Student science contest participation influences study, career choices, alumni say
...very useful in the university setting and made him much more creative in thinking up new solutions on how ...e for careers in the private and public sector was much broader. "The Aventis Biotech Challenge was the best, genuine learning experience that I...Climate change plus human pressure caused large mammal extinctions in late Pleistocene
...e scientists think that fires set by humans had as much to do with extinction as direct hunting. Over a few thousand years, Barnosky said, an extended sitzkrieg may have led to the extinction of large mammals such as kangaroos, wombats, the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) and the largest ever marsupi...Highlights of the October 2004 Journal of the American Dietetic Association
...es. Parental knowledge: Most parents did not know much about the soft drink vending machines at their chi...nes in schools: Parents generally did not know how much money vending machines generated for the schools but did agree that they would rather see the money ...Cigarette smoke causes breaks in DNA and defects to a cell's chromosomes, Pitt study finds
...e being pulled simultaneously from both directions much like a piece of taffy, forming so-called anaphase bridges between its two ends. Eventually, these chromosomes either tear apart, leaving two broken pieces, or if they don't break apart, the abnormal, elongated chromosomes may persist after anaphase i...Rare childhood genetic syndrome identified
...y tissues and organs. 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 investiga...'Dead zone' area shrinking, Texas A&M prof says
...low oxygen and results in huge marine losses - and much to their surprise, the "dead zone" area had either... hypoxia had moved offshore from shallow waters to much deeper waters in the Gulf," DiMarco explains. "In other words, much of the dead zone had broken up, ...Scientists sequence genome of kind of organism central to biosphere's carbon cycle
...ogether, these single-celled organisms generate as much as 40 percent of the 50 billion to 55 billion tons of organic carbon produced each year in the sea, and in the process use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. And they are an important food source for many other marine organisms. The genome work, fun...Pack-MULEs are toting a new look at plant evolution
...rtment. "I'm looking at something people don't pay much attention to." But not only did Jiang find a new ...w study (rice, for example, was sequenced in 2002) much attention is given to identifying different genes and their functions, or how a gene copies itself. ...Safety of isoflavones in dietary supplements targeted by Illinois initiative
...ration, but some of the supplements, which contain much higher concentrations of isoflavones than are found in soy-based or supplemented food, are not regulated. Because phytoestrogens mimic estrogen, the supplements often are marketed to women as safe alternatives to hormone-replacement therapy, whic...New research shows plants can shuffle and paste gene pieces to generate genetic diversity
...ful? Some think that they are simply "junk" that, much like viruses, they can make lots of copies but do little to help the host. There is mounting evidence, however, that TEs help organisms evolve by making it easier to generate the sort of genetic novelty that is necessary for them to cope with a chan...Study: Emission of smog ingredients from trees is increasing rapidly
... have not improved in some parts of the country as much as was anticipated with the enactment of clean-air laws, Purves said. Environmental technologies such as catalytic converters and hoses that collect fumes at gas pumps have substantially reduced human-produced VOCs. However, in some parts of the coun...Far more men than women favor routine paternity testing at birth
...s changed randomly. "It comes out pretty much the same, whether you ask it by itself or ask it in the context of other questions, and no matter what order the questions are in," Rohwer said. Smaller groups of those surveyed were questioned further about their responses. A high number o...UCSF scientist Joe Derisi named MaCarthur Fellow
...id at the time. DeRisi also focuses much of his energy on using his custom-built microarrays to move in on viruses that cause a variety of infectious diseases. In January 2003, he and his then-postdoctoral fellow David Wang used a microarray designed to detect all known viruses -- and even ...A test case for DNA barcodes to identify species
...ing" concept, which uses genes to identify species much like supermarket barcodes identify products. Using a region of one specific gene, they correctly identify 260 North American bird species. The idea is that a short stretch of genetic code from a reference gene is sufficiently characteristic of one...HHMI, NIBIB/NIH to invest up to $35 million in interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs
... HHMI will award up to 10 three-year grants of as much as $1 million each to support the development and ...10 grants to educational institutions, totaling as much as $1 million each. The grants will be awarded in November 2005. All U.S. institutions that grant Ph...Hidden diversity: DNA 'barcoding' reveals a common butterfly is actually 10 different species
... for discriminating species: DNA "barcoding," In much the same way that supermarket barcoding can distin...deposited at the Smithsonian - all raised from the much larger pool of caterpillars caught in Costa Rica by Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs and a team of 17 Costa ...Veterans with Gulf War syndrome have damage in specific, primitive portion of nervous system
...l allow Dr. Haley's team to undertake a study in a much larger sample of Gulf War veterans. ...DNA barcode finds four new bird species
...erica. The researchers first measured how much the COI barcode varied within members of the same species. Then they compared this variation with the degree of variation among birds of different species. They found that each of the 260 species tested had a distinct COI sequence. For 130 ...Researchers devise potent new tools to curb ivory poaching
...of eastern, central and southern Africa, but it is much harder to do the same in the dense forests of cent...curate to within less than 600 miles. Accuracy was much greater among forest populations, which are more clearly defined because of terrain. The new method......icago and Cleveland). IADN will help determine how much of the airborne PCBs fall and dissolve into the Gr...that PCBs and other toxins exist at high levels in much of the world's farmed salmon. The scientists found that wild salmon tended to be less contaminated. ...