In the News: Biodiversity in Beer and Nut-cracking Monkeys

Fig.1. Some beer labels now display Genebank accession numbers. (Credit: Ove Fosså.)

A powerful DNA tool holds the answers to crop population genetic variations, and archaeologists discover tools that monkeys used to get their nut fix. That and more in our science news roundup.

• As we shared last week in our video, high-throughput sequencing is a powerful tool available to scientists. This team used it to identify small genetic differences in plant crop populations: Exploring Genetic Diversity in Plants Using High-Throughput Sequencing Techniques, Current Genomics (August 2016)
• We've talked about beer made with wild yeast - here's an assessment of how many barley varieties are actually utilized by the industry. You know the number is low when there is a brewery putting Genebank accession numbers on its labels: The biodiversity of beer, Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog (5 July 2016)
• Ocean ice and sediment cores reveal a new connection between ocean circulation and climate patterns during the last ice age: Ocean circulation implicated in past abrupt climate changes, Science Daily (30 June 2016) 
• Humans aren’t the only ones with a history of using tools. Primate archaeologists have found evidence of 700-year-old tools used by capuchin monkeys to crack open nuts: Monkeys used stone tools 700 years ago, BBC News (12 July 2016)
• If you study cancer, you probably were excited to hear about a new initiative to double the world’s number of cancer cell lines available to researchers (to 1,000!): Global Initiative Seeks 1,000 New Cancer Models, Scientific American (11 July 2016)