Since Darwin, researchers have supposed that the large size of male ungulate antlers and horns is a signal that this is a male with sexual vigor, health, strength, hierarchical status or the ability to fight. Research in male roe deer showed that the size of the antlers did match age and body mass and resilience to environmental conditions.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
A new study suggests how a notorious cancer gene may contribute to tumor growth. The insight emerged from a long-running study of a protein called PMR1, the key player in an unusual mechanism that cells use to quickly stop production of certain important proteins.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
USC college computational biologist Peter Calabrese has developed a new model to simulate the evolution of so-called recombination hotspots in the genome.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Biologists have produced a global map of estimated plant species richness. Covering several hundred thousand species, the scientists say their global map is the most extensive map of the distribution of biodiversity on Earth to date.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Disrupt the gene that regulates the biological clocks in mice and they become manic, exhibiting behaviors similar to humans with bipolar disorder. Scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center show that the Clock gene, which controls the body's circadian rhythms, may be integrally involved in the development of bipolar disorder. Circadian rhythms include the daily ups-and-downs of waking, eating and other processes such as body temperature, hormone levels, blood pressure and heart activity.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
A newly discovered small molecule called IQ-1 plays a key role in preventing embryonic stem cells from differentiating into one or more specific cell types, allowing them to instead continue growing and dividing indefinitely, according to research performed by a team of scientists who have recently joined the stem-cell research efforts at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
An international project explores why it's an evolutionary advantage that only 25 percent of the caterpillars of Maculinea rebeli, a Lycaenid butterfly whose caterpillars live as parasites inside colonies of Myrmica ants, feeding on regurgitations from the nurse ants, complete development within one year. The rest are inactive and mature after two years. Intense competition and years where the ant colony avoids reinfection may be part of the explanation.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
A small molecule derived from the spacer domain of the tumor-suppressor gene Rb2/p130 has demonstrated the ability to inhibit tumor growth in vivo and could be developed into an anti-cancer therapeutic, according to researchers at Temple University's Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Scientists have developed an innovative way to take images of atoms in living cells without using a lens. They now plan to develop the ultimate X-ray microscope, which could be used to take high-resolution 3-D images of any molecular structure.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
A small piece of DNA that helps bacteria commonly found in US meat and poultry resist several antibiotics has also been found in the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, gene sequence researchers report.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Scientists may have reached a breakthrough in the search for a lasting cure for type 1 diabetes. Medical researchers have greatly boosted the number of immune T-cells able to shield transplanted pancreatic islet cells from attack by the immune system. Insulin-producing islet cells are deficient in type 1 diabetes.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) determined that genetically-engineered malaria-resistant mosquitoes fared better than their natural counterparts when fed malaria-infected blood. The results of their study indicated that genetically-engineered (transgenic) mosquitoes lived longer and produced more eggs compared to wild-type mosquitoes.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
After years of results that repeatedly dogged him, University of Oregon geologist Douglas R. Toomey decided to follow the trail of data surfacing from the Pacific Ocean. In doing so, he and his collaborators may have altered long-held assumptions involving plate tectonics on the ocean floor.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Antibiotics are prescribed for approximately 82 percent of acute sinus infections and nearly 70 percent of chronic sinus infections, despite the fact that viruses are by far the most frequent cause of this condition, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found a new and substantial pathway for mercury pollution flowing into coastal waters. Marine chemists have detected much more dissolved mercury entering the ocean through groundwater than from atmospheric and river sources.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Postmenopausal women whose diet contains high amounts of lignans, estrogen-like chemical compounds found in plants, may have a reduced risk of breast cancer, according to a study in the March 21 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Generating electricity from renewable sources will soon become as easy as putting a brush and a tube in a tub of wastewater.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Tracing the origins of marine animals can be extremely difficult, especially in the free-flowing, soup-like conditions of the ocean, but obtaining this information is vital not only for understanding these organisms but for managing and conserving them as well. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have developed a novel approach for tracing the life roots of marine larvae, some of the most difficult organisms to track due to their microscopic sizes.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Current methods used to sniff out dangerous airborne pathogens may wrongly suggest that there is no threat to health when, in reality, there may be. But researchers have found a better method for collecting and analyzing these germs that could give a more accurate assessment of their actual threat. For example, the findings may make it easier to detect airborne pathogens in low concentrations.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
The first comprehensive assessment of the world's 162 species of grouper, a culinary favorite and important commercial fish, found that 20 are threatened with extinction unless proper management or conservation measures are introduced. "This shows that over-fishing could decimate another major food and economic resource for humans, similar to the loss of the cod stocks off New England and Canada that has put thousands of people out of work," said Roger McManus of Conservation International.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
New biofuels technology developed by North Carolina State University engineers has the potential to turn virtually any fat source -- vegetable oils, oils from animal fat and even oils from algae -- into fuel to power jet airplanes.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom have found that, as for rodents and other nonprimates, prenatal exposure of nonhuman primate African vervet monkeys (Chloroceus aethiops) to glucocorticoids has long-lasting deleterious effects on cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuroendocrine function. These data suggest that both repeated glucocorticoid therapy and severe maternal stress late in gestation are likely to have long-term deleterious effects on developing human fetuses.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Although mice, like most mammals, typically view the world with a limited color palette--similar to what some people with red-green color blindness see--scientists have now transformed their vision by introducing a single human gene into a mouse chromosome. The human gene codes for a light sensor that mice do not normally possess, and its insertion allowed the mice to distinguish colors as never before.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Why mitochondrial genes ditch their cushy haploid environs to take up residence in a large and chaotic nucleus has long stumped evolutionary biologists, but Indiana University Bloomington scientists report in this week's Science that they've uncovered an important clue in flowering plants.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
It wouldn't have been the easiest way to get around. A University of Alberta paleontologist has helped discover the existence of a 95 million-year-old snakelike marine animal, a finding that provides not only the earliest example of limbloss in lizards but the first example of limbloss in an aquatic lizard.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
We've all heard about the birds and the bees. But apparently when it comes to birds, they have an unusual take on his and hers -- and the difference is genetic. Research published today in the Journal of Biology shows that birds are extraordinary, because some bird genomes can live with an apparent overdose of sex-related genes.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
In a remote area of the Amazon, globalization is threatening the time-honored transmission of plant knowledge from generation to generation, with adverse effects on childhood health and nutrition. Researchers report that parents, and especially mothers, who know more about plants and how to use them, have healthier children, independent of other factors such as education, market participation or acculturation.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
An unprecedented new agreement --part of an aggressive move to safeguard the world's food production - aims to protect thousands of the world's unique rice varieties.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
The US Department of Defense is awarding a team of nine professors from six universities $6 million over five years to exploit precise biological assembly for the study of quantum physics in nanoparticle arrays. This research will help to produce a fundamental understanding of quantum electronic systems, which could impact the way future electronics are created.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
To establish circadian cell cycle rhythms, cell-autonomous clock mechanisms act in concert with a systemic signaling environment of which glucocorticoids are an essential part.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Some 18 years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound, the oil continues to cause environmental problems along some of Alaska's shoreline. To help determine why the oil continues to linger long after experts predicted it would disappear, Temple University has been awarded a three-year, $1.2 million grant by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
The ability of the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to endure and survive enormous levels of ionizing radiation (X-rays and gamma-rays) relies on a powerful mechanism that protects proteins from oxidative damage during irradiation, according to a new study.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Ebola virus (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV) belong to the Filoviridae family and cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. Filovirus infections are characterized by high fever, hemorrhages and shock and are responsible for mortality rates up to 90 percent. Currently, there is no vaccine or therapy available for treating infected patients.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Understanding why other bacteria become resistant to antibiotics could hold the key to understanding why TB takes so long to cure, say researchers in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Scientists have discovered a compound that shows promise against a debilitating neurodegenerative condition known as Kennedy's disease, which is caused by a mutant gene. Currently there is no treatment for the inherited disorder, which resembles a slowly progressive form of Lou Gehrig's disease and affects mainly men.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
If you're one of the millions of Americans hoping to lose weight by buying fat-free, cholesterol-free, or all-natural products, you may be surprised. Experts say it's those so-called "healthy" foods that often sabotage diets. "These are the foods we naturally look to as we try to lose extra pounds; however, they are the ones that we need to be careful about," says Dee Rollins, PhD, R.D., dietitian with Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine. Case and point--granola.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Researchers in Australia have shown that termites can tell what sort of material their food is made of, without having to actually touch it. The findings may lead to improvements in the control of feeding termites.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Though little known outside the developing world, the disease called lymphatic filariasis wreaks havoc on millions of people by causing their limbs and genitals to fill with fluid and swell monstrously -- the symptom commonly known as elephantiasis.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Protein three-dimensional structures were predicted for all Saccharomyces cerevisiae domains that were found to have no sequence similarity to any proteins of known structure.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
The arrival of spring brings fragrant, blooming trees and lush green grasses -- and sneezing and wheezing for millions of people with pollen allergy. The big question for allergy sufferers is, how bad will it be?
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Dr. Rich Reading (Denver Zoo) reports that a young cinereous vulture tagged in Mongolia as part of his Earthwatch-supported research was spotted 1200 miles away, near Pusan, South Korea. The vulture was tagged last August.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
With the largest Superfund site in the USA in his proverbial backyard, University of Montana Research Assistant Professor Heiko Langner knew he had a great laboratory for examining the after effects of mining on local raptor populations. What he didn't expect was the lack of poisons everyone was worrying about and the presence of a particularly dangerous one that no one was looking for: mercury.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Scientists have found that an effective way to get rid of pathogenic Campylobcter bacteria in turkeys is to use proteins produced naturally by other bacteria. The proteins are called bacteriocins. The researchers found that these proteins can eliminate the detectable Campylobacter and that they can also change conditions in the gut so that the pathogen has fewer places to hide and develop.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
The first example of an animal making sophisticated decisions about the danger posed by a predator from the information contained in the alarm calls of another species has been discovered.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Processors who package meat want it to be free of pathogens and to have an attractive color in the display case. Use of the right elements for packaging can assist processors in reaching that goal.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
A group of organisms that has never had sex in over 40 million years of existence has nevertheless managed to evolve into distinct species, says new research published today. The study challenges the assumption that sex is necessary for organisms to diversify and provides scientists with new insight into why species evolve in the first place.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Researchers have discovered that inserting a specific gene from a bacterial virus into tall fescue grass makes the grass resistant to two of its biggest enemies.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
Food-borne pathogens, responsible for most cases of food poisoning in developed countries, are commonly affiliated with poultry products including chicken. Therapeutic doses of antibiotics in chicken feed have been administered since the 1950s, but are now discouraged due to increasing rates of antibiotic resistance.
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 7:21:21 PST
