Live Science reporter Tanya Lewis highlights Shigeru Miyagawa’s work exploring the origins of human language. Miyagawa's hypothesis, “could explain how human language, which can theoretically produce infinite meanings, developed from the limited forms of communication seen in the rest of the animal world,” Lewis reports.
“Three scientific papers about the Y chromosome, which determines maleness in humans and most other mammals, should lay to rest the myth that it may disappear after a few more million years of evolution,” Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes of MIT research on the Y chromosome.
In an article for Scientific American, Josh Fischman writes about new research from MIT Professor David Page that shows that the Y chromosome is not vanishing. Page and his colleagues argue that the Y chromosome has been stable for the past 25 million years and plays a crucial role in the survival of humans.
Scientific American reports on Professor Susan Lindquist’s research into how the protein HSP90, which binds to other proteins to keep them properly folded, can play into genetic variability during times of stress.
New York Times reporter Gina Kolata examines a new MIT study that uncovered a rare mutation that protects people from getting Type 2 diabetes. The findings could be applied to developing a drug that mimics how the mutation operates, Kolata writes.
The PBS NewsHour's Rebecca Jacobson reports on Professor Dennis Kim's work studying how worms defend themselves against bacteria. Through this work, Kim believes he can gain a better understanding of the human immune system.