Tiktaalik is a 375 million year old fossil discovered in Arctic Canada by a team of researchers led by Neil Shubin

A new gene expression technique adapted for single molecule sequencing has enabled researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) to accurately and quantitatively measure gene expression levels using only 100 nanograms of total RNA. The technique, which pairs RIKEN’s Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) protocol with the Helicos® Genetic Analysis System developed by Helicos BioSciences Corporation, opens the door to the detailed analysis of gene expression networks and rare cell populations.

Until a recent discovery, theories about the origins and evolutionary relationships of snakes barely had a leg to stand on.
Genetic studies suggest that snakes are related to monitor lizards and iguanas, while their anatomy points to amphisbaenians (”worm lizards”), a group of burrowing lizards with snake-like bodies. The debate has been unresolved–until now. The recent discovery by researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany of a tiny, 47 million-year-old fossil of a lizard called Cryptolacerta hassiaca provides the first anatomical evidence that the …

Carbon found within ancient rocks has played a crucial role developing a time line for the emergence of biological life on the planet billions of years ago. But applying cutting-edge technology to samples of ancient rocks from northern Canada has revealed the carbon-based minerals may be much younger than the rock they inhabit, a team of researchers report in the latest edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.
The team – which includes researchers from Boston College, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the Naval Research Laboratory – …

A fossil unearthed in China in the 1970s of a creature that died about 247 million years ago, originally thought to be a distant relative of both birds and crocodiles, turns out to have come from the crocodile family tree after it had already split from the bird family tree, according to research led by a University of Washington paleontologist.
The only known specimen of Xilousuchus sapingensis has been reexamined and is now classified as an archosaur. Archosaurs, characterized by skulls with long, narrow snouts and teeth set in sockets, include …

In a paper published in Nature by Japanese researcher Masaki Kamakura demonstrates that one protein in royal jelly is the active ingredient that causes a larva becomes a queen bee, which makes the queen bee grow larger than the worker bees and also allows them to live longer.
Initially, experts suspect the age difference and the size of bee queens with worker bees are due to genetic factors. But kamakuri’s work done in Japan shows Royal jelly could be a major player in bringing the difference between Queen and worker bees. …

On Wednesday, May 18, 2011, in a live, online educational seminar, “Identifying Novel Cancer Therapeutic Targets: Real-time, Label-free Cell Monitoring in RNAi Profiling.”
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Time: 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. GMT, 5 p.m. UK
Duration: 1 hour
Register now and submit your questions LIVE to the experts during the webinar!