Melbourne, VIC, USA. The pulse quickens, the heart pounds and adrenalin courses through the veins, but in stressful situations is our reaction controlled by our genes, and does it differ between the sexes?

Australian scientists, writing in the journal BioEssays, believe the SRY (Sex-determining region Y) gene, which directs male development, may promote aggression and other traditionally male behavioural traits resulting in the fight-or-flight reaction to stress.

Washington, DC, USA. Scientists have completed the genome sequence for the gorilla — the last genus of the living great apes to have its genome decoded.

The findings published in Nature confirm that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the team show that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.