Dangerous Chemical Combination Presents Possible Scenario For Gulf War Illnesses
...d axonaldegeneration, a sign of widespread nervous system damage. Tests also suggested that the severity of clinical signs depends on howactive a particular blood enzyme is in removing the foreign chemicals fromthe body, the researchers said. This "scavenger" enzyme, calledplasma butyrylcholinesterase (Bu...... a crucial molecularcomponent of a mouse's nervous system and created an animal that, in essence,mimics a pe... the nervous system, the bodyhas evolved a precise system for regulating them. This neurotransmission system involves two main elements: receptors andtransp...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...dle, even more surprising is the elaborate system of "hinges" and dramatic conformational changes the enzyme requires to perform its unlinking trick (see figure). A model for the reaction catalyzed by topoisomerase II. Different domains of the enzyme are...Researchers Pinpoint Site For Petit Mal Seizures In Brain
...lly funnels messages from all parts of the nervous system to the neocortex, the portion of the brain that processes higher functions such as language. "In a sense the thalamus is thought to be the gateway to consciousness," Hosford said. "During a petit mal seizure, the thalamus switches to a burst pattern ...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
...to the lysosomes, a part of the cellular digestive system that breaks down proteins into simpler compounds. Because the receptor is involved both in switching on a growth inhibitor and inactivating a growth factor, the researchers hypothesized that losing it might well predispose a cell to cancerous growth....Children Become Gorillas In VR Zoo
...it realistic." Students using the virtual reality system will be transported intothe zoo's Habitat 3 with a typical gorilla family. In reality, thishabitat is the home of Willie B, a 439-lb silverback male, and hisfamily -- Kinyani, Shamba, the pregnant Mia Moja, Choomba and her2-year-old infant Kudzoo. T...Duke Researchers Show "Editing" Can Fix Faulty Genes In New Approach To Gene Therapy
...l protein product. Cells have evolved an efficient system that usesRNA enzymes or "ribozymes" to cut junk out of mRNA and paste itback together again. Sullenger reasoned that ribozymes could be adapted as atool to recognize defective mRNA and splice in a corrected version. To accomplishthis, he turned to t...Freshwater Sponges May Pose Threat To Zebra Mussels
... to surfaces in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system for the study. Of that number, 197 were found dead. "We found that the effect of sponge overgrowth was only impressive on vertical surfaces, which could be important for control of zebra mussels in some areas, such as in canals or the lock system...Duke Researchers Find Second Gene Linked To Blood Vessel Disorder
...oping to opena window into how the body's vascular system operates," Marchuk, assistantprofessor of genetics, said in an interview. "People often ask, whystudy genes for a rare disease? First, the disease may be rare, but thegenes aren't rare. Everyone has these genes, and we would like to know howthey oper...Mutate Or Die: New Polymerase Gives Desperate Yeast An Option
... always causing DNA damage, and humans have a good system for fixing it. But when there's a lot of damage,the repair system is just overwhelmed, and the body tries other ways to cope. This zeta polymerase is one such last-di......e 28 issue of Science that an unusual Romaniancave system survives and thrives without the benefit of the su...owhere else in the world. "Movile is the only cave system known that ischemoautotrophically based, and it contains the only knownchemoautotrophically based te...Water Recycling Project Tested in Turkey Plant
...ounts of waterrequired to process turkeys. The new system uses ozone, a highly reactiveform of oxygen, to re... the water obviously saves water. In addition, the system allowsthe user to save on energy, sewer and pretreatment costs, explained MarkBaldwin of AWPI. When ...Humble Pocket Gophers Shed Light On The Genetic Fortitude Of Cheetahs
...tremely high, makes Thomomys bottae an ideal model system for exploring the costs of genetic uniformity to endangered species. His team now is investigating the effects of low genetic variation among pocket gophers on disease resistance, physiological fitness, and their survival in the wild. Team members wi...Bee Sting Treatment Should Emphasize Speed, Not Method Of Removal
...ntinuesto inject venom, it does so through a valve system in the sting, not throughcompression as would occur with pinching. To test the premise, Visscher and his UCR colleague, research entomologistRick Vetter, made bees sting them on their own forearms, and measured thesize of the resulting welts after ...Nitric Oxide May Hold Key To First Treatment For Deadly Form Of Malaria, Duke Scientists Report
... N.C. -- In a discovery that defines a new message system insideliving cells, a team of researchers led by D... studying why somebacteria escape attack by immune system cells called macrophages, whichare designed to disable and devour them. The question is of increasin......cellent tool for looking at an isolated biological system at the cellular level, like a single nerve synapse...rmation? You could get a better idea of how a cell system works or how a single signal nerve functions. You can use it with RNA and DNA, as well as proteins....Nitric Oxide Found To Control Cells By Turning On Genes; Suggests New Role In Health And Disease
... N.C. -- In a discovery that defines a new message system insideliving cells, a team of researchers led by D... studying why somebacteria escape attack by immune system cells called macrophages, whichare designed to disable and devour them. The question is of increasin...Asian Beetle, New In This Country, Threatens Brooklyn's Shade Trees
... hole. Larval feeding could hurt a tree's vascular system in an area where trees are under enormous pressure to grow, said Nina Bassuk, Cornell professor of floriculture and ornamental horticulture in Ithaca. "These trees are generally growing in places not made for trees, since there are sidewalks, houses...Human-Like Ability, Categorical Perception, Found In Insects
...s of animals -- have found a simple way to build a system that responds quickly," said Robert A. Wyttenbach, the Cornell postgraduate associate of neurobiology and behavior who gave crickets a perception test originally developed for human infants. "Crickets have to make a yes-or-no decision in a hurry, an......t sounds like a squeaky door. But it's a wonderful system for studying learning and memory, which are central questions in neurobiology," he said. "It's interesting to human biology, because song learning in birds has compelling similarities to speech acquisition." The research shows that the score for the ...