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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 12-May-2026 14:16 ET (12-May-2026 18:16 GMT/UTC)
12-Jul-2022
A decade of open science: Milestones in achieving UNESCO’s open science recommendations
GigaScience
Today, the first biological and biomedical “data” journal GigaScience celebrates its 10th year of being at the forefront of open scientific publishing. GigaScience was launched on July 12, 2012, at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference in Long Beach, CA; and the journal’s team is currently at the 30th ISMB Conference in Madison, WI, to host a celebration of their first decade alongside the publication of an Editorial detailing their achievements in promoting open science and goals for the future. With the recent release of UNESCO’s recommendations for open science, GigaScience takes its 10th birthday as an opportunity to look back at what the journal has achieved among these recommendations and where the journal needs to direct its energies in the future. The editorial published today is part of a special series of commentaries that cover changes in a variety of scientific areas over the last decade, these include changes in open data, standards, conservation, imaging, women-in-science, and more.
- Journal
- GigaScience
11-Jul-2022
MIT Sloan study presents first experimental evidence supporting Hamilton’s rule regarding kin selection in financial decision-making
MIT Sloan School of Management
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MIT Sloan School of Management Prof. Andrew W. Lo and Hebrew University School of Business Prof. Moshe Levy have found strong support for Hamilton's rule in an experiment involving monetary transactions among human subjects with varying degrees of genetic relatedness.
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
6-Jul-2022
Leaders in Alzheimer’s research herald the dawn of a new era in drug development based on biology of aging
Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
A combination of drugs will be needed to effectively treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease and leading experts say we have entered a new era of drug development that will deliver them. In an editorial published in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, the authors say the two most important factors driving us toward success are the wide range of new drug targets in development and the rapid development of Alzheimer’s biomarkers.
- Journal
- The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer s Disease
30-Jun-2022
Which rules evolutionary change: Life or climate?
McGill University
The fossil record over the last half a billion years shows biodiversity as a zigzagging pattern of species births and extinctions. For decades scientist have attempted to answer the question: Which rules supreme – life or the environment? To explain this macroevolution, scientists have used two opposing theories: the Red Queen versus the Court Jester theory, inspired by the story Alice in Wonderland. New research by McGill University and Vilnius University puts these two theories to the test.
- Journal
- Nature
7-Jun-2022
New insights into major transitions on the tree of life
SMBE Journals (Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution)
The latest Virtual Issue from Genome Biology and Evolution highlights articles that provide new insight into the deep evolutionary relationships among extant organisms and the origin of eukaryotes from among archaeal lineages. All cellular organisms are descended from a shared ancestor, often referred to as LUCA—the last universal common ancestor. Relationships among these organisms can be depicted by an evolutionary network known as the “tree of life”, which for the past few decades has included three major forms of life—bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. Evolutionary biologists have long sought to understand the placement of LUCA within this framework, as well as the origin of LECA—the last eukaryotic common ancestor. Unfortunately, accurately inferring relationships among microbial lineages presents a major challenge due to the vast evolutionary distances involved, as well as the frequent lateral transfer of genetic material between lineages. Recently, however, new data and methods have resulted in profound changes to our understanding of the tree of life.
- Journal
- Genome Biology and Evolution
31-May-2022
Epigenetic regulator controlling the very first cell fate decision in human embryonic development identified
Science For Life Laboratory
Researchers from Karolinska Institutet identify an epigenetic regulator controlling the very first cell type specification in the human embryo. The study is published in Nature Cell Biology.
- Journal
- Nature Cell Biology
- Funder
- Ragnar Söderbergs stiftelse, European Research Council
5-May-2022
Recycling greenhouse gases with biotechnology
DOE/US Department of Energy
Industry produces acetone and isopropanol using processes that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Researchers have now developed a new fermentation process that efficiently converts waste carbon oxide gases into acetone and isopropanol. This use of engineered bacteria advances progress on “carbon-negative” biomanufacturing for more sustainable industrial production and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
- Journal
- Nature Biotechnology
11-Apr-2022
Protecting the human intestinal microbiome with synthetic biology
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard
A research team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), using a synthetic biology approach, has developed an engineered live biotherapeutic product (eLBP) that, when given together with commonly used antibiotics known as beta-lactams (which includes the well-known antibiotic penicillin), protects the gut microbiome from dysbiosis. The study is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
- Journal
- Nature Biomedical Engineering