Combining chromosomes from different organisms started as soon as someone created a hybrid. “In natural breeding,” says geneticist Kulvinder S. Gill of Washington State University in Pullman, “we transfer genes through hybridization—transferring pollen from one plant to another.” He adds, “It can, for example, be pollen from wheat to rye or rye to wheat.”

The newly renovated Lasher Laboratory avian diagnostic, disease and research facility was the focus as community members attended an open house held Friday, April 17, at the University of Delaware’s Elbert N. and Ann V. Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown, Delaware. 

Vibrio outbreaks have sickened shellfish consumers in Northeast

The workings of the ingredient capsaicin in calming nerves become more clear in a Newark lab.

Researchers at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University have collaborated with scientists from Dijon, France to try to solve the problem of bad tasting beer.

A sampling of more than 1,000 Gulf of Mexico fish, shrimp, oysters and blue crabs taken from Cedar Key, Fla., to Mobile Bay, Ala., between 2011 to 2013, shows no elevated contaminant levels, according to a seafood safety study conducted by Dr. Andrew Kane and colleagues at the University of Florida.  In fact, some 74 percent of the seafood tested showed no quantifiable levels of oil contaminants at all.

Some consumer groups concerned about the safety of synthetic preservatives such as parabens have pushed for natural alternatives. Industry has responded with a slew of options, including preservatives from kimchi, a popular Korean staple made out of fermented cabbage and radish.

What we eat has a big influence on our environment, in ways beyond the typical carbon footprint questions of local vs. imported or animal vs. vegetable.

University of Adelaide researchers have shown there are two critical windows during the developmental pathway to adulthood when exposure to junk food is most harmful, particularly for female offspring.

When we drive past sunny fields of grapes, we might think we're seeing how they’re doing—but much more is going on invisible to the human eye: vines and roots teeming with bacteria, viruses and fungi that all impact how those grapes will grow.