Archive by date | November 2011

Monarch butterfly genome gives clues about slew of migration mysteries

Monarch butterfly genome gives clues about slew of migration mysteries

Cross posted from Scientific American’s Observations blog on behalf of Katherine Harmon. The millions of monarchs (Danaus plexippus) that flit on fragile wings from the United States to a particular area of fir forest in Mexico—as far as 4,000 kilometres—are making the journey for the first time. “They have never been to the overwintering sites before and have no relatives to follow,” Stephen Reppert, a neurobiologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said in a prepared statement. So how to do these insects know where to go? “There must be a genetic programme underlying the butterflies’ migratory behavior,” Reppert  … Read more

Climate scientists respond to second e-mail leak

What a difference two years makes. Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, UK, has been quick to respond to the new batch of 5,000 e-mails from CRU that were anonymously posted on the internet yesterday.  Read more

New drug pathways under investigation for ALS

New drug pathways under investigation for ALS

A diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is considered a life sentence. Most people with the neurodegenerative disease, which attacks the neurons responsible for motor control, only survive two or three years after their diagnosis — and 5,000 such diagnoses are made each year in the United States alone. Despite the need, however, there is only a single drug on the market that targets ALS: Rilutek (riluzole), made by France’s Sanofi. But this agent only prolongs life by two or three months on average. Recent advances provide some hope for future drug pathways that can be targeted to treat the disease.