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The Economist – “Epic genomics”

February 18, 2015 - 12:00 am
Alzheimer's Disease, Epigenome Roadmap

“THERE is not much point in being multicellular if all your cells are the same. It is division of labour and specialisation of cell function which gives animals and plants their edge in the struggle for life. How that specialisation comes about, though, is understood only hazily. Most cells in any given body have the …

Genomeweb – “Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium Members Publish Study Collection”

February 18, 2015 - 12:00 am
Epigenome Roadmap

“Several studies in the Nature family journals are offering a look at results from the National Institutes of Health’s Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium, an NIH Common Fund-supported effort to untangle regulatory features in human cells.” View more …

New York Times – “Project Sheds Light on What Drives Genes”

February 18, 2015 - 12:00 am
Epigenome Roadmap

“More than 200 scientists working on an ambitious federal project have begun to understand the complicated system of switches that regulates genes, turning some on and others off, making some glow brightly while others dim. They hope these discoveries, described in two dozen papers released on Wednesday, will eventually lead to a deeper understanding of diseases …

Boston Globe – “New research sheds light on cancer, Alzheimer’s origins”

February 18, 2015 - 12:00 am
Alzheimer's Disease, Epigenome Roadmap

“Boston scientists have developed a technique that can trace a cancer cell back to the tissue where it started, raising hope for one day improving treatment for mysterious cancers of unknown origin.” View more …

Kavli Foundation Blog, Biggest Science Stories of 2014: Neuroscience – “Human Speech Similar to Birdsong”

December 30, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“If asked to make a comparison, most people would say that a human baby is more like a monkey than a songbird. But, when it comes to the ability to make sounds, we share more with songbirds than with our primate cousins …” View more …

MIT News – “Could birdsong help us solve stuttering?”

December 22, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“‘Studying fine motor behavior is vital for a lot of neurological disorders in humans, but traditional research subjects like mice are difficult to quantify for those kinds of actions,’ says Pfenning. ‘With birdsong, meanwhile, there are far more exact metrics, like the precision of the pitch, the timing/rhythm of the notes and even the higher-level …

Science News – “Bird genomes give new perches to old friends”

December 12, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Vocal Learning

“With chicks that have claws on their wings and a digestive system that resembles a cow’s, the pheasantsized hoatzin that roams the Amazon has always puzzled those trying to place it within the avian family tree. But now researchers believe they have pinned down the odd bird’s relatives—just one of the many findings revealed this …

ABC News/AP – “New Family Tree for Birds Spurs Ideas on Evolution”

December 11, 2014 - 7:22 pm
Convergent Evolution, Epigenome Roadmap, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“Scientists have produced a new family tree for nearly all species of birds alive today, drawing on a massive DNA analysis to gain insights into evolutionary history.” View more …

NPR, All things considered – “Birds Of A Feather Aren’t Necessarily Related”

December 11, 2014 - 6:29 pm
Convergent Evolution, Vocal Learning

“What do a pigeon and a flamingo have in common? Quite a bit, according to a reordering of the evolutionary tree of birds. One of a series of studies published Thursday in Science is the latest step toward understanding the origins of the roughly 10,000 bird species that populate our planet.” View more …

Nature News – “Flock of geneticists redraws bird family tree”

December 11, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Vocal Learning

“Stephen Richards, a genomicist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, who is leading an effort to sequence 28 insect genomes, praises the team’s decision to systematically select bird species so that one from each taxonomic order was represented, rather than picking scientists’ favourite species. ‘It’s a foundational work for the next century of biological …

Washington Post – “Birdsong and human speech turn out to be controlled by the same genes”

December 11, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“New research on the bird genome has revealed that the same genes that give humans the ability to speak give birds the ability to sing. Because of this similarity, researchers will be able to use birds as lab subjects to better understand how speech evolved.” View more …

New Scientist – “Humans and birds share the same singing genes”

December 11, 2014 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“It’s not just great minds that think alike. Dozens of the genes involved in the vocal learning that underpins human speech are also active in some songbirds. And knowing this suggests that birds could become a standard model for investigating the genetics of speech production – and speech disorders.” View more …

National Geographic – “Cocaine Addiction Uses Same Brain Paths as Salt Cravings”

July 19, 2011 - 12:00 am
Addiction and Appetite Processes

“Drugs such as heroin and cocaine may owe some of their addictive powers to an ancient instinct—our appetite for salt.” View more …

Spiegel Online – “Salz, Drogen und der Streit um den Blutdruck”

July 12, 2011 - 2:41 pm
Addiction and Appetite Processes

“Die Lust auf Salz ist ein Urinstinkt. Jetzt haben Forscher herausgefunden, dass er im Gehirn die gleichen Genmuster aktiviert wie die Drogensucht. Derweil streiten Mediziner weiterhin heftig, ob zu viel Salz wirklich krank macht – und ob ein Verzicht tatsächlich vor Herzerkrankungen schützt.” View more …

Sydney Morning Herald – “Addictive drugs hijack brain’s fundamental pathways”

July 12, 2011 - 12:00 am
Addiction and Appetite Processes

“AUSTRALIAN and US scientists have proved that the same area of the brain that is activated when the body craves salt ”lights up” in response to cocaine or opium, suggesting addictive drugs have hijacked a pathway of the brain used for instinctive behaviour.” View more …

New York Times – “From a Songbird, New Insights Into the Brain”

April 5, 2010 - 12:00 am
Convergent Evolution, Epigenome Roadmap, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“Researchers have gained new insights into the brain by decoding the genome of the zebra finch, a songbird whose males learn a single love song from their fathers that they repeat through life.” View more …

BBC – “Blueprint of the songbird genome”

March 31, 2010 - 12:48 am
Convergent Evolution, Epigenome Roadmap, Human Language, Vocal Learning

“Scientists have created a ‘blueprint’ of the genome of a songbird. The advance, described in the journal Nature, could reveal some of the evolutionary secrets of vocal learning in animals, including humans.” View more …

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