Key to life

A team of scientists from the UK and France have found a gene, HIRA, responsible for controlling a key step in the creation of new life ' fertilisation ' that takes place once a sperm enters an egg. The ge-ne transforms a sperm’s DNA so that it can properly join with the female DNA. Faults in this gene may explain why some eggs don’t get fertilised even by a healthy sperm.

Elephant grief

Humans apart, only a few animals pay homage to their dead relatives. Now, elephants join the list. In a study scientists in the UK and Kenya saw that after finding their relatives’ dead bodies African elephants got highly agitated and later paid a higher level of interest by smelling and touching them with their trunks and feet.

Brain clock

Our brains’ internal clocks coordinate a vast array of activities from communicating to orchestrating movement to getting food, write two neuroscientists in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. According to them, the brain is a ‘time machine’ and how it tracks time is essential to understanding all its functions.