Blasting antibodies with lasers provides direct way of measuring their flexibilities
... of antigen at the molecular level, which involves bond vibrations that ever-so-slightly displace atoms a million times every millionth of a second. Scientists have had a tough time studying these vibrations because the two main techniques that allow them to "look" at proteins--nuclear magnetic resonance ...Researchers discover how embryo attaches to the uterus
...beads. They also found that isolated trophoblasts bond more firmly to sections of uterine lining collect...rmined that the isolated trophoblasts were able to bond with the uterine carbohydrates for up to the 16th week of pregnancy. The current study is an exten...Male groundhogs hibernate less to visit the ladies
...s Zervanos. "For females, it is an opportunity to bond with males and assess food availability." Typically, groundhogs do not exit hibernation for good until early March, which is when they mate. These episodes of early visitation occur in February. It does not appear that mating occurs during these...Meeting the nitrogen management challenge: Arresting the nitrogen cascade
... energy initiates a process that breaks the triple bond of the nitrogen molecule, creating reactive nitrogen. Ammonia, nitrous oxide, or nitric oxide volatilized to the air, produced by the reactive nitrogen, cascades through environmental reservoirs in the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, and aquatic ...Washington-area chemist wins national award for free-radical research
...e up a free radical are arranged but also how they bond to one another. Today, free radicals are commonly associated with molecules that can destroy Earth's ozone layer or damage DNA. But they are also responsible for driving reactions that otherwise wouldn't take place. "A match flame is full of small fr...Free-radical model too radical
...tightly bound hydrogens as well as those where the bond was weak," says Tanko. But before he could accept the new results, he asked Friedline to repeat his experiments several times. "That's what you do when the findings aren't consistent with the hypothesis. I had a mental block, until, finally, I realiz...Prions offer nanotech building tool
...ibrous template and then coaxed gold and silver to bond to the protein fibers. By themselves, the fibers are insulators; they can't conduct electricity. But when coated with gold and silver particles, they became remarkably effective electrical wires. The choice of prions to build this template was a n...The structure behind the switch
...ass must first form a stable, relatively permanent bond with the RNA strand that is transcribing it. Only when this aptly named R-loop is present can the DNA be cut and spliced to create an antibody of a different immunoglobulin class. This is not the normal process by which DNA is cut. Usually, an enzyme...Four gene 'micronet' found to regulate social behavior in female mice
..., for example, is clearly involved in the maternal bond found in humans. This "peptide of affiliation" also is known to regulate anxiety, so it may play a role in social phobias. And there is evidence in certain pathologies, like autism, that oxytocin is deficient. "The manner in which these findings comp...Controlling cell adhesion: Researchers report first evidence of 'catch bonds'
...hich must flow freely through blood vessels -- yet bond to injury sites despite blood flow forces. Underst...m of photons leaving a laser pointer. He measured bond lifetimes as short as a few thousandths of a second and as long as a few seconds. The second experim...Secrets of drug resistance in bacteria
...und to different locations in the cavity, and each bond utilizes a different set of amino acid residues. And there's probably room for many more types of interactions. "The protein has a very promiscuous binding mechanism," says Gerry McDermott, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Di......ar. The opposite charges help the two components bond tightly to form the nacre structure. "The combina... way that maintains strength and flexibility. The bond is a result of the polymer interacting with negative charges on the clay surfaces (or, in the case o...First-ever images of developing dengue virus obtained at Purdue
...s need to be protected until the virus is ready to bond with a cell, so in the immature particle, each peptide is covered with a special cap that protects it until the time is right. "We would like to know more about how a virus changes," Rossmann said. "Our imaging techniques are now giving us vastly g...Researchers view protein's structural changes in real time
...for a trillionth of a second to break the chemical bond that links carbon monoxide to the protein. Noting the time when this reaction began, the scientists then used X-ray crystallography to take snapshots of the protein's structure, starting at one 10-billionth of a second. By stitching together the ser...Surrogate mothers have no doubts about handing over the baby
...id: "Twenty of the women said they felt no special bond with the child, and 14 said they did. Surrogate mo...ouple were more likely to feel there was a special bond with the child. None of the women reported feeling that the child was like their own." Although arou...... the double-strand DNA to create a single chemical bond swivel. Near this nick, on the side of the rotating bead, the researchers attached a third "indicator" bead. They then rapidly wound the DNA molecule up thousands of times -- while holding the rotor bead steady with flow -- using a twisting robot bui...Purdue scientists discover why we're all lefties deep down
...site chirality: a left-handed serine octamer might bond with several other lefty amino acids and some right-handed sugars as well. This bonding might well have occurred early in a sequence of chemical steps that ultimately led to protein in its many forms. "We believe that in the primordial soup, left-han...Distinctive advantages give optical sensors the edge over conventional systems
.... "Researchers are intent on further improving the bond between the fiber and the reflector, as well as reducing the required electronics for data acquisition and analysis," states Constance. Recent advances in fiber optics and the numerous advantages of light over electronic systems have boosted the util...Purdue researchers expose 'Docking Bay' for viral attack
...xagon to a star shape as it formed the irrevocable bond between virus and bacterium. Analysis of its protein building blocks required the use of both electron microscopy, needed to resolve the shapes and relationships between the proteins, and X-ray crystallography, needed for high-resolution images of th...Scientists map signaling molecule crucial to survival, disease
...d not easily determine where they were. By knowing bond locations, scientists should be able to correlate specific phosphate bonding patterns with specific diseases, Shokat said. Drugs could then be designed to block the specific version of protein kinase that normally carries phosphate to that specific s...