Archive for: December 2005

Approximately one-third of adolescents and 14 percent of adults (aged 20 to 49 years) in the US have poor cardiorespiratory fitness, with an associated increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors such as higher total cholesterol and blood pressure levels, according to a study in the December 21 issue of JAMA.

A multi-institutional study offers additional insight into the evolutionary process by examining how albinism evolves in cavefish. Researchers, including New York University Biology Professor Richard Borowsky, examined two populations of Mexican cavefish and found that albinism in both populations was linked to Oca2 -- a pigmentation gene also responsible for the most common form of albinism in humans.