Student science contest participation influences study, career choices, alumni say
...h. "It's the only chance a high school student can get to dream up an idea, design an experiment, and then make a presentation on the findings." "The ABC goes one better in providing you with a scientific mentor. That triples the learning experience." Barfett and his partners were the firs...UT Southwestern receives $1.78 million grant for obesity research as part of NIH Roadmap initiative
...ndy, chairman of human nutrition. "We're trying to get a handle on that issue from every aspect." Obesity is associated with many adverse health consequences such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The number of U.S. deaths attributable to obesity annually ...Cigarette smoke causes breaks in DNA and defects to a cell's chromosomes, Pitt study finds
...f scientific evidence arguing against smoking will get everyone to stop or not begin to smoke in the first place. So, perhaps one long-term goal should be to develop cigarettes that somehow prevent what we've seen happen to the cells in our lab," remarked Dr. Saunders. In addition to Drs. Luo and Saunde...Molecular motor implicated in tissue remodeling
... molecules that act as motors are inside cells and get their energy from a ubiquitous high-energy molecule called ATP, the team found that MMP-1 gets its energy by breaking the molecular bonds in the collagen filament it is attached to. "In fact," Goldberg says, "with our model, a whole new principle em...Rare childhood genetic syndrome identified
...ans. Calcium channels control how much calcium can get inside a cell. Calcium is one of the body's most important signaling molecules, and normally, cellular calcium levels are tightly regulated. Dr. Mark Keating, senior author of the study and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children'...Pack-MULEs are toting a new look at plant evolution
...eir maximum potential. So Jiang allowed herself to get a little sentimental. The first Pack-MULE she found in a piece of rice sequence was lugging around the gene that triggers cold responses in a plant. In 1998, MSU molecular geneticist Michael Thomashow and his associate found that increasing a plant'...Cancer vaccine based on pathogenic listeria bacteria shows promise targeting metastases
...in this effect. "The unique ability of listeria to get into the cytosol is the key to its effectiveness," Cook added. "Listeria not only stimulates this additional innate immune response, but it also puts the antigen into exactly the pathway we want and gives us a robust antigen-specific response." Liste...Trial shows which brain cancer patients benefit from temozolomide
...ith temozolomide, and which patients are likely to get only marginal, if any, benefit. The genetic predictive test on tumour biopsies to identify who will benefit from the drug could be carried out fairly easily in any genetics laboratory and takes only two to three days, although the availability and qu...Veterans with Gulf War syndrome have damage in specific, primitive portion of nervous system
...cularly disturbing because typically women over 40 get this. It's singularly rare in young men," said Dr....in. Veterans who were in the same area and did not get sick had higher levels of this enzyme. Dr. Haley and his colleagues have closely followed...Indiana University, EPA to study airborne PCBs
...r is one of the main ways that these chemicals can get into the Great Lakes," said EPA scientist and IADN...distances, even around the globe, so the PCBs that get into the Great Lakes can be from nearby or very far away." A previous study by Hites and Basu report...Tracing genes, biologists show lizard migration is traced to Florida
...of DNA from more than 600 different individuals to get a genetic "ID card" for each lizard. The historic home for Anolis sagrei is the Caribbean, especially Cuba, where the researchers have found that there are at least eight genetically distinct groups of the lizard. In the late 1800s, Anolis sagrei w...Researchers ID chlorophyll-regulating gene
...y. "The young plant needs some protochlorophyll to get the ball rolling in photosynthesis. But if the plant accumulates too much of the compound, it leads to photo-oxidative stress, which is seen as bleaching on the leaves. The overproduction of protochlorophyll is like a ticking time bomb that is set of...New hydrothermal vents discovered as 'South Pacific Odyssey' research begins
...said he hopes more scientists will hop onboard and get into the Lau Basin action. "We are committed to following up with additional research expeditions in following years. Sharing the research costs internationally will enable us to better understand this complex system and will help us to achieve our...Poplar DNA code cracked -- a step in combating global warming?
...ogists like Wout Boerjan and his research team can get down to work to discover the functions of the genes. This basic research can provide a wealth of information about how trees work, and it can also provide answers to universal biological questions. Indeed, many of the responses and functions found in...Certain genes boost fish oils' protection against breast cancer
...ases (GSTs, for short) help the body flush out and get rid of these lipid peroxidation products. Each person has certain genes that carry the recipe for making GST. But interestingly, these genes can be found in slightly different varieties-called polymorphisms-in the population. The differences between ...UAF scientists discover new marine habitat in Alaska
... "A sieve is worth about $75, so we wanted to get it back," said Konar. "We descended into about 60 feet of water and found the sieve right away. But then I noticed these little pink tumbleweeds everywhere. I thought I was looking at a rhodolith bed, but rhodolith beds had never been described in Al......distinct membranes. Nunnari's team devised ways to get stop-action views of fusion and follow the process in isolated mitochondria. They saw two distinct stages. First, outer membranes joined, creating an intermediate structure with one outer membrane holding two sets of inner membranes. Then, the inner ...Amyloid fibers sprout one step at a time
...ophisticated biochemical and imaging techniques to get a glimpse of the stepwise assembly of amyloid fibers in a yeast prion protein. Their findings suggest that these structured fibers form in competition with the amorphous globules that some believe may cause toxicity in amyloid diseases such as Alzhei...Genes expose secrets of sex on the side
...ction, the researchers report. More men than women get squeezed out of the mating game. As a result, twice as many women as men passed their genes to the next generation. "It is a pattern that's built up over time. The norm through human evolution is for more women to have children than men," said Jas......nked by a 100-foot-long coaxial cable. "We want to get rid of that tether from the boat and have it come to the surface at a buoy," Vincent said. "Then there will be a wireless link between the buoy and the boat." The team also will modify Shadow's buoyancy system. Water flows into a ballast ring that ci...