Whether newborn nerve cells in adult brains live or die depends on whether they can muscle their way into networks occupied by mature neurons. Neuroscientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies pin-pointed the molecular survival gear required for a young neuron to successfully jump into the fray and hook up with other cells.
In times of plenty, the uni-cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum leads a solitary life munching on bacteria littering the forest floor. But these simple creatures can perform heroic developmental acts: when the bacterial food supply dries up, Dictyostelium amebas band together with their neighbors and form a multi-cellular tower designed to save the children.
Researchers discovered a novel mechanism that works over an extensive genomic distance and controls the expression of human growth hormone in the pituitary gland. Mistakes in expression could be implied in growth disorders.
The visualization capabilities of the Center for Computational Research at the University at Buffalo is providing city residents with a multi-faceted, interactive, real-time visualization of what activity on Main Street in downtown Buffalo would be like if vehicular traffic returns after an absence of more than 20 years.
Dramatic population reductions of a single fish species in a South American river could degrade ecosystem function in an entire river system, according to an article in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science.
Combining the sense of touch with 3-D computer models of organs, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing a new approach to training surgeons, much as pilots learn to fly on flight simulators. The team is developing a virtual simulator that will allow surgeons to touch, feel, and manipulate computer-generated organs with actual tool handles used in minimally invasive surgery.
The most precise record of Antarctic snowfall ever generated shows there has been no real increase in precipitation over the southernmost continent in the past half-century, even though most computer models assessing global climate change call for an increase in Antarctic precipitation as atmospheric temperatures rise.
Scientists have developed a light microscope so powerful that it allows researchers to discern the precise intracellular location of nearly each individual protein they are studying. The new technique, called photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), far surpasses the resolution of conventional optical microscopes, discriminating molecules that are only two to 25 nanometers apart.
For years, debate swirled around whether pathways activated by growth-regulating plant hormones converge on a central growth regulatory module. Now, the cooperation model is challenged by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. They show that each hormone acts largely independently in the Aug. 11 issue of Cell.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is releasing a new study on highway death rates. The study shows that the roadway environment is becoming less safe as speed limits go up and progress on drinking and driving and safety belt use has slowed or stalled.
When scientists study habitats that alien species have invaded, they usually find predictable patterns. The diversity of native species declines, and changes occur in natural processes such as nutrient cycling, wildfire frequency and the movement of water through the system.
Purdue University engineers are conducting research to help the United States develop a type of advanced rocket technology that uses kerosene and would not require the foam insulation now used on the space shuttle's external fuel tank.
It's a long-held view in conservation circles that rural peasant activities are at odds with efforts to preserve biodiversity in the tropics. In fact, the opposite is often true, argue University of Michigan researchers John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto.
The same chemical in the body that is targeted by the drug Viagra® also helps our brains "boot up" in the morning so we can process sights, sound, touch and other sensory information. The discovery could lead to a better understanding of major brain disorders, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
For the past three years a Sandia research team has been investigating the performance of piezoelectric polymer films that might one day become ultra-light mirrors in space telescopes. In 2007, a Labs' experimental package of polymers will be part of a NASA experiment on the upcoming Materials International Space Station Experiment.
A brain protein that sustains nerve cells also regulates anxiety and alcohol consumption in rats, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago report.
A humble aquarium fish may be the key to finding therapies capable of preventing the structural birth defects that account for one out of three infant deaths in the United States today. That is one of the implications of a new study published online August 8 in the journal Cell Metabolism.
The genetic code of a fungus that forms a beneficial symbiosis with trees, and inhabits one of the most ecologically and commercially important microbial niches in North American and Eurasian forests, has been deciphered by an international consortium of institutions that includes The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Reflecting the Society's 2006 Annual Meeting theme, the symposium, "˜What makes an ecological icon?' will journey through history to highlight ecologists who helped shape the field. Speakers will include both historians and ecologists who will draw on examples from terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems, spanning organisms to ecosystems.
A molecule that cells use to cope with stress can keep proteins from clumping into the aggregates that characterize diseases such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's, scientists find. The work suggests a potential therapeutic intervention for such diseases and has implications for the biotech industry.
Using advanced brain sensor technology developed at the University of Oregon, researchers have confirmed often-debated findings from 1992 that showed infants as young as six months know when an arithmetic solution is wrong.
Scientists have devised a way to use the fossil teeth of ancient bison as a tool to reconstruct historic climate and vegetation changes in America's breadbasket, the Great Plains.
The architecture that pervades biological networks gives them an evolutionary edge by allowing them to evolve to perform new functions more rapidly than an alternative network design, according to computer simulations conducted at the University of Chicago.
University of Utah scientists have shown how evolution works by reversing the process, reconstructing a 530-million-year-old gene by combining key portions of two modern mouse genes that descended from the archaic gene.
As 3,000 scientists arrive in Memphis, Tennessee for the Ecological Society of America's 91st Annual Meeting, many ecologists working in the state will be presenting the results of their research from the region, including the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid.
Researchers have determined the structure of an important smallpox virus enzyme and how it binds to DNA. The enzyme, called a topoisomerase, is an important drug target for coming up with new ways to fight smallpox.
A newly devised nozzle fitted with a pinhole-sized capillary has allowed researchers to distribute helium atoms with X-ray-like waves on randomly shaped surfaces. The technique could power the development of a new microscope for nanotechnology, allowing for a non-invasive, high-resolution approach to studying both organic and inorganic materials.
Glycerine, a byproduct of biodiesel production, can be used as a dietary supplement for growing broiler chickens, according to research by University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture poultry scientists.
Rough hydrophobic surfaces, self-assembled by nanotechnology techniques, attract each other under water over long distances by lowering the pressure between them. This occurs because water, to escape water-hating surfaces, turns into water vapor, creating a cavity of lower pressure than the water around it.
By scanning at the scale of individual atoms, Cornell researchers have found evidence that challenges conventional theory about how high-temperature superconductors work.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital have identified how a molecular switch regulates fat and cholesterol production, a step that may help advance treatments for metabolic syndrome, the constellation of diseases that includes high cholesterol, obesity, type II diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Researchers have found that taking as little as a hundred milliseconds longer to smell an odor results in more accurate identification of that odor. This seemingly simple observation has important implications regarding how olfactory information is processed by the brain.
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated that a key event during apoptosis (cell suicide) occurs as a single, quick event, rather than as a step-by-step process. Apoptosis eliminates extraneous cells from the developing body; and disposes of cells that sustain irreparable harm to their DNA or are infected with microorganisms.
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have developed a mouse model of a severe disease of the immune system that helps explain why gene therapy used to treat children with this disease at an institution in Europe caused some of them to develop leukemia.
Scientists studying hydrothermal vents, those underwater geysers that are home to bizarre geological structures and unique marine species, have discovered something all too familiar: pollution.
Record heat waves, exceptionally powerful hurricanes, destructive tsunamis, and melting icecaps have many discussing the weather, but can anybody do anything about it?
People planning baseball games, picnics, and other outdoor events may have more precise short-term forecasts of rainfall in the next few years, thanks to an observing strategy now being tested by atmospheric scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.
In a report released today, scientists call for a new systematic study of the Earth's "critical zone"--the life-sustaining outermost surface of the planet, from the vegetation canopy to groundwater and everything in between. Understanding and predicting responses to global and regional change is necessary, they say, to mitigate the impacts of humans on complex ecosystems and ultimately sustain food production.
Giving up your regular late-night snack may be hard, and not just because it's a routine. The habit may genetically change an area of the brain to expect the food at that time, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.
Reddish-brown crystals of a radioactive mineral called monazite can act as microscopic clocks that allow geologists to date rock formations that have been altered by the action of high-temperature fluids, a process that frequently leads to the formation of rich ore deposits.
Almost every neurological activity depends on the passage of information between brain cells via the synapse. Now, biochemists at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City have identified a key event in endocytosis -- a biochemical process that's crucial to keeping the synapse on track.
Through studying pigeons with genetic heart disease, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have discovered a clue about why some patients' heart vessels are prone to close back up after angioplasty.
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new low-cost system that analyzes scattered laser light to quickly identify bacteria for applications in medicine, food processing and homeland security at one-tenth the cost of conventional technologies.
Preliminary results of a project to reduce health risks from pesticide exposure, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota (UND), verify that exposure to pesticides can induce pathological changes to the nervous system.
Built by science and engineering students at Montana State University, the state's first satellite was lost when the Russian rocket it was riding on crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, July 26.
Sandia's Wind Energy Technology Department has developed a device, the Accurate Time Linked data Acquisition System (ATLAS II), to help engineers determine efficiency and health of wind turbines. The device can also provide all of the information necessary to the understand how well a machine is performing.
A team led by University of Adelaide palaeontologist Dr Benjamin Kear has identified two new species of ancient marine reptiles that swam the shallow waters of an inland sea in Australia 115 million years ago.
The continent-hopping habits of early primates have long puzzled scientists, and several scenarios have been proposed to explain how the first true members of the group appeared virtually simultaneously on Asia, Europe and North America some 55 million years ago.
Scientists at North Carolina State University have effectively lifted the veil from an important protein that is linked to the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's.
New study provides a novel explanation for the rhythms of the ice ages, inverting established theory. New hypothesis may explain why the strongest cycles of ice response are not in correspondence with those in orbital cycles.
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