All posts by medical

Anatomy

Katherine Heigl is only one of the elements of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ the creators of ‘Doubt’ brought to CBS legal drama – Los Angeles Times

When Greys Anatomy" executive producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelanleft the ABC medical soap to launch their own legal drama, they knew there was at least one aspect of the former series that they wanted to carry over to the new one: the sense of never knowing who is going to come through the door.

Doubt, the new CBS procedural from the wife-and-husband team, is set in a New York boutique law firm that takes on risky social justice cases.

Like in 'Grey's, you never know who will come in needing help, Phelan said. We wanted a show about people who were from various socioeconomic backgrounds. That was really important to us.

The series, which premieres Wednesday, stars Katherine Heigl as Sadie Ellis, a defense attorneywho becomespersonally involved with her latest case and client,played by Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me). The cast is rounded out by Elliott Gould, the chief of the law firm, and Laverne Cox, Dule Hill, Dreama Walker and Kobi Libii, all of whom play lawyers. Cox, it merits noting, is the first-ever transgender actor to play a transgender character in a series regular role on broadcast TV.

Doubt is somewhat inspired by ABCs late 90s-early 00s legal drama, The Practice, which Rater and Phelan devotedly watched early in their relationship.

We really enjoyed watching that show, Rater said, sitting next to her husband at a hotel bar in Pasadena on a recent weekday.We wanted to see more criminal defense lawyers; we wanted to get to know the defendants more...

Doubt attempts to explore the best and worst of the criminal justice system, looking at those who are criminalized and those who are committed to defending them. The imperfections of Americas penal system is an area of focus in which Hollywood has shown growing interest. In addition to HBOs 2016 limited seriesThe Night Of, a number of projects out of Sundance this year also investigate the imperfections of law and order.

The more we can see that people who are in prison are people with families and with dreams and aspirations, I think, is enlightening, Phelan said. Are we, as a country, really about reform and rehabilitation? Or are we about putting people away and throwing away the key and just getting them out of society? And if we are about that, let's just be honest about that. But if we are really about reform and rehabilitation, how do we do that?

The main case to which viewers are introduced involves Billy Brennan (Pasquale), a plastic surgeon who is facing conviction for the first-degree murder of his former girlfriend, who was killed two decades prior. Things grow complicated as the relationship between Billy and Ellisbecomes more intimate.

A similar attorney-client progression in The Night Of came under fire, with critics chiding it as a misguided development.Phelan and Rater say there's something to be said about that kind of intimacy.

The lawyers almost become a lifeline, so inmates develop this, sort of, dependence, Rater said. Sadie knows everything about Billy. They've spent all of this time together and they're both flawed in similar ways. They both have strange upbringings and we and the writers just thought that was interesting. It's a line you are not supposed to cross but the 'what if' of it all How would you negotiate it? How would you deal with the fact that it's so wrong and so taboo and what are the consequences? --is really interesting to us.

Doubt was originally developed for the 2015-16 season, but the pilot was never ordered to series. After undergoing re-development and re-casting (KaDee Strickland and Teddy Sears were replaced with Heigl and Pasquale), its now making it to air with a 13-episode order. It marks a reunion of sorts Phelan and Rater last worked with Heigl when she starred on Greys Anatomy. (Heigl left the series in 2010.)

It was nice just to continue our collaboration because we've known Katherine for 10 years now, Phelan said.

It was just the sort of the magic ingredient that the show needed, Rater said.

The most-read Entertainment stories this hour

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealy

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Katherine Heigl is only one of the elements of 'Grey's Anatomy' the creators of 'Doubt' brought to CBS legal drama - Los Angeles Times

Immunology

Immunology Fair-Market Value Compensation Rates for US Health Care Providers: FMV/Fee Schedules for Thought … – Business Wire (press release)

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Fair-Market Value Compensation Rates for U.S. Health Care Providers: FMV/Fee Schedules for Thought Leaders/KOLs - Immunology" report to their offering.

Fair-Market Value Compensation Rates for U.S. HCPs - Immunology presents hourly and half-day flat compensation rates for four (4) Thought Leader levels based on degree of influence. The analysis includes rates for six (6) specific activities as well as for other non-specified activities. The findings presented in this report result from the input from executives at 16 life science organizations.

This study presents fair-market value (FMV) compensation rates by percentiles, with averages, for six (6) activities as well as for non-specific activities, for four (4) levels of Thought Leader influences (rare, international, national and local).

Payments made to physicians and thought leaders have been under scrutiny for a few years and companies have been working to adjust their rates to level with industry standards. Adjustments to market rates should be done periodically and are best done through 3rd party research, providing a fair and balanced assessment of rates.

The research findings deliver markets rates used in the conduct of exchanges with Thought Leaders from 16 life science organizations. These payment benchmarks help legal, compliance and medical affair executives refine and support the development of fee schedules that are aligned with market conditions.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Research Methodology

2. Definitions

- Therapeutic Area

- Thought Leader Levels

- Salary Data versus Market Rates

- Hourly Rates

- Flat Rates

3. Flat Rates

- Advisory Board Lead

- Advisory Board Non-lead

- Consulting Scientific / Clinical Content

- Consulting Commercial Content

- Speaking Scientific / Clinical Content

- Speaking Commercial Content

- Other Activities

4. Hourly Rates

- Advisory Board Lead

- Advisory Board Non-lead

- Consulting Scientific / Clinical Content

- Consulting Commercial Content

- Speaking Scientific / Clinical Content

- Speaking Commercial Content

- Other Activities

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9429rg/fairmarket_value

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Immunology Fair-Market Value Compensation Rates for US Health Care Providers: FMV/Fee Schedules for Thought ... - Business Wire (press release)

Embryology

Does Abortion Really Prevent Child Abuse? – Mike Adams – Townhall – Townhall

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Posted: Feb 14, 2017 12:01 AM

I hear a lot of calloused arguments in favor of abortion. Most of them come from leftists. Unfortunately, I occasionally hear them coming from self-described libertarians and conservatives. Unlike leftists who are wrong on every issue, the person claiming to be conservative or libertarian is usually right on most issues. So it is worth trying to offer them a respectful and well-reasoned response. Below, I respond to just such a reader. Her words are indented and in italics, mine are not:

I ask pro-lifers: who will take care of all the unwanted babies if we were to ban abortion. (There is never an answer). Will we go back to building orphanages and institutions wherein we stick children until adulthood?

This is simply false. When you ask pro-lifers who will take care of unwanted babies we do have an answer, which is pretty straightforward: There is no such thing as an unwanted baby.

Put simply, those willing to adopt a child exceed the number of children aborted in this country every year. The logical error in the readers argument is that it is somehow worse to be placed in an orphanage than to be slowly and methodically dismembered. That logical error is compounded by the easily refutable assertion that such an outcome would be reasonably likely.

The evidence of a surplus of willing adoptive parents is not new. The National Committee for Adoption said in a 1990 press release that "infants who are legally free for adoption, regardless of their race or ethnicity do not have to wait for homes. In fact, there is a long waiting list of screened families who want to adopt even seriously disabled newborns, including babies born with Down Syndrome and spina bifida. An estimated two million families in the U.S. were interested in adopting a child even back in the early 1900s when between 1.5 and 1.6 million babies were being aborted in the U.S. annually. The children waiting to be adopted tend to be older. Babies do not wait to be adopted.

Who will be accountable for all the babies who will be beaten or worse; beaten to death by parents that never wanted them? CPS certainly has never gotten a real foothold in this country, they surely can't/won't help. So, I had this conversation with a friend of a friend just the other day, and when I asked who will be held accountable for the deaths or maiming of babies, her response was the parent of course. Indeed. But we still have a DEAD CHILD. Not just a dead child, Mike. A dead child who took how many very painful blows, how many kicks, how many head bangs? People who are beaten die a very painful, very slow death. Who will be held responsible?

This argument is even easier to defeat than the previous one. Simply look at the numbers. Those claiming that abortion is needed to reduce child abuse must contend with the empirical reality that child abuse increased by over 500 percent in the decade following Roe v. Wade. In fact, in less than a decade after Roe, child abuse had already risen by over 500 percent. These stats come right from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This should not come as a surprise. Roe v. Wade said that a woman could defeat the government interest in stopping third trimester abortions if she had a legitimate health interest in obtaining the abortion. On the very same day, the Court released the Doe v. Bolton decision saying that emotional and psychological factors count as legitimate health interests.

Let me translate that for you: If the prospect of having a child causes a woman emotional or psychological distress she may have the child slowly dismembered in the womb. It is no wonder that child abuse skyrocketed in the aftermath of those two decisions.

Of course, the greater error my reader has made is simply assuming that abortion is not child abuse. This requires rejecting the consensus of the science of embryology that tells us the unborn is a distinct, living, and whole human being from the point of conception. Ultimately, dismembering the unborn in order to prevent child abuse makes about as much sense as decapitating someone in order to prevent tooth decay.

During the early 1990s when our abortion rates peaked at around 1.6 million per year our homicide rates were also at their highest levels. At that time, the annual number of homicides approached 25,000. This means that there were over 60 abortions for every one murder or manslaughter. So the numbers would not justify keeping abortion legal even if it prevented every single homicide much less the rare parent-on-child homicide preceded by long term physical abuse. The only way the math works is if one engages in anti-science fundamentalism and pretends that the unborn is not a human.

Finally, it makes little sense to probe the readers implied assertion that the unborn child feels no pain during the process of dismemberment. It has never been our position that abortion is wrong because it hurts. It is our position that it is wrong because it unjustly kills an innocent human being. Those focusing on the issue of pain would never consent to decriminalizing the rape and murder of women provided that the victims were first drugged thus rendering the act painless.

In the final analysis, those who would use the welfare of children to justify elective abortion are guilty of both the abuse of logic and the neglect of facts. It is a crass rationalization for murder that is unworthy of conservatives and libertarians alike.

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Does Abortion Really Prevent Child Abuse? - Mike Adams - Townhall - Townhall

Cell Biology

Sperm-egg fusion proteins have same structure as those used by … – Phys.Org

February 14, 2017 by Kevin Hattori Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus. Credit: Cynthia Goldsmith/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The protein that helps the sperm and egg fuse together in sexual reproduction can also fuse regular cells together. Recent findings by a team of biomedical researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Argentina, Uruguay and the U.S. show this protein is part of a larger family of proteins that helps other cells bind together to create larger organs, and which also allows viruses like Zika and Dengue to invade healthy cells.

For every sexually reproducing organism, sperm and egg fusion is the first step in the generation of a new individual. This process has been studied for more than 100 years in many organisms including humans, mice, insects, plants, sea urchins and even fungi. But the identity of the molecular machineries that mediate sperm and egg fusion remained unknown.

Now, the team led by Dr. Benjamin Podbilewicz, of the Technion Faculty of Biology, and Dr. Pablo S. Aguilar of Universidad Nacional de San Martin in Argentina, has demonstrated that the protein HAP2 a long known player in sperm-egg fusion is a protein that mediates a broad range of cell-cell fusion. Their findings were published recently in the Journal of Cell Biology.

HAP2 is found in plants, protists (e.g. algae, protozoa, and slime molds) and invertebrates, and is therefore considered an ancestral protein present at the origins of the first eukaryotic cells (cells with real nuclei). However, a closer look at HAP2 led the researchers to conclude that HAP2's roots are even older. Structural and phylogenetic analysis of HAP2 proteins revealed they are homologous to proteins used by viruses such as Zika and Dengue to fuse viral membrane to the membrane of the cell they invade.

According to the researchers, this means HAP2, FF and viral fusion proteins constitute a superfamily of membrane fusion proteins, which the authors named Fusexins (fusion proteins essential for sexual reproduction and exoplasmic merger of plasma membranes).

"Fusexins are fascinating machines that keep a structural core diversified to execute cell membrane fusion in very different contexts," says Prof. Podbilewicz. "Understanding the different structure-function relationships of fusexins will enable scientists to rationally manipulate cell-cell fusion in fertilization and tissue development. The added and very timely benefit is that it provides us greater understanding of how Zika and other viruses cause diseases in their target hosts."

The striking similarities between proteins that promote membrane fusion under very different contexts led the authors to dig into mechanistic details. Performing cell-cell fusion experiments, the researchers demonstrated that, like FF fusexins, HAP2 is needed in both fusing cells to promote membrane cell fusion. This bilateral requirement of HAP2 and FF fusexins differs from the viral mechanism of action, where fusexin is only present in the viral membrane (see figure).

The combined conservation of structure, sequence, and function imply that these proteins diverged from a common ancestor. Fusexins might have emerged 2-3 billion years ago to promote a primordial form of genetic material exchange between cells. Later, enveloped viruses took these fusion proteins to infect cells more efficiently. Finally, multicellular organisms adapted fusexins to sculpt organs like muscle and bone-repairing osteoclasts in vertebrates and skin and the vagina in worms through cell-cell fusion.

Explore further: Researchers Uncover Cell Fusion Mechanism

More information: Clari Valansi et al. HAP2/GCS1 is a gamete fusion protein homologous to somatic and viral fusogens, The Journal of Cell Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1083/jcb.201610093

Journal reference: Journal of Cell Biology

Provided by: Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

In a study that could shed light on disorders that occur in skeletal muscles, bone, the placenta, and other organs where fused cells are common, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and at the US National ...

In order for cells to function properly, cargo needs to be constantly transported from one point to another within the cell, like on a goods station. This cargo is located in or on intracellular membranes, called vesicles. ...

The near-spherical outer structure of the dengue virus has been recreated in remarkable detail by a team of bioinformaticians in Singapore. The virtual model could show researchers how the virus fuses with and infects human ...

(Medical Xpress)Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have identified proteins that allow muscle cells in mice to form from the fusion of the early stage cells that give rise to the muscle cells.

Every time a hormone is released from a cell, every time a neurotransmitter leaps across a synapse to relay a message from one neuron to another, the cell must undergo exocytosis. This is the process responsible for transporting ...

Just as human relationships are a two-way street, fusion between cells requires two active partners: one to send protrusions into its neighbor, and one to hold its ground and help complete the process. Researchers have now ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences has found that rhesus monkeys can pass the mirror self-awareness test if they are first taught how mirrors work. In their paper published ...

University of Georgia researchers have confirmed that becoming a parent brings about more than just the obvious offspringit also rewires the parents' brain.

Male guppies pay a high cost for their sexual harassment of female guppies including much higher mortality rates a new study from Macquarie University has found.

Scientists at the University of Wrzburg have generated new insights into the intricate molecular underpinnings of ubiquitin signaling. Their results may provide new avenues for cancer therapy.

The protein that helps the sperm and egg fuse together in sexual reproduction can also fuse regular cells together. Recent findings by a team of biomedical researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Argentina, ...

Sardinia sits at a crossroads in the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest island next to Sicily. Surrounded by sparkling turquoise waters, this Mediterranean jewel lies northwest of the toe of the Italian peninsula boot, ...

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Sperm-egg fusion proteins have same structure as those used by ... - Phys.Org

Genetics

College of Medicine graduate student launches genetics research start-up – Penn State News

HERSHEY, Pa. Olivier Noel is only 28 years old, but hes already changing the face of genetics research.

The Haitian native is in his sixth year of Penn State College of MedicinesMD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Programand was recently recognized by Forbes as one of the countrys brightest young entrepreneurs on its30 Under 30 list in the science industry. Hes the founder of DNAsimple, a startup aimed at accelerating genetics research by connecting DNA donors with research scientists. The company provides scientists with access to critically important samples, significantly speeding up the pace for genetics research.

People dont realize it can take years to get samples, but really only a month to get an assignment done which is a little bit ridiculous, Noel said. Its a problem for geneticists across the board. You can have a million dollars to do a study, but waste three years trying to get samples.

Noel explained a light bulb went off when he attended a genetics conference at the recommendation of Dr. Roger L. Ladda, whom he had been shadowing with the intent of focusing his residency on genetics.

The keynote speaker at the conference was talking about how he was studying a disease not really prevalent in the Western world, and the way they were able to get a DNA sample to validate was through Facebook. The joke at the time was that Facebook is the new way of doing genetics. I realized, wow, that worked well for one case but thats not the way science should get done, Noel said.

Noels big break was when the company was accepted into the Y Combinator program, which includes such notable alumni as Dropbox, Airbnb and Reddit. DNAsimple was one of 32 companies accepted from more than 6,500 applicants worldwide, he said. But he credits his doctoral advisors former Penn State faculty member Dr. Glenn S. Gerhard and Penn State College of Medicine Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyJames Broach for teaching him about genetics and exposing him to the Penn State Institute for Personalized Medicine.

Learn more about Noel and his work in this Penn State Medicine article.

Last Updated February 13, 2017

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College of Medicine graduate student launches genetics research start-up - Penn State News

Genetics

Cocaine addiction a matter of genetics, UBC researchers say – Calgary Herald

Scientists at the University of B.C.have built a better mouse one that is indifferent to cocaine.

Unlike normal mice, the genetically engineered rodents did not show addictive behaviour even after repeated injections of the narcotic over days, suggesting that habitual drug use in humans may be a matter of genetics.

While the finding is unlikely to yield a pill that cures addiction anytime soon, it could lead to a test that identifies who is at greatest risk of addiction and enable people to act on that knowledge, saidShernaz Bamji, the lead author of a study published today by the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The finding provides a biochemical model for addiction based onprevious work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., that found people with genetic mutations associated with a class of proteins in the brain called cadherins are more prone to substance abuse.

Cadherin helps bind cells together and play a role inwhich brain circuits are strengthened during learning even learning that certain drugs deliver pleasure.

Although Bamji had theorized that higher levels of cadherin would lead to more addictive behaviour, the opposite turned out to be true.

To better understand its role, the researchers engineered mice to produce excessive cadherin proteins in their brains.

Bamji and her collaboratorsinjected normal and genetically engineered mice with cocaine and placed them in a distinctly decorated room within a multi-room cage. On alternating days the mice were placed in the other room and injected with saline, said co-author Andrea Globa.

After six days of alternating treatments, the mice wereallowed to move freely to any of the rooms in the cage.

The normal mice greatly preferred the cocaine-associated room, but the high-cadherin mice didnt much care for it, suggesting that the presence of extra cadherin had somehow interfered with the learned response to cocaine.

Normal mice always gravitate to the chamber where they received the drug, looking for that high, but the mutant mice didnt, said Bamji.

The answer to the mysterious result was found inside the membrane of brain cellsthemselves, where cadherin interfered with the ability of a specialized proteinreceptor to functionat the synapse, the point at which neurons communicatewith each other chemically toform memories.

Unable to strengthen the connection between synapses, the brains learning circuitry couldntretaincocaines pleasurable memory.

Addiction is a form of learning in the reward circuits of the brain, she said. Where you dont get synapse strengthening, you arent getting learning and you arent getting addiction.

However, because many synapsesin the brain use the same strategy to learn, a magic bullet or pill for addiction is a long way off.

Simply increasing cadherin would likely prevent (addicts)from learning anything new, she said. Thats not a very good trade-off.

Future research might uncover a protein or enzyme in the brainmore specific to addiction that functions only in the reward circuitry of the brain, which could be a target for medication.

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Cocaine addiction a matter of genetics, UBC researchers say - Calgary Herald

Genetics

Biotech Premarket Movers: Sage Therapeutics, Immunomedics, Myriad Genetics – TheStreet.com

Shares of Sage Therapeutics ( SAGE) were up 8.6% ahead of the opening bell on Monday, trading at $51.50. The Cambridge, Mass. company unveiled encouraging top-line results from part A of its phase 2 study of SAGE-217 for the treatment of major depressive disorder. "Understanding the caveats associated with open-label data, we are highly encouraged by the strong signal we achieved in this study, which met our internal criteria for achieving a positive signal and thus supported our plan to proceed to the double-blind, placebo-controlled part of the Phase 2 trial," said Sage CEO Jeff Jonas in a statement.

Meanwhile, Immunomedics ( IMMU) shares rose 8% to $5.65 after finishing Friday's trading session at $5.23, up 21.6%. The Morris Plains, N.J. company on Friday announced a global licensing agreement with Seattle Genetics ( SGEN) for sacituzumab govitecan, Immunomedics' solid tumor therapy candidate.

Other biotech stock movers on Monday morning include molecular diagnostic company Myriad Genetics ( MYGN) , whose shares were up 6.2%, to $16.98.

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Biotech Premarket Movers: Sage Therapeutics, Immunomedics, Myriad Genetics - TheStreet.com

Biochemistry

Roses are red, violets are bluewhat gives flowers those eye … – Phys.Org

February 13, 2017 by Cheryl Dybas Knock-your-eyes-out red: A flowering plant native to Mexico called early jessamine or red cestrum. Credit: Stacey Smith

To solve the mystery of why roses are red and violets are blue, scientists are peering into the genes of plant petals.

"When you ask anyone how one flower is different from another, for most of us, color is the feature that first comes to mind," says evolutionary biologist Stacey Smith of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Most people don't think about why a flower is a particular color, but it's an important question for biologists, says Prosanta Chakrabarty, a program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funds Smith's research.

Smith and her team are "looking at the genetics of flower colors, and at changes in those colors over time," Chakrabarty says.

It all comes down to biochemistry

In nature, flowers come in hues that span the rainbow.

"On a microscopic level, the colors come from the biochemical composition of petal cells," Smith says.

Pigments are the main chemicals responsible. Plants contain thousands of pigment compounds, all of which belong to three major groups: flavonoids, carotenoids and betalains. Most flower colors come from flavonoids and carotenoids.

"In addition to giving flowers their colors, carotenoids and anthocyaninswhich are flavonoidshave antioxidant and other medicinal properties, including anti-cancer, antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory activity," says Simon Malcomber, a program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

Malcomber says the research could show how plants evolved to synthesize the carotenoids and anthocyanins that produce red flowers. "The results could be used in future drug discovery research," he says.

Much of Smith's work is focused on understanding how changes in flavonoid and carotenoid biochemistry relate to differences in flower colors. She and colleagues conduct research on the tomato family, a group of about 2,800 species that includes tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers, tobacco and potatoes.

"These domesticated species don't have a terribly wide range of flower colors and patterns, but their wild relatives often do," Smith says. "So we study wild, or undomesticated, species, which are most diverse in South America."

Hot pursuit of red-hot color

Smith has had her share of adventures in the fieldlike the time she tried to find a plant with red flowers that lives at the base of a volcanic crater in Ecuador.

"It was my very first field trip, and I wasn't super-savvy," Smith says. "I took a bus to the outside of the crater, dragged my suitcase up to the rim then down into the crater, assuming there would be a village and a way to get out. There was neither. Thankfully, there was a park station nearby where I was able to stay overnight. I found the species in full flower in the forest the next day."

Smith is currently in hot pursuit of an answer to the question: When did red flowers first appear in the tomato family? "We thought that red flowers might have evolved many times independently of each other because red-flowered species are scattered among many branches of this family tree," she says.

Just 34 species in the entire tomato family, however, have red flowers.

"With such a small number, we can take samples of every one of these species to find out whether it represents an independent origin, and to determine the biochemistry of how it makes red flowers," Smith says.

She and other biologists traveled from Brazil to Colombia to Mexico to track down red flowers and measure their pigments. "We found surprising patterns," Smith says, "including that nearly every red-flowered species represents a new origin of the color, so red flowers have evolved at least 30 different times."

While the researchers expected that flowers would be red due to the presence of red pigments, they found that plants often combine yellow-orange carotenoids with purple anthocyanins to produce red flowers.

"Our studies are now aimed at tracing the entire genetic pathway by which plants make flower colors and identifying genetic changes to see if there are common mechanisms," Smith says.

The scientists want to know, for example, what changes have taken place since flowers first became red.

Answers in a petunia

"We're focusing on a single branch of the tomato family [petunias], creating an evolutionary history and conducting measurements of gene expression, pigment production and flower color," says Smith.

Petunias and their colorful relatives are good choices for this research, according to Smith.

"Most of us have seen the tremendous variation in petunia colors at our local nurseries, and indeed, petunias have served as models for studying flower color and biochemistry for decades."

Few people, though, are aware of the variation in petunias' wild relatives, most of which are found in Argentina and Brazil. "We're harnessing this natural diversity, as well as genetic information already available from ornamental petunias, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of flower colors," says Smith.

"If earlier studies taught us anything," she adds, "we shouldn't expect flowers to play by the rules."

Will roses always be red, and violets blue?

Explore further: Turning pretty penstemon flowers from blue to red

While roses are red, and violets are blue, how exactly do flower colors change?

Flower colors that contrast with their background are more important to foraging bees than patterns of colored veins on pale flowers according to new research, by Heather Whitney from the University of Cambridge in the UK, ...

(Phys.org) -- A team of researchers in Australia has shown that the evolution of flowers in that country was driven by the preferences of bees, rather than the other way around. In their paper published in the Proceedings ...

Researchers have uncovered the secret recipe to making some petunias such a rare shade of blue. The findings may help to explain and manipulate the color of other ornamental flowers, not to mention the taste of fruits and ...

Male hummingbirds drive female birds away from their preferred yellow-flowered plant, which may have implications for flower diversification, according a study published Jan. 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by ...

Roses are red, violets are blue. Everybody knows that, but what makes them so? Although plant breeders were aware of some of the genes involved, there was as yet no quantitative study of how pigment turns a flower red, blue ...

A new report from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research chronicles the embryonic origins of planaria, providing new insight into the animal's remarkable regenerative abilities.

How plant cells divide and how that contributes to plant growth has been one of the longstanding unsolved mysteries of cell biology. Two conflicting ideas have fueled the mystery.

Watching the smooth movement generated by hundreds of fish as they swim in unison is truly mesmerising. But it's not only its sheer beauty that makes it so hard to look away, for scientists, it's also the fact that its emergence ...

Recent evidence demonstrates that the origins of photosynthesis can be found in deep sea hydrothermal vents, where microbes evolved to obtain energy from ejected hydrogen sulfide and methane gases. These microbes are capable ...

A new study of songbird dehydration and survival risk during heat waves in the United States desert Southwest suggests that some birds are at risk of lethal dehydration and mass die-offs when water is scarce, and the risk ...

Scientists have discovered a new protein that likely will advance the search for new natural antibiotics, according to a study by Texas A&M AgriLife Research published Feb. 13 in the journal Nature Microbiology.

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Roses are red, violets are bluewhat gives flowers those eye ... - Phys.Org

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Justin Chambers on Karev’s Fate: ‘He Just Never Seems to Catch a Break’ – Variety

Last weeks Greys Anatomy revealed the fate of Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).

After numerous episodes this season dealt with the aftermath of Karev beating up DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), Alex had decided to accept a plea deal, which would put him behind bars. However, he had gone missing and no one knew what he was up to until last week when suddenly, he surprised Meredith at home.

The episode last week cut with Karevs surprise return home, begging the question, how did he get out of jail time? Tonights ep will reveal all of those details. But first,Variety chatted with Chambers aboutwhat to expect now that Alex is back.

I think having everything taken from him I think he learned a lot there, but I think he appreciates being in peace and hes very good at what he does and he thrives there, Chambers explains of how the experience will change Alex.

As for Jo (Camilla Luddington), their relationship will require a lot of work to get back on track. He was going to take a plea deal to protect his girl. Theyre not together right now, but well see where that goes, Chambers says.Hes still angry with her, but if anyone knows anything about second chances, its Alex. So he has that to think about. She messed up, but there must be a piece of him that still feels for her. Love just doesnt die like that.

Whatever happens, Chambers has a personal wish for his character: I just hope Alex finds some happiness. Crap. He just never seems to catch a break. Im thinking soon there might be some stability, he teases.

However, in real life, Chambers is ecstatic to be experiencing 13 seasons of stability

Its a blessing. Its crazy. Its so awesome, the original cast member says of Greys Anatomys flourishing in its 13th season.With a laugh, he adds, Even ER, I think theirratings dropped a lot in their 13th year.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Star Justin Chambers on Karev's Fate: 'He Just Never Seems to Catch a Break' - Variety

Anatomy

John Oliver Details the Anatomy of Trump’s Falsehoods – Newsweek

John Oliver used the first episode of the new season of Last Week Tonight to dissect what he sees as Donald Trump's aversion to facts. Pointing out that the president "has made it clear that reality is not important to him" is nothing new; media outlets do it all the time. But Oliver wanted to delve a little deeper into the anatomy of Trump's grand pronouncementsthat are not supported by evidenceabout such things as the size of his inauguration crowd, voter fraud, the unemployment rate, the national GDP, the murder rate. Policy is being made based on such false information, and, as Oliver points out, people are getting hurt because of it.

Related: John Oliver says he is concerned about being able to stay in America

Politifact found that 25.2 percent of the statements made by President Barack Obama were false by some measure. For Trump, the number is 69.9 percent. Where do Trump's falsehoods come from?

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Oliver says Trump's worldview is reinforced primarily by cable newsor questionable websites like Breitbart or Infowars. The former routinely runs headlines like "Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy," while the host of the latter, Alex Jones, believesthe Boston Marathon bombing and the Sandy Hook massacre were orchestrated by the government, among other conspiracy theories.Trump's reliance on cable news has been made clear through his tweets, which often reflect just-aired Fox News segments. As Oliver breaks it down, "Trump sees something that jibes with his worldview,doesnt check it, half-remembers it and then passes it on, at which point it takes on a life of its own and appears to validate itself.

Oliver uses as an example Trump's claims that millions of illegal votes were cast in the election, an idea for which there is no factual evidence.The claim originated from a Twitter user. Itwas then picked up by Infowars. It was debunked, but Trump tweeted about it. Then others talked about it on TV. This allowed theclaim to gainlegitimacy, at least for a certain section of the population.If you get your news from similar sources to him, which many people do, he doesnt look like a crank," Oliver says."He looks like the first president ever to tell you the real truth.

Trump's belief that "thousands" of New Jersey Muslims celebrated 9/11 terrorist attacks took on a similar life. When Bill O'Reilly pointed out that there was no evidence to support the claim, Trump doubled down,citing a Breitbart articlethat said he was "100% vindicated." O'Reilly said once again that there was still no real evidence and that this was never reported,but Trump said he was right because the article said people were swarming all over the place. "I don't know what that means," Trump said. "But it means a lot of people."

Oliver points out: Even if you take the kindest approach here and assume Trump made an honest, innocent mistake and passed on a news story without checking it, when he was presented with a lack of evidence, he disregarded that fact, at which point he is lying."

So how can frustrated Americans combat this problem? Oliver says it's up to the media to continue to check Trump's facts, even though the effectiveness of doing so has been diminishedas the Trump administration continuesto vilify the press. Beyond that, he says the people and organizations who oppose Trump need to stay vigilant with their protests, their lawsuitsand their diligence in double-checking the sourcing ofwhat they see on social media before they share it themselves.

Oliveralso has another solution. Because Trump loves cable news so much, Last Week Tonight bought ad space during some of the president'sfavorite morning programs. His show will use the space to airads that detailthe basics of issues about which Trump should probably be familiar, like the nuclear triad or the names of hischildren.Until we are shut down, we are prepared to educate Donald Trump one-by-one on topics were pretty sure he doesnt know about," says Oliver. Make sure you don't skip the commercials next time you tune in to Morning Joe.

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John Oliver Details the Anatomy of Trump's Falsehoods - Newsweek