Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
... especially surprising because it requires a long stretch of water-soluble amino acids to cross a membrane made up of water-repelling lipids. "This result is so counterintuitive that we've spent a lot of time documenting exactly what's going on to make sure ...Duke Researchers Discover Central Role Of Nitric Oxide In Hemoglobin Action
... Marine Biomedical Center. Nitric oxide, long known as a noxious gas in the atmosphere, has been foundover the past several years to play a major role in numerous biologicalsystems. For example, scientists discovered that NO worked in the circulatorysystem to dilate blood vessels. "Free" NO is r...... apparent paradox, Jones and Wightman measured how long dopaminestays in the synapse after it is released. Their measurements showed thatin a normal mouse, the dopamine is scavenged by the transporter proteinin less than one second. However, in the knockout mice with no dopaminetransporter protein, the do...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...de-3 phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), bound to the long glutaminestring better than to the short glutamine string. GAPDH, found in all cells,is known to produce energy, along with a number of other important functions. In a second experiment, brain proteins were incubated with GAPDH. Huntingtin protein ...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
... Like all protein enzymes, LpxA consists of a long chain of amino acidsthat folds itself into the com...so form the left-handed helix. "There is a long list of similar hexapeptide repeats in the scientificliterature," Raetz said, "but none has had its ...Computer Program For Quicker, More Detailed Mapping
...in on the samepiece of DNA when scientists cut the long strands into small pieces. Usingstatistics to count how often particular pairs of markers remain together,computers can measure the distances between them and can determine theirorder on the DNA. Until now, generally available computer programs have...From Corn Rootworms To Art, Cornell's Reactor Is At The Core
...are three or four tiny white marks, maybe 1/4-inch long -- the objects of her attention. These are living corn rootworms in soil, caught in the act of searching for the plant root. "Here you can see where they were when we started. In this picture you can see where they were 24 hours later. The dark li...Freshwater Sponges May Pose Threat To Zebra Mussels
... or the lock systems," Kelch said. "It would be a long way off, but our research suggests this might be a way to control zebra mussels in those areas." But, would the freshwater sponge pose as many problems on these surfaces as zebra mussels now cause? Kelch said more research is needed before an ans...New Discovery About Genes Has Implications For Genetic Therapy
...ere have discovered that introns -- parts of genes long thought to play no role in conveying genetic infor...ticists for their research. Genes are basically long strands of DNA that carry the essential genetic information needed to produce a protein. Scientists......ist than any middle-class suburb,"Raff writes. "As long as the cells reproduce and behave according to localnorms, they are allowed to go on living." One foot out of step, and thecell is history. The interesting thing about Raff's research is that it suggests that suicideis the cell's default set...Cornell Researchers Precisely Date Wood From Ancient Tomb In Turkey
...40 kilometers downwind of Thera. Archaelogists had long believed the Thera eruption had occurred around 15... Bronze Age by as much as a century. This age has long captured the popular imagination, Newton said, because it encompassed such cultures as the Minoans, ...Honeybees In The Wild Nearly Gone In North America
... of bees for crop pollination andhave them trucked long distances. It's small and mid-sized growerswho are going to feel the pinch first. They're going to have difficultycompeting with large growers for scarce honeybee colonies." These small and medium-sized growers are also likely to lose outto a safer a...Florida Researchers Discover Gene For Fatal Childhood Disease
...treatments forChediak-Higashi syndrome, and in the long run offer genetic therapy for it." People and mice who have Chediak-Higashi syndrome are much moresusceptible to cancer, which spreads faster and more widely than in typicalcancer patients, Kingsmore added. A better understanding of t...Photosystem I -- An Intermediate Step -- May Not Be Necessary For Plants
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Plant biologists have long held the view that photosynthesis -- the process b... have thought they understood photosynthesis for a long time, and this revelation flies in the face of what we know," said Thomas G. Owens, Cornell Universi...Protein Glitch May Be Early Problem In Inherited Alzheimer's
...es of the human presenilin gene. Presenilin is a long protein that snakes in and out of the membranes of nerve cells. It is found in an altered form in nearly 60 percent of all "early onset" familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) cases, cases where symptoms first appear in patients in their late 20s to the...Surprising Protein Movement Seen In Cells
... discovered that certain proteins vital to lifeand long thought to be immobilized within the sack-like cellstructures where they function instead move freely and rapidlywithin the structures. The discovery contradicts widely accepted models for the functionof the structures, or organelles, called the Golg...Hibernation: The Opposite of Sleep?
... aground squirrel, hibernation probably feels like long stretches of icy stupor punctuated with short, costly-naps--proof, Barnes says, thatsleep is precious indeed....Ocean Sediments Contain Record of Past Vegetation Fires in Africa
...es, or charcoal. Charcoal may then be transported long distances by winds and rivers to coastal and ocean environments, where it's then preserved in ocean sediments. Explains Verardo, "Charcoal may be swept aloft in plumes rising from active fires, and transported by prevailing winds from the source are...Asian Beetle, New In This Country, Threatens Brooklyn's Shade Trees
...ing white spots. The black and white antennae are long and impressive; the beetles are not harmful to humans. However, it was found devastating trees in the Greenpoint neighborhood of northern Brooklyn. U.S. border entrances are jealously guarded to keep such pests from infiltrating this country. This ...Study Shows Songbirds Switch From Bugs To Berries To Fuel Fall Migration
...ng" siteswhere they can fill up on berries for the long haul. The Brown study indicates that these "pit st...nd providing thebirds with the critical fuel for a long journey south." Parrish recently received his doctorate from Brown in ecology andevolutionary biolog...