An international team of scientists has sequenced the coffee genome and has found that the caffeine in coffee plants evolved separately to the caffeine in tea plants.

Source: http://www.nature.com/nature/archive/category.html?code=archive_news&year=2014 ...

New research from the University of Chicago in the US shows that a class of bacteria known as Clostridia can block peanut allergies in mice, and suggests it could be used to treat similar conditions in humans.

Clostridia is one of the types of bacteria killed off by antibiotic use in early childhood, and this research supports the emerging theory that increased antibiotic use is one of the factors that has caused food allergies in kids to rise by 50% since 1997.

Source: http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142708-26075.html ...

Australian scientists are creating a new herpes-blocking drug using a protein found in the blood of abalones. If successful, it could prevent the virus from entering human cells, thereby prevent future outbreaks of cold sores.

Researchers have uncovered the mechanism that allows spiders to build such strong webs. According to the study, both ends of the spider's silk grand have different pH levels, which helps these proteins become a solid fibre that can be spun into a solid web. The researchers also found that the pH level has different effects on the stability of the two regions at each end of the spidroin proteins.

“While one of the ends tended to pair up with other molecules at the beginning of the duct (N-terminal) and became increasingly stable as the acidity increased along the duct, the other end (C-terminal) destabilised as the acidity increased, and gradually unfolded until it formed the structure characteristic of silk at the acidic pH of 5.5”, ex ...

The largest aquatic insect in the world has been discovered in China, with a wingspan of 21 cm. And those enormous tusks? They're for mating.

This one is hard to believe, but a new study suggests that if you're learning a new language, you're better off listening to recordings of your lessons while you're asleep rather than while you're awake.

Researchers discover that bees and flowers communicate using electric fields.

"It turns out flowers have a slight negative charge relative to the air around them. Bumblebees have a charge, too.

The plant's electric field is changed by the proximity of that positively charged bee. And once the bee leaves, the field stays changed for 100 seconds or so. That's long enough for the altered field to serve as a warning for the next bee that buzzes by. She won't stop to investigate a flower that's already been visited." ...