Technology News

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A new research has suggested that a chemical reaction in rocks in landslides may be responsible for starting wildfires. ANI

Now, a project to encourage visually-impaired pupils to take up computer science
The U.S. National Science Fioundation (NSF) is funding an initiative at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) that has been designed to help prepare visually impaired middle school and high school students participate in computer science programs at the collegiate level. ANI

New invention to neutralize hurricanes with help from supersonic jet
Scientists have put forward a patent application about developing a supersonic hurricane neutralizer, which can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricanes eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates. ANI

Mechanism behind sex determination in fruit flies identified

Researchers at the Texas A and M University have identified the mechanism behind sex determination in fruit flies.

Washington, Dec 27 : Researchers at the Texas A and M University have identified the mechanism behind sex determination in fruit flies.

The study, led by James Erickson and Jerome Quintero at the university, studied fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to reach their conclusions.

In mammals, male or female development depends on the presence of the Y chromosome, which is only found in males because it includes masculinizing genes.

However, other animal groups have evolved different systems.

Previous studies in the fly have suggested that it was the ratio of X chromosomes, the "female" chromosome, of which there are two copies in a female fly, and just one in a male, to the non-sex chromosomes, the autosomes, that determined the sex of a fly embryo.

However, the latest study has indicated that rather than being dependent on the ratio, it is the number of X chromosomes that is important.

Sex is determined during a very specific and short stage in embryo development, and only two X chromosomes can produce enough of a signal to feminize the embryo during this window of opportunity.

The study has been published online in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.

ANI