news 2012

New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol, which has been charting the health of 14,500 children since their birth in the early 1990s, shows that the link between low levels of vitamin D and depression is established in childhood and that ensuring children have a good intake of vitamin D could help reduce depression in adolescence and adulthood.

The discovery of a new 'provisioning' gene in maize plants that regulates the transfer of nutrients from the plant to the seed could lead to increased crop yields and improve food security. Scientists from Oxford University and the University of Warwick, in collaboration with agricultural biotech research company Biogemma-Limagrain, have identified the gene, called Meg 1.

University of Warwick scientists have discovered a "nourishing gene" which controls the transfer of nutrients from plant to seed - a significant step which could help increase global food production. The research, led by the University of Warwick in collaboration with the University of Oxford and agricultural biotech research company Biogemma, has identified for the first time a gene, named Meg1, which regulates the optimum amount of nutrients flowing from mother to offspring in maize plants.

Two entomologists in search of one insect have discovered two others: a tiny wasp that hadn't been seen in North America in nearly 100 years, and one that has never been recorded here. First found in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1915 by Cornell researchers M.D. Leonard and C.R. Crosby, the fairyfly Gonatocerus ovicenatus has not been collected on the continent since then, prompting some European entomologists to question whether it truly was established in North America.

For the first time, researchers have analyzed the multitude of microorganisms residing in the human gut as a complex, integrated biological system, rather than a set of separate species. Their approach has revealed patterns that correspond with excess body weight. Elhanan Borenstein A community-level metabolic network of the gut microbiome.