We hate to think that our personalities are all based on a combination of genes and hormones, but that’s increasing turning out to be true. For instance, the female reproductive hormone oxytocin (which men have too) may determine while some people are generous givers and others selfish takers.
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Scientists have discovered a lot of DNA that we don’t seem to have a use for, so they’ve called it "junk" DNA. But now they may be discovering that it’s not just junk, after all. They now think that at least 80% percent of it is active and needed.
The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that scientists now realize play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. In fact, complex diseases–from diabetes to depression–may be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches. It could explain why one person gets a disease, when another (who has been exposed to the same environmental contaminants) doesn’t. This even happens to identical twins!
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That BP Oil spill (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show) did some awful things to the Gulf. But now it turns out that, over a period of 5 months, naturally-occurring bacteria in the water ate it all up.
The bacteria consumed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well head.
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Crows are mighty smart birds: They share with humans (MOST humans, anyway) the ability to recognize faces and associate them with negative, as well as positive, feelings.
Researchers documented this by having some people feed captured crows while wearing negative masks, while others fed them wearing positive masks. In PhysOrg.com, Sandra Hines environmental scientist John Marzluff as saying, "The regions of the crow brain that work together are not unlike those that work together in mammals, including humans. These regions were suspected to work in birds but not documented until now.
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