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5 articles from ScienceNOW

Former Texas professor pleads guilty to making false statements on China ties

Former Texas A&M University, College Station, material scientist Zhengdong Cheng pleaded guilty today to two federal charges of making false statements to NASA that hid his ties to two Chinese universities. Cheng also agreed to repay NASA $86,876, funds awarded for a microgravity experiment to be conducted on the International Space Station. Despite...

NIH’s BRAIN Initiative puts $500 million into creating most detailed ever human brain atlas

The BRAIN Initiative, the 9-year-old, multibillion-dollar U.S. neuroscience effort, today announced its most ambitious challenge yet: compiling the world’s most comprehensive map of cells in the human brain. Scientists say the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), funded with $500 million over 5 years, will help them understand how the human brain works and how diseases...

Genes for seeds arose early in plant evolution, ferns reveal

The emergence of seed-producing plants more than 300 million years ago was an evolutionary watershed, opening new environments to plants and ultimately leading to the flowering plants that brighten our world and supply much of our food. But it was less of a leap than it seems, newly published DNA sequences suggest. The genomes, from three fern species and a cycad, one of the...