Futurity.org » Rutgers

Carnivorous plant trims its tiny genome

Charlotte Hsu-Buffalo — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:08:13 +0000

U. BUFFALO (US) — A carnivorous plant is slowly deleting noncoding or “junk” DNA from its genome, report researchers.

Genes make up about 2 percent of the human genome. The rest consists of noncoding DNA, and scientists have spent years puzzling over why this material exists in such voluminous quantities.

The new study offers an unexpected insight: the large majority of noncoding DNA, which is abundant in many living things, may not actually be needed for complex life, according to research set to appear in Nature.

Volcano event lines up with pre-dino die-offs

Kevin Krajick-Columbia — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:18:36 +0000

COLUMBIA U. (US) — New evidence from around the world links the abrupt disappearance of half of Earth’s species 200 million years ago to a precisely dated set of gigantic volcanic eruptions.

The eruptions may have caused climate changes so sudden that many creatures were unable to adapt—possibly on a pace similar to that of human-influenced climate warming today.

Bumble bee loss threatens food security

Ken Branson-Rutgers — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:27:07 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — Wild pollinators are just as important, and often more efficient, at pollinating crops than domestic honey bee colonies, but bumble bee colonies are vanishing.

“This will be a surprise to the agricultural establishment,” says Rachael Winfree, professor of ecology, evolution, and natural resources in Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, who was involved in the two new studies.

College fails to lower divorce for black women

Steve Manas-Rutgers — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:26:37 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — A college education is linked to lower divorce rates for white women, but black women are not getting the same benefit, a study shows.

“African-American women don’t seem to enjoy the same degree of protection that education confers on marriage,” says Jeounghee Kim, assistant professor at Rutgers University’s School of Social Work.

“For white Americans, higher education is related to a lower chance of divorce, and this protective effect of education on marriage increased consistently among the recent generations. But for African-American women, higher education is not necessarily related to a lower chance of divorce.”

Too much chemo leaves brain in a fog

Robin Lally-Rutgers — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:59:43 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — The effect prolonged chemotherapy has on the development of new brain cells and rhythms may be the cause for the fog-like condition known as “chemo-brain.”

It’s not unusual for cancer patients being treated with chemotherapy to complain about not being able to think clearly, connect thoughts, or concentrate on daily tasks. Chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (chemo-brain) is common, but the scientific cause has been difficult to pinpoint.

In Alaska, magnets detect permafrost melt

Dan Stober-Stanford — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:12:03 +0000

STANFORD (US) — Researchers are using Earth’s magnetic field to determine if the permafrost beneath lakes is thawing as a result of climate change.

If so, the lakes could become a new source of methane, a global warming gas.

People with migraines report social stigma

Robin Lally-Rutgers — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:43:22 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — Chronic migraine sufferers report higher rates of feeling stigmatized than people with epilepsy do, in large part due to experiencing more disability and inability to work.

Joanna Kempner, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers, collaborated with neurologists from Thomas Jefferson University on the study, in which 305 patients being treated for either episodic migraines, chronic migraines (at least 15 headache days a month), or epilepsy were asked to rate how stigmatized they felt because of their condition.

The study, published this week in PLoS One, took place from 2009-2011 at the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in Philadelphia.

For gay black men, coming out can feel like failure

Steve Manas-Rutgers — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:57:51 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — Gay black men face a unique set of challenges and pressures from family and friends when they decide to come out, research shows.

“Parents and youths alike worry that gay men cannot meet the rigid expectations of exaggerated masculinity maintained by their families and communities,” says Michael C. LaSala, associate professor at Rutgers University School of Social Work.

African-American Hoodoo: more than magic

Ed Moorhouse-Rutgers — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:29:05 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — The tradition of herbal healing known as Hoodoo is about more than using hex-breaking oils and candles to ward off bad vibes, according to a new book by scholar Katrina Hazzard-Donald.

“Scholars who write about African traditions in the United States have become concerned over the work that has been done by those who are outsiders to cultural traditions,” says Hazzard-Donald, an associate professor of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice at Rutgers-Camden. “For example, some of the material on African culture and tradition presents premises that are inaccurate. This has happened a lot with Hoodoo.”

Shifts in food supply sparked our evolution

Sara LaJeunesse-Penn State — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:26:52 +0000

PENN STATE / RUTGERS (US) — An environment that shifted between open grassland and closed woodland in East Africa roughly 2 million years ago may be responsible for driving human evolution.

“The landscape early humans were inhabiting transitioned rapidly back and forth between a closed woodland and an open grassland about five to six times during a period of 200,000 years,” says Clayton Magill, graduate student in geosciences at Penn State. “These changes happened very abruptly, with each transition occurring over hundreds to just a few thousand years.”

According to Katherine Freeman, professor of geosciences at Penn State, the current leading hypothesis suggests that evolutionary changes among humans during the period the team investigated were related to a long, steady environmental change or even one big change in climate.