Four groups of arthropods—the centipedes, millipedes, pauropods, and symphylans—share a number of common features such as a similar body plan consisting of a head followed by an elongate trunk with many legs. The four groups also exhibit marked differences.

Traditionally the myriapods have been considered close relatives of the insects and other Hexapoda, and united with them in the Subphylum Uniramia, among which the Myriapoda were treated as a class or superclass. Their status was questioned by some biologists (e.g. Barnes, 1968), and in particular it was considered likely that they were paraphyletic to the hexapods. However, genetic studies support their monophyly, and suggest they may not be close relatives of the hexapods, instead belonging near the Chelicerata. This view is reflected by treating them as a separate subphylum within the Arthropoda.

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EurekAlert! - Biology

UCSB center helps land $24M national center to study environmental impacts of nanotechnology
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400
(University of California - Santa Barbara) The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara helped to win the new University of California Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, a five-year, $24 million center co-funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Environmental Protection Agency to study the environmental impacts of nanotechnology.
Fat-regenerating 'stem cells' found in mice
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400
(Cell Press) Researchers have identified stem cells with the capacity to build fat. Although they have yet to show that the cells can renew themselves, transplants of the progenitor cells isolated from the fat tissue of normal mice can restore normal fat tissue in animals that are otherwise lacking it.The findings may yield insight into the causes of obesity, a condition characterized by an increase in both the size and number of fat cells.
Landmark study unlocks stem cell, DNA secrets to speed therapies
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400
(Florida State University) In a groundbreaking study led by an eminent molecular biologist at Florida State University, researchers have discovered that as embryonic stem cells turn into different cell types, there are dramatic corresponding changes to the order in which DNA is replicated and reorganized.

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