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The stickiness of human neurons may have been a key factor in why the human brain evolved beyond the brains of our primate relatives. In a study comparing the genomes of humans, chimpanzees and other vertebrates, researchers at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Joint Genome Institute (JGI) found a strikingly high degree of genetic differences in DNA sequences that appear to regulate genes involved in nerve cell adhesion molecules.

Using 3-D models run on some of the fastest computers in the world, laboratory physicists have created a mathematical code that cracks a mystery surrounding stellar evolution.

The newly established Berkeley Cancer Genome Center is a collaboration among scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco. One of seven Cancer Genome Characterization Centers to receive awards from the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Berkeley Cancer Genome Center is led by members of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division.

Scientists from the Chemistry, Materials and Life Sciences Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR), have discovered the newest superheavy element, element 118.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and their colleagues have characterized the genome sequences of nine different lactic acid-producing bacteria, or LAB, and have published their findings in the Oct. 17 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The small LAB genomes encode a diverse repertoire of genes for efficient carbon and nitrogen acquisition and reflect a limited range of biosynthetic capabilities promising broad industrial applications.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created a first-of-its-kind model for studying how breast tissue is shaped and structured during development. The model may shed new light on how the misbehavior of only a few cells can facilitate metastatic invasion because it shows that the development of breast tissue, normal or abnormal, is controlled not only by genetics, but also by geometry.

Scientists from the US Department Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a ruler made of gold nanoparticles and DNA that can measure the smallest of life's phenomena, such as precisely where on a DNA strand a protein attaches itself.

Nanocrystals of germanium embedded in silica glass don't melt until the temperature rises almost 200 degrees Kelvin above the melting temperature of germanium in bulk. Even more surprising, these melted nanocrystals have to be cooled more than 200 K below the bulk melting point before they resolidify. Such a large and nearly symmetrical divergence of melting and freezing temperatures above and below the bulk melting point has never before been observed for embedded nanoparticles.