'Binary' enzyme created by TSRI scientists demonstrates Darwinian evolution at its simplest
...f life, because one of the four RNA bases--"C"--is chemically unstable. It readily degrades into U, and may not ... Joyce have demonstrated that a two-base system is chemically feasible. Several years ago, Joyce showed that RNA enzymes could be made using only three bases (A, ...Zebrafish may point the way to mending a broken heart
...new heart wall forms and, based on observations of chemically labeled cells, the scientists could see that its leading edge then proliferates and expands rapidly outward until it completely reforms the missing apex of the heart. Two months after the surgery, all evidence of scarring is gone, and the size, shape...Salk Institute and SUGEN scientists map 'human kinome'
...the most important regulators of cell behavior. By chemically adding phosphate groups to other proteins, they control the activity of up to 30 percent of all cellular proteins, and are involved in almost all cellular functions. They are especially important in sending signals between and within cells, and in or...Even green pond scum can suffer from jet lag
...ce paddies remove nitrogen from the air and fix it chemically so that plants can use it for food. It is quite a trick for a single-celled organism to combine photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation because the two processes are biochemically incompatible. The Taiwanese discovered that the tiny organisms had solved...Artificial cell gets light-powered nanopump for calcium ions
...er molecule and is passed along and finally stored chemically in the increased concentration of calcium ions inside the artificial cell. "The concentration of ions inside biological membranes is the central organizing feature of living cells, " explained Moore. "In living cells, if the key ions were allowed to ...Microorganisms are cleaning up Boston Harbor, UMass study finds
...re not very soluble in water, and they don't react chemically with many other compounds," said Lovley, "so they collect in the mud at the bottom of the harbor." Previous research has shown that PAHs accumulate in fish and other aquatic animals, and are often associated with cancers in some fish. Some PAHs are h...NIH funds new AIDS drug discovery research with $4.6 million
...to the work of the other collaborators, Jones will chemically synthesize specially modified DNA and RNA fragments to be used as tools in the investigation of drug resistance and inhibition mechanisms. Jones is making fragments that can be linked to various mutant forms of RT, enabling the team to identify and ...Biomedical scientist testing nanoparticles as early cancer detection agent
...to act as a fluorescent tag. Quantum dots can bond chemically to biological molecules, enabling them to trace sp...jugated nanoparticles" -- small particles that are chemically linked to biological materials. Nanoparticle probes can be used as contrast markers in magnetic reso...November GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
...is emerging technique to demonstrate that multiple chemically distinct layers are preserved in individual cell walls from plant fossils as old as 400 million years (the oldest known anatomically preserved land plants) even though all of the original chemistry has been thoroughly altered over geologic time. Fro...Code-breaking insects steal plants' defensive signals, enabling counterattack
...ar code-breaking to ready their defenses against a chemically protective shield employed by their dinner, say scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Reporting in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers detailed how corn earworms (Helicoverpa zea) intercept defensive chemi...The role of obesity and calories in cancer prevention
... cancer prevention regimen in both spontaneous and chemically induced rodent tumor models. However, calorie restriction also decreases IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) levels by about 50 percent, thereby decreasing bone density (IGF-1 plays an important role in regulating aspects of development and aging su...Pesticide resistance warning after gene discovery
...h resistance to a range of commonly available, but chemically unrelated, pesticides. Significant also, is this species is rarely targeted with pesticides and many of the chemicals it is resistant to, it has never been exposed to before. Researchers at the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Environmen...Researchers identify enzyme that turns on RNA
...could not only attach itself to RNA but could also chemically modify the RNA in a specific way that turns it on. And, as Kimble says, "When regulating biologic processes, you don't want to activate all the RNAs in a cell - you want to activate only the important RNAs at the right time and in the right place." ...Interpreting a climate record from 10,000-year-old migrating waters
...ed computer simulations to consider how this water chemically interacts with the rocks it migrates through. Because the type and abundance of minerals varies with changes in rock type, they can determine the chemical composition and how fast it changes at any point along the flow path of the water. In arid env...UCSD researchers fabricate tiny 'smart dust' particles
...faces after thin films layered on the silicon chip chemically react to a specific chemical or biological agent. The scientists start with silicon wafers similar to those used in the manufacture of computer chips, then "encode" them by generating layers of nanometer-thick porous films on the wafers using a speci...Promising multi-strain HIV vaccine candidate emerges
... produced artificial gp120-CD4 complexes that were chemically treated in order to glue or "crosslink" them together. The complexes were then used to generate antibodies in small animals and monkeys. "The gp120-CD4 complex has shown a consistent ability to generate antibodies that neutralize a wide range of HIV-...Sex genes of fish disrupted by common household products
...ndocrine disrupting compounds in the water behaves chemically like hormones in fish tissues and cells. When compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, certain plasticizers, and some detergent additives are in streams or rivers, groups of fish, birds, frogs and other animals are sometimes found to be ...Artificial antibodies created by new molecular imprinting process
...ps of the dendrons. Lastly, a hydrolysis reaction chemically clips out the core, leaving a hollow space that can selectively and tightly bind appropriately shaped molecules. "The technique is similar to the lost wax process used in metal casting," said Suslick, also a William H. and Janet Lycan Professor of Ch...MIT probes cartilage on nanoscale
...m removed bristles from their protein backbone and chemically attached one end of each to a gold surface. They packed the bristles as closely together as possible to mimic the structure of native polymer (proteoglycan) brushes. The distance between each bristle: about two to four nanometers, or billionths of a ......f polymer-based membranes, 370 degrees Celsius; is chemically resistant; and is easily processed. The unique combination of metallic support and polymer film to form thin-film composite membranes also allows the membrane to be effective at higher pressures than conventional membranes....