Neurons involved in drug addiction relapse identified
...s in an area of the nucleus accumbens known as the shell were activated by the tone. The animals eventually stopped pressing the levereven when the tone was soundedbecause no cocaine was dispensed. But brain recordings still showed accumbens neuron activity in response to the tone. This activity may refl...Discovery may help in war against fire ants
... of the Strepsiptera jabs itself between the outer shell and the skin of the host. Once the entire body has penetrated its layers, it remains in constant motion for 24 to 36 hours until it is enclosed by the host. The host's skin forms a bag, which at this point is suspended by a thin stalk. Later, the la......f Bowdoin College, looked at aspects of the clams' shell morphology before and after the arrival of the cra...siphons and soft internal tissues, and the overall shell mass, all increased after the green crab arrived. According to Whitlow, the results suggest that th...Finicky snails provide new clues to the evolution of coastal ecosystems
...ller than their prey. ''A whelk drills through the shell of a mussel using its file-like tongue - the radula - and acid secretions,'' said Eric Sanford, lead author of the Science study. ''When the hole is drilled through, a tube called the proboscis is extended into the shell, and the soft mussel tissue i...Nature designs hard and tough materials at the nanoscale
...gher than the mineral. For instance, the composite shell of nacre shows a fracture strength that is 3000 times higher than its mineral constituent CaCO3. Despite the complicated hierarchical structures of biocomposites, it is most interesting to observe that the smallest building blocks in biological mater...Real-time imaging reveals the dynamic architecture of plant cells
...nter of the cell, the polymers create an organized shell over the inside surface, or cortex, of the cell. "For years, scientists have been trying to figure out how these cortical arrays are created and become organized," remarked researcher David Ehrhardt of the Department of Plant Biology of the Carnegie ...Encrustation provides clues about ancient seas
...r example, and see how it changes as a function of shell size. Or you can examine how encrustation varies between different kinds of shells or between the shells collected at different places and under different environmental conditions. Some workers have even suggested that they could be used to estimate ...Bacterial viruses make cheap easy vaccines
...ys March. The DNA is protected inside the protein shell of the virus making it longer lasting and easier to store. In addition, bacteriophages have a large cloning capacity, making large-scale production cheap, easy and extremely rapid important attributes considering the current bioterrorism threat whe...Purdue research hints that birds could spread Ebola virus
...earch group have discovered that the outer protein shell of Ebola has a biochemical structure similar to several retroviruses carried by birds. As scientists had known previously of genetic similarity among the viruses, this discovery makes a common evolutionary origin even more likely. It also suggests th...Purdue works to transform Ebola virus from killer to healer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- By redesigning the shell of Ebola, Purdue University researchers have trans...fers, has hit upon a way to simplify Ebola's outer shell as well, rendering it more easily produced in a laboratory and more effective at delivering genes to...Impact of geography on species challenges paleontologists
...ocation," Stempien says. There were differences in shell thickness, size, placement of muscle scars, hinge attributes, and so on. "The populations were obviously not mixing." Did these different physical characteristics mean there were different species? Or would these various forms of Mulinia still be abl...Brazilian shellfish may improve understanding of ancient world
... 27-30. Rodland is looking at "every scale, from shell to shelf," he says. Factors affecting encrustation are water depth, nutrients in the water, and shell surface. Some findings are that encrustation is highest in shallower water and in deep water where u...Purdue corrals new Trojan horse to replace wayward genes in mice
... helpful genetic material within the outer protein shell of Ross River Virus (RRV), Sanders' team was able ...researchers have learned how to "borrow" the outer shell from a harmful virus and fill it up with other, beneficial genetic material. The chimeric viruses ...UT Southwestern receives $2 million grant to purchase 30-ton superconducting magnet
...trogen and liquid helium. It is encased in a steel shell to contain the magnetic field. "When you drop solutions of proteins into the center of a strong magnetic field, it allows them to absorb radiofrequency energy, and that allows us to interpret their structure," he said. "The more powerful the magnet, ...New gene discovered for male fertility in plants
...f microspores requires the presence of the tapetum shell around the microsporocytes, which cannot divide without it. "If our speculations are confirmed, this is the first gene coding for a receptor kinase found to control plant fertility specifically by controlling the development of the anther cells," Ma...UK scientists crack lobster shell colour puzzle
... solved the structure of a key part of the lobster shell protein, Beta-Crustacyanin. Visualising the key subunit of this large molecule allows them to show how structural changes within it can bend the shape of the colour molecule bound to it, Astaxanthin, to make different colours. Astaxanthin, a caroteno...Artificial antibodies created by new molecular imprinting process
...val of the template, we have a synthetic molecular shell that can bind specifically shaped molecules and reject all others, just like a natural antibody." The process Zimmerman and Suslick describe is analogous to Linus Pauling's 1940 proposal for how antibodies are formed in response to the presence of an...Just one bite at a time: Researchers find snake with unusual feeding habit
...quickly. In contrast, Fordonia eats primarily hard shell crabs and can be injured while capturing and swallowing its prey. "Eating any hard-bodied animal is a task. It's a very tough chore for a snake." Jayne said the take-home message is that you shouldn't jump to conclusions about vertebrate behavior by ...Snail venom heralds new era of pain treatment
...y of Melbourne, made ACV1 from the venom of a cone shell for biological testing. They will make further inf...ng. Despite this potential deadly characteristic, shell collectors have been known to pay more than $1,000 for a good specimen. "Not all species will kill a...Children's Hospital Boston researchers use therapeutic cloning to create functional tissue in cows
...ells from the cow's ears was placed inside the egg shell and burst with electrical energy to expand the cells. That induces the one skin cell to become several cells. The resulting blastocysts (4-day old embryonic cell masses) were transferred into surrogate-mother cows for a 5- to 6-week incubation period...