Houston, TX, USA. The most robust statistical examination to date of our species' genetic links to mitochondrial Eve — the maternal ancestor of all living humans — confirms that she lived about 200,000 years ago.

The study was based on a side-by-side comparison of 10 human genetic models that each aim to determine when Eve lived using a very different set of assumptions about the way humans migrated, expanded and spread across Earth. The research was conducted by investigators from R

Princeton, NJ, USA. Over millions of years, retroviruses insert genetic material into the host genome as part of replication, leaving behind bits of their genetic material in vertebrate genomes. A research team now finds that human and other vertebrate genomes also contain many ancient sequences from Ebola/Marburgviruses and Bornaviruses — two deadly virus families.

The very things that kill may also be a source of strength. Discovery of the ancient sequences highlights the importance

Washington, DC, USA. On Monday (Aug. 30), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty rejected his state’s application for $850,000 under the new federal health care law to prevent teen pregnancies.

At the same time, he approved a state application for $500,000 — also funded through the legislation — to promote abstinence instead.

Pawlenty, who is often mentioned among those likely to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, exemplifies the fine line that many states are walkin

Baltimore, MD, USA. Scientists have produced the very first epigenetic landscape map for tissue differentiation, based on the occurrence of a common chemical change called methylation, often is associated with turning off genes. It takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, presenting an important key to undersanding cellular development..

The researchers, from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and Harvard, focused on this epigenetic mark because it is

Washington, DC, USA. In the past decade, prescription drug abuse has soared to new levels. A recent White House study found a 400 percent increase in abuse from 1998 to 2008. Other experts cite the doubling of prescription drug-related emergency room visits from 2004 to 2008.

And the problem continues to escalate nationally, despite prescription drug monitoring programs already running in 33 states. Meanwhile, nine other states have passed legislation to establish such programs, but bec