Veterinary Memorial Fund transforms grief into promise
Blacksburg, Va. -- When President George W. Bush lost his beloved dog Spot earlier this year, he received a letter of consolation from Gerhardt Schurig, dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. The letter informed the President that a donation had been made to the college's...Pack-MULEs are toting a new look at plant evolution
...gene evolution in plants" may sound like a western lost in the science fiction section, but it elevates a little-considered group of elements in the genome sequence to potentially major players in the process of evolution. It also throws out tantalizing possibilities that could turn some standard methodol...Master of antimalarial resistance
... these two drugs increased, however, the parasites lost their resistance to chloroquine. This unusual pattern--gaining resistance to one drug while simultaneously losing resistance to another--may shed light on the exact role that pfcrt plays in resistance, according to Fidock and colleagues. When a human...No role for simian virus 40 in human pleural mesotheliomas
...elioma showed that about 80 percent of tumors have lost both copies of the tumor suppressor gene designated p16 or CDKN2A, and this led us to ask whether SV40 infection might be a possible mechanism in the remaining 20 percent," said Marc Ladanyi, M.D., Director, Diagnostic Molecular Pathology Laboratory,...'Fossil genes' reveal how life sheds form and function
...s environment, has changed its inner chemistry and lost the ability to metabolize a key sugar. The finding is a snapshot of evolution at work showing, at the most fundamental level, how traits and features are discarded by virtually all forms of life when they are no longer needed. "Many people think evol...Hardy buoys: Texas A&M project predicts oil spill movements
...en be used to locate ship passengers who have been lost overboard. Also, two years ago the buoys were instrumental in helping to retrieve the Ehime Maru, a Japanese vessel that was accidentally sunk by a U.S. submarine practicing quick-surfacing drills off the coast of Hawaii. Norman Guinasso Jr., who ser...Genetic analysis rewrites salamander's evolutionary history
...b of the tree: Apparently some salamander lineages lost the larval stage and then reacquired it again. "Fo...evolved to live totally out of the water, however, lost the larval stage, emerging from the egg as a smaller version of an adult. The new family tree shows,...Spontaneous mutation produces new MAO A/B knockout mouse
...ted that somehow the MAO B knockout mouse had also lost its ability to produce MAO A. "Both MAO A and MAO B are critically important," says Dr. Shih. "When both are missing in mice, brain neurotransmitters levels increase greatly and body weights are smaller. The mice also show anxiety and aggressive beh...Endangered species list more bleak than originally thought
...t at least 200 affiliate species have already been lost through co-extinction and that a further 6300 should be classified as "co-endangered." "What we wanted to learn was, if the host goes extinct, how many other species will go with it," said Proctor. "It would be easy if there were always a one-to-one...Wrapping a memory with an experience, capacity for recollection detected in non-human species
...d, the results were compelling -- recollection was lost in rats without a hippocampus but familiarity remained intact. A further test of the controls showed that, in the normal forgetting process, familiarity fades quickly while recollection persists, precisely the opposite pattern observed in the animal...Broken arms and collateral damage: clues to predator-driven evolution
... echinoderms, crinoids are capable of regenerating lost body parts. Because modern day crinoids usually lose---and regenerate---their arms as a result of attacks by fish, Baumiller and Gahn reasoned that arm regeneration in fossil crinoids would be a good indicator of predator-prey interactions in the geo...Genuine stem cells found in skin might treat hair loss, wounds
... prove useful in the future for generating tissues lost in certain other types of diseases, such as some forms of blindness, or possibly even diabetes or Parkinson's. "With debate about the cells' mutipotency within skin tissue settled, we can now ask whether the stem cells can also make other cell types...Men from early middle ages were nearly as tall as modern people
...s surprising," he said. Northern European men had lost an average 2.5 inches of height by the 1700s, a loss that was not fully recovered until the first half of the 20th century. Steckel believes a variety of factors contributed to the drop and subsequent regain in average height during the last millen...Study reveals first genetic step necessary for prostate cancer growth
...hat closely resembles how genes are inactivated or lost in cancers that occur sporadically in humans. The scientists found that upon losing even one copy of the Rb gene in prostate cells, mice developed a condition known as focal hyperplasia, characterized by precancerous growths. Nearly a year after they...Study in Science reveals recreational fishing takes big bite of ocean catch
...unterparts. "Recreational fishing in the ocean has lost much of its art," says Coleman. "Someone with absolutely no fishing ability can go out on a charter boat and bring in a remarkable catch not because they know the environment, but because they rely on the professional, expert fishing knowledge of th...Two warbler species find the West isn't big enough for both of them
... hermit has consistently, over thousands of years, lost its territory to the Townsend's. It also could explain why previous studies have shown that hermit males become agitated only when other hermit males are encroaching, while Townsend's males react strongly toward other Townsend's and to hermits. Hybri...OneWorld Health compiles comprehensive state of infectious diarrhea treatments, potential solutions
... both the water and vital nutrients (electrolytes) lost in diarrhea; it does not treat the diarrhea itself. Parents, out of frustration that ORT does not reduce stool output, purchase antibiotics for their children, which are almost always ineffective and disturb normal intestinal balance....Forgetting, reminding, and remembering: The retrieval of lost spatial memory
... determine whether an animal has truly recovered a lost memory or has simply re-learned the task at hand. By refining a classic behavioral neuroscience experiment to test spatial learning and memory, Livia de Hoz, Stephen Martin, and Richard Morris have developed a novel protocol that distinguishes retrie...Stem cell research targets cerebral palsy
...rain, helping children with cerebral palsy recover lost function, according to researchers at the Medical ...stem cell therapy to one day help restore function lost to the group of disorders known as cerebral palsy, many unanswered questions remain. One concern is ...Body's own defense against H. pylori, cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer
...he presence of alpha 1,4-linked N-acetylgucosamine lost its shape, became immobile, and eventually died. This cell-growth immobilizing effect is very similar to the effect of antibiotics, which dissolve or "lyse" the bacterium's cell wall. The researchers lysed H. pylori cells and set up a biochemic...