The pick of the news in science
More height genes uncovered
How lofty are you? Your height at adulthood is largely determined by your genes, and a new study has pointed out several of them, including some new ones. The team carried out a meta-analysis of DNA from over 114,000 people of six ethnicities and they identified 64 height-associated genes, 27 of which had not been previously associated with tallness.
“Although the discoveries may not have immediate clinical use, the approach we used will undoubtedly be helpful in discovering genes that influence other traits and diseases,” said the co-study leader, Hakon Hakonarson from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a release.
Bumble bee decline
Bad news for bumble bees – an extensive study confirms that species are under pressure in the United States.
Previous reports have highlighted problems with bee populations in the US, but research published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences went all out to nail down the numbers.
The study looked at data from surveys of 382 sites, for which they netted and identified 16,788 bees between 2007 and 2009. Then they compared the findings to historical collections. What did they find?
“We show that the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96 per cent and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23–87 per cent, some within the last 20 years,” write the researchers.
“People’s things tell you about those people and their times. In the same way that the coffee mug with ‘World’s Greatest Golfer’ in your kitchen cabinet speaks to your values and your culture, so too do the objects of the past tell us about that past.
- Prof Kathleen Lynch from the University of Cincinnati, who researched a timeline of wine-drinking cups over a 500-year period in ancient Athens