A type of haemorrhagic fever (Crimean-Congo) that is prevalent in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans has begun to spread to new areas in southern Europe. Now Swedish researchers have shown that migratory birds carrying ticks are the possible source of contagion. The discovery is being published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Astronomers at Uppsala University in Sweden will receive a grant of more than SEK 23 million from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to search and analyse atmospheres surrounding earth-like exoplanets. Ultimately these researchers hope to find traces of life on these planets.
The Khoe and San peoples in southern Africa play an important role for our understanding of the evolutionary history of humans. These peoples are directly descended from the first branching of the genealogical tree for today’s humans. This is shown in a study led by Uppsala University and being presented in the Web version of the journal Science today.
Researchers have discovered a mutation in a single gene in horses that is critical for the ability to perform ambling gaits, for pacing and that has a major effect on performance in harness racing. The study, which is published in Nature today, is a breakthrough for our understanding of spinal cord neuronal circuitry and its control of locomotion in vertebrates.
A research team at Uppsala University has managed to clarify how proteins that regulate the activity of genes quickly find their way on chromosomes among millions of possible binding sites. The study also confirms a more than 30-year-old theory about the process. The findings are being published today in the scientific journal Science.
One of the most debated developments in human history is the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. This week’s edition of Science presents the genetic findings of a Swedish-Danish research team, which show that agriculture spread to Northern Europe via migration from Southern Europe.
An international research team has succeeded in identifying a specific kind of dust grain in the vicinity of cool giant stars. This means fresh impetus for Uppsala University researcher Susanne Höfner’s theory about how stars die. In the latest issue of Nature, she discusses the team’s findings.
An Argentine-Swedish research team has reported a 70 million years old pocket of fossilized bones and unique eggs of an enigmatic birdlike dinosaur in Patagonia. The study is published in the early on line edition of the journal Cretaceous Research.
New findings from an international team of researchers show that most neandertals in Europe died off around 50,000 years ago. The previously held view of a Europe populated by a stable neandertal population for hundreds of thousands of years up until modern humans arrived must therefore be revised.
During human evolution our ancestors mated with Neanderthals, but also with other related hominids. In this week’s online edition of PNAS, researchers from Uppsala University are publishing findings showing that people in East Asia share genetic material with Denisovans, who were named from the cave in Siberia where they were first found.