonly known as B20), they found that the actual percentage of biofuel ranged from as little as 10 percent to as much as 74 percent. Only 10 percent of samples met the specifications for biofuel blends required for vehicles of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Many areas of research and medicine rely critically upon knowing a person's individual immune system proteins, as they determine an individual's ability to fight disease or mistakenly attack their own tissues. However, obtaining this information is costly and difficult. A new study demonstrate how statistical modeling can help researchers obtain this information more easily and cost effectively.

Ski tourism is raising stress levels among capercaillie the largest member of the grouse family of birds, which could harm the birds' fitness and ability to breed successfully, ecologists have found. Researchers warn that forests should be kept free from tourism infrastructure if they are inhabited by capercaillie - a rare species whose numbers are declining markedly across central Europe.

A new study of psoriasis patients shows that a recently discovered immune cell, called Th17, appears to be a key player in the disease and occurs in far higher concentrations in their skin than occurs in skin of healthy individuals. Scientists compared skin and blood from healthy people to those from patients with psoriasis. After culturing the samples and examining the T helper cells -- immune cells that help coordinate immune response -- Lowes and Krueger found that the healthy subjects had a very small population of Th17 cells in their blood and even fewer in their skin. But while psoriasis patients had a comparable number of Th17 cells in their bloodstream, their skin had as much as three times the number found in normal skin.

Evolution moves in fits and starts, shaping species through random genetic mutations that can help them survive or even hasten their death. But although the mutations occur by chance, the process can create surprisingly similar results. Now, in a startling twist, new research has provided an example in which evolution didn't just result in similar outcomes -- it actually repeated itself, occurring the same way twice. Scientists have shown that nearly the exact same mutation occurred twice, in two monkey species that live on opposite sides of the world from each other. And while the change evolved independently in each case, in both species it plays a distinct role in how the animals fend off disease.