Huge iceberg wreaks havoc on Antarctic marine ecosystem, study finds
...nd Gert L. van Dijken monitored the movements of a giant iceberg named "C-19," which calved off the western face of the Ross Ice Shelf in May 2002. C-19 is one of the largest icebergs ever recorded -- 19.2 miles wide and 124 miles long, or nearly twice as big as Rhode Island. Arrigo is an assistant profes...Social insects point to non-genetic origins of societies
...nd build elaborate designs and constructions, from giant self-cooling termite towers to skyscrapers. The development of social systems is often assumed to be driven by species modifications arrived at through natural selection. Social characteristics such as caste systems and complex behaviors have been t...Harvard Medical School launches new department to study human biology at the level of whole systems
...tives for the coming years. "Science often takes a giant leap forward when the right people are brought together to work on improving the methodologies and redefining the education and training needed in a promising new field. With the guidance provided by Marc Kirschner, one of the world's most innovative...Bones from French cave show Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon hunted same prey
...t modern humans played a role in the extinction of giant cave bears in Europe. Cro-Magnon may have been the original "apartment hunters" and displaced the bears by competing with them for the same caves the animals used for winter den sites. Grayson and his colleague, Francoise Delpech, a French paleont...Built-in eyeshade offers clue to prehistoric past
...aleontologists. Unlike other trilobites eyes, the giant eyes on this specimen stand up like twin towers or have extensions of their palpebral lobes that stretch outward above the eye. "These lobes would have acted like a lens shade on a camera or a baseball hat brim on humans. They prevented unwanted ligh...Lasker Award honors Rockefeller University biochemist for pioneering studies of gene activation
...esearchers elaborated the biochemical details of a giant coactivator (TRAP/SMCC) consisting of about 25 different protein chains and referred to as the "the human Mediator" after its counterpart in yeast. Currently, Roeder's laboratory is homing in on precisely how this massive protein complex regulates t...World Parks Congress: Legacy of sustainable development continues with Brazilian reserve
...t the age of 49. "These new reserves represent a giant step towards saving the very heart of the Amazon,"...In addition to supporting important populations of giant otter, manatee and river dolphin, the reserve is a highly productive area for fishing and agricultur...New study of Europa may explain mysterious ice domes, places to search for evidence of life
...r's moon Europa may help explain the origin of the giant ice domes peppering its surface and the implications for discovering evidence of past or present life forms there. Assistant Professor Robert Pappalardo and doctoral student Amy Barr previously believed the mysterious domes may be formed by blobs of ...Laboratory 'theme park' re-creates RNA world for study
...E, Mass. (Aug. 26, 2003) People love theme parks, giant playgrounds that usually offer patchwork renditions of either an evocative historical moment or a particular future vision. Rarely, if ever, are theme parks built around a biological theme and never do such parks fit inside a test tube. Almost never...From studies of a rare human mutation to new approaches to herbicides or antibiotics
...des a key into how tiny genetic changes can have a giant evolutionary impact and may even lead to the development of novel herbicides and antibacterial agents. The report, "Control of Tetrapyrrole Biosynthesis by Alternate Quaternary Forms of Porphobilinogen Synthase," appears in the September 2003 issue o...OHSU researcher publishes first measurements of 'free-base' nicotine in cigarette smoke
...port, BAT Netherlands, a subsidiary of the tobacco giant British American Tobacco, objected to the disclosure of additives used in cigarettes sold in the Dutch market. A spokesman for the company stated: "... to our understanding this requirement goes beyond what was required by the EU directive and it is...Embryonic hope for damaged spines
...he researchers, whose work was funded by stem cell giant Geron of Menlo Park, California, say trials on people could start in just two years. But the first trials are likely to involve patients with recent spinal cord injuries and localised damage. Treating people who have been paralysed for years or suffe...For ferrets, GPI means 'get pregnancy initiated'
...oduction, the populations of black-footed ferrets, giant pandas, sea otters or otherthreatened species. In their report, Schulz and Bahr, citing others' work, also note,"Metastatic (tumor-growing) processes are highly similar to the invasive process of implantation, suggesting a potential mechanism for GP...Some 400 'fragile regions' of genome more vulnerable to evolutionary breaks
...y genomes -- and their study grew out of the first giant genomic sequencing projects, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. Those projects resulted in DNA sequencing of the human and mouse genomes. In December 2002, that comparison led the scientists to compute 281 large blocks (of one milli...Brain cells seen recycling rapidly to speed communications
...discovered in huge neurons, such as those in squid giant synapses, with tens or hundreds of thousands of vesicles per nerve terminal. By contrast, they find that the comparatively tiny nerve terminals of the mammalian brain must make do with only about 30 functional vesicles hardly enough to keep up with ...Diversity hot spots at cold seeps?
...ports an abundance of large invertebrates, such as giant tubeworms, clams, and mussels. These animals in turn provide refuge for a diverse invertebrate fauna. Because seeps are considered to be more stable and less toxic than vents, ecologists expected that diversity would be greater at seeps than at vent...Nature cover story - Only 10% of all large fish are left in global ocean
...ncounter to one tenth of what it was before. "From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left," says lead author Ransom Myers, a world-leading fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie U...JGI and Diversa Corp. announce large-scale microbial sequencing collaboration
...inforest epiphytes such as bromeliads that grow on giant trees. Diversa pioneered proprietary, genomics-based methods for discovering unexplored microbial diversity and recently received a patent for sequencing of mixed populations of microbial DNA directly from the environment, which is more efficient an...Exploring the sights and sounds of a deepwater coral marine protected area off Florida
...mp grouper, snappers, black sea bass, jacks, tuna, giant sunfish, manta rays, and several shark species. The Banks' location at the southern end of the South Atlantic Bight (ocean between Cape Canveral and Cape Hatteras), directly under the Gulf Stream, makes it a potentially important source of fish larva...Diet study focus of TAES research in effort to help save giant panda
...But what researchers learn from the nutrition of a giant panda could be applied to livestock and other wild...ever before has it attempted to study samples from giant pandas. And what they discover could help prevent the animal's extinction. "We may also find someth...