President Clinton awards nation's highest honor for science and technology
...ly a short way to express the gratitude the nation owes them," said Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation. The five laureates of the Medal of Technology include: Glen Culler, Chief Scientist and Chairman of the Board (retired), Culler Scientific Systems Corporation, for pi......taches directly to C3 and disables it. Compstatin owes its effectiveness and potential use as a therapeutic to its small size. Compstatins ring structure makes it resistant to proteases, enzymes that destroy proteins, so it is less likely to be broken down before it meets its target. Smaller molecules ...In fighting the body's immune system, HIV owes part of its success to its ability to destroy those cells normally recruited to mount the body's counter-attack against the HIV-infected cells. Lying at the crux of such success is a viral protein called Nef, which protects its infected host while si...Say Cheese! Scientists in a ferment over cheese-starter genome
...hether sharp Cheddar or nutty Gouda, a fine cheese owes its flavor to milk-fermenting bacteria, such as the historically ancient starter Lactococcus lactis. In next months issue of Genome Research, researchers from France report the complete genome sequence of L. lactis, now the most commonly used starte...NSF awards two plant genome grants to University of Minnesota
...o a form plants can use as a fertilizer. The plant owes this ability to symbiosis with bacteria that infect its roots. The work will center on how the plant communicates with the bacteria, said Nevin Young, a professor of plant pathology and coordinator of the grant at the university. "This interaction t...UT Southwestern scientist explores caffeine-signaling activity in brain function
...that it has been known for some time that caffeine owes much of its stimulant action to its ability to block receptors, such as those for adenosine, in the brain. Adenosine, one of the four building blocks of DNA and an important signaling molecule in the brain, forms the backbone of the energy-storage mo...Living in a glass house: Ocean organism's novel dwelling helps Earth's atmosphere
... much bigger beneficiary: the entire planet, which owes its present-day, oxygen-rich and carbon-poor atmosphere in part to diatoms and their effective use of glass. Diatoms are one-celled organisms that are so prolific they account for a quarter of all the photosynthesis on the planet. In photosynthesis,...From slime to saviors: Sorting out the fungal family tree
...his diverse group of organisms, to which the world owes several antibiotics, beer, wine, cheese and bread, among other things. The four-year grant is part of NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program, which seeks to determine exact evolutionary relationships within several of its branches. The study may ...Allergen-free shrimp? seafood marks a place in food safety research
... new allergens." Research in shrimp allergenicity owes its recent strides to ongoing research in plant foods, such as soy and peanuts. Food allergies are immune responses to proteins from foods that somehow did not get broken down by cooking or digestion. Instead, they entered the bloodstream and interac......l fields of science and engineering. Natural nacre owes much of its strength and flexibility to an internal brick-like structure. Protein layers only nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick provide the pliable "mortar," while calcium carbonate, the principal chemical in limestone and antacids, comprises...Institutions and locations of scientific excellence
...eidelberg, Bonn and Kiel. The final area mentioned owes its position here, to a large extent, to the non-university research institutions such as the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences (GEOMAR-Forschungszentrum fr Marine Geowissenschaften), as well as the Institute for Marine Research (Institut...Study reveals patterns of gene activity in the mouse nervous system
...er cells in the brain. The success of the project owes a great deal to the release of data from the Mouse Genome Project in 2002, Dr. Heintz says. "The release of that information has turned this into a very reproducible, highly successful enterprise." The goal of GENSAT is to screen at least 600 genes ...... 39 young snowy plovers this summer. Their success owes much to the combined effort of researchers, managers and volunteers, and an ongoing educational effort, and has earned national recognition for three groups: USGS, the Santa Barbara Audubon Society, and the University of California Natural Reserve Sy...High Flux Isotope Reactor marks 400th cycle
...rto said. "HFIR is a unique national facility that owes its success to the long term dedication of hundreds of people."......Publications Committee Chair Dale Benos. "Science owes many advances in technology, equipment and insight into perplexing physiological processes to this research," he added. Featured articles include: The 1945 paper authored by Seymour Kety and Carl Schmidt that introduced a revolutionary new way to me...