Young plant species still mix it up. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. April 16, 2019. Throughout the southeastern U.S., these purple and white morning glories are splitting into separate species, and biologists are studying the process in action.
Author Archives: admin
Tiny light-up barcodes identify molecules by their twinkling
Link
Tiny light-up barcodes identify molecules by their twinkling.
1,100 Words on Duke Research, April 12, 2019. An imaging technique developed at Duke University could make it possible to peer inside cells and watch dozens of different molecules at once — by labeling them with short strands of light-up DNA that blink on and off with their own unique rhythm. Though they’re all the same color, the technique makes it possible to distinguish as many as 56 types by their twinkling, more cheaply than traditional methods and without fading over time. Picked up by Engadget.
Infiltrating an ovary
Link
Infiltrating an ovary. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. April 2, 2019.
What might look like a green gumdrop or strands of red tinsel is actually a dense network of nerves forming within a developing mouse ovary.
Duke mathematics has its day in court
Link
Duke mathematics has its day in court. Duke Today, March 25, 2019. Duke test is the principal evidence in NC partisan gerrymandering case before the Supreme Court March 26. Picked up by WRAL and USA Today
These works of art were created by artificial intelligence
Link
These works of art were created by artificial intelligence. Duke Today, March 20, 2019. A new art contest at Duke isn’t limited to human artists — the contestants in the ‘AI for art’ competition also collaborated with machines.
Aerial acrobatics in early apes
Link
Aerial acrobatics in early apes. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. March 12, 2019. Tiny wrist bones belonging to apes that lived some 20 million years ago suggest they used some pretty modern moves to get around in the trees.
Lemur Center names new executive director
Link
Lemur Center names new executive director. Duke Today, Feb. 13, 2019. Greg Dye will take over as director of the Duke Lemur Center, the world’s largest and most diverse collection of lemurs outside their native Madagascar. He will succeed biology professor Anne Yoder, who led the center for 12 years.
Clues to resistance
Link
Clues to resistance. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. February 5, 2019. In 2000, 23-year-old Gimble from Gombe National Park — made famous by Jane Goodall — became the first wild chimpanzee to test positive for simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the primate precursor to HIV. Now, he and hundreds of other wild chimpanzees across sub-Saharan Africa are helping researchers understand what makes some chimps more resistant to infection.
For endangered lemurs, internet fame has a dark side
Link
For endangered lemurs, internet fame has a dark side. Duke Today, Jan. 28, 2019. A new study of Twitter activity shows that viral images of seemingly cuddly endangered animals can have a dark side too — by fueling demand for them as pets. Picked up by BBC.
Why once-promising cancer drugs failed
Link
Why once-promising cancer drugs failed. Duke Today, Jan. 28, 2019. New findings in worms may help explain the failure, nearly two decades ago, of a class of once-promising cancer drugs and point to better ways to halt cancer’s spread.
Living like a caveman won’t make you thin
Link
Living like a caveman won’t make you thin. But it might make you healthy. Duke Today, January 17, 2019. Duke professor studies how our species’ past shapes human health today.
Fates intertwined
Link
Fates intertwined. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. January 9, 2019. To most people, life-forms like this orange lichen are little more than curious decorations on rocks and trees, often overlooked. But to one Duke biologist, they represent one of the world’s oldest quid pro quos: a symbiosis between two kingdoms whose evolutionary fates are tightly intertwined.
Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin’
Link
Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin.’ Duke Today, December 17, 2018. In humans and many other animals, the lower an individual’s social status, the worse their health. But new research in wild baboons suggests that the nature of the status-health relationship depends on whether an individual has to fight for status, or it’s given to them.
Team attempts a real-life version of CSI ‘zoom and enhance’
Link
Team attempts a real-life version of CSI ‘zoom and enhance.’ Duke Today, December 5, 2018. The idea of an “enhance” button has been a staple of Hollywood crime dramas for years. Now one Duke team has brought it closer to reality.
Add this to your Durham bucket list: see the stars from Duke Forest
Link
Add this to your Durham bucket list: see the stars from Duke Forest. Duke Today, November 28, 2018. The Duke Teaching Observatory is open about two Fridays a month for free public stargazing. Everyone welcome. No registration required, weather permitting.
Bard or bot?
Link
Bard or bot? Duke Today, November 15, 2018. Could a computer write sonnets convincing enough to fool people into thinking they were written by human poets? These students created an algorithm to find out.
Home advantage
Link
Home advantage. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. November 7, 2018. These yellow monkeyflowers grow within a few feet of their wildflower cousins without spreading into each other’s turf.
Anatomy Lessons
Link
Anatomy Lessons. Duke Today, October 17, 2018. Hung criminals. Grave robbers. The dawn of human anatomy was a grisly, sordid time.
Kooky, spooky Dukies
Link
Kooky, spooky Dukies. October 17, 2018. When a teenage girl brings a boy home for the first time, a simple dinner party can turn into a night from hell — especially when her family’s idea of hospitality is to visit their moat and show off their torture devices.
Feeding the microbes within
Link
Feeding the microbes within. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. Sept. 27, 2018. To digest his leafy diet, this lemur gets a little help from the trillions of bacteria that inhabit his gut.
How fruits got their eye-catching colors
Link
How fruits got their eye-catching colors. Duke Today, Sept. 24, 2018. New evidence supports the idea that plants owe their rainbow of fruit colors to the different animals that eat them. Researchers first had to get past the fact that most animals don’t see colors quite the way humans do. Picked up by The Daily Mail, The New York Times, CBC News, NPR, Science Magazine, Science News and Discover Magazine.
Making sense of Syria’s murky death toll
Link
Making sense of Syria’s murky death toll. Duke Today, Sept. 17, 2018. As the Syrian Civil War drags on, many monitoring groups say they are starting to lose count of the bodies. Meet one researcher who is trying to keep Syria’s death toll from getting lost.
What Star Trek can teach us about genetics and evolution
Link
What Star Trek can teach us about genetics and evolution. Duke Today, Sept. 13, 2018. Why do Vulcans look so much like us? Could ‘mutations’ induced by breaking the “Warp 10” speed barrier rapidly transform a person into a bizarre man-salamander? And how well does the romance between the different alien races in the Star Trek universe match what scientists know about how one species splits into two, and what keeps them distinct? Duke biologist and die-hard Trek fan Mohamed Noor explores the answers to these and other questions in his new book, “Live Long and Evolve,” a fact-filled guide to some of the real-world scientific principles underlying Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi franchise.
Waterproof roots
Link
Waterproof roots. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. September 10, 2018. The glowing yellow rectangles in this Arabidopsis root mark a layer of tightly packed cells that form the root’s inner skin, controlling the flow of water and nutrients into the plant from the soil. In a new study, Duke PhD Colleen Drapek of the Benfey lab identified two interacting genes that can “reprogram” other types of root cells to produce similar waterproofing in outer regions of the Arabidopsis root where they are not normally found. The findings could help researchers understand how such protective barriers in developing plant roots come to be, and eventually improve crop productivity in drought-prone or nutrient-poor soils.
Deadly molecules in motion
Link
Deadly molecules in motion. 1,100 Words on Duke Research, August 22, 2018. To some, this may look like a disco ball. But to one research team, it represents the elusive dance of a shape-shifting protein, SpA , which helps the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus evade its host’s defenses.