It wasn't all Me Tarzan, you Jane for Neanderthals
LONDON -- Neanderthals, often portrayed as grunting, club-carrying brutes, may have been capable of sophisticated speech, researchers said on Thursday. A DNA analysis shows Neanderthals share with humans two key changes in the FOXP2 gene known to be involved in speech, raising the possibility the species possessed some prerequisites for language, the researchers said.
Dog proteins crucial
CHICAGO -- A family of proteins known to fight off microbes surprisingly also helps determine whether a poodle's coat will be black, white or somewhere in between, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a finding that may also help explain why people come in different colors and weights. Researchers at Stanford University in California studied the DNA of hundreds of dogs, looking for a gene mutation that controls coat color.
Look to brain for stress
CHICAGO -- A mechanism in the brain may explain why some people keep their cool and others crumble under stress, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. "We have identified the ways in which the brain naturally copes with chronic stressful experiences," said Dr. Vaishnav Krishnan of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, whose study appears in the journal, Cell.
The nose knows danger
LONDON -- Elephants can literally smell danger, according to a study on Thursday that shows the animals can sniff out whether humans are friends or foes. The study in Kenya found elephants detected both the scents and colors of garments worn by Masai tribesman who often come into conflict with the animals when herding cattle.
Watson cuts trip short
LONDON -- Nobel Prize-winning DNA authority Dr. James Watson cut short a book tour in Britain on Friday and returned to the United States over racially insensitive comments attributed to him in a British newspaper. The winner of the 1962 Nobel prize for his description of the double helix structure of DNA apologized for his remarks on Thursday at an appearance to promote his new book, saying he did not mean to characterize Africans as genetically inferior.
Scientific security
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government should create a body to foster the free flow of scientific knowledge and researchers from other countries while balancing the threat from enemies, an expert panel said on Thursday. The National Research Council said U.S. policies should continue to promote the open exchange of unclassified research, despite the small risk that some could be misused by terrorist groups or "rogue" countries.
Another superbug?
WASHINGTON -- A new strain of bacteria is emerging as a major cause of childhood infections but even drug-resistant versions of the bug can be killed off with the right antibiotics, doctors said on Thursday. Doctors and parents should be aware of it, however, and switch antibiotics for children with severe infections who do not respond quickly to standard therapy.
Prehistoric clambake?
WASHINGTON -- For early humans, one of the first displays of modern behavior was a sort of beach party and clam bake along the coast of South Africa. Artifacts found in a cave on coastal cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean showed that these people 164,000 years ago cooked mussels and other shellfish, used red pigment perhaps as body paint and made small stone blades that could be used at the tip of a spear -- all far earlier than previously thought.
HERAT, Afghanistan -- A group of mediaeval minarets in the Afghan city of Herat could be saved thanks to the closure of a busy road threatening their foundations. The minarets, standing at more than 100 feet, are all that remain of what was once a brilliantly decorated complex for Islamic learning and devotion on the Silk Road on the outskirts of the western Afghan city.