A Sensor, A Switch, A Zipper: Protein Engineers Design Potential Tool
...porated a selective binding site such that when the researchers added a small molecule, benzene, the two helices intertwined with a third to create a triple-helical coiled coil. This structural change could enable the protein to indicate the presence of benzene, w...ORNL Mice Helping Researchers Isolate, Identify Causes Of Cancer
... hopes to understand their role in cancerousgrowth when they are altered by the retrovirus. In addition to her work with murine leukemia retroviruses, Justice hasdiscovered a direct correlation between Chediak Higashi Syndrome in humansto what's simply called "beige" in mice. In people, the syndrome cause...ORNL Microscope "Sees" Bumps That Reveal Partial DNA Structure
...ational Laboratory (ORNL) get on a computer screen when using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to image a serpentine strand of DNA. And when they get the picture, they get excited about the "knots." Thereason: each knot is really a "protein ...Bog Beetle, Misidentified For 85 Years, Is 'Discovered' At Cornell
...working through the university's insect collection when they stumbled upon a species that looked familiar but which they could not immediately identify. "Kip and I were sorting through the Cornell insect collection and I made a species identification key and he was testing the key on a variety of specimen...The CIA Would Like To Know What Scientists Are Seeing Over The Rainbow
...me banding was first developed in the early 1970s, when it was observed that each human chromosome portrayed a characteristic pattern of bands when exposed to chemical stains. This allowed researchers to identify and sort out human chromosomes und...Researchers Corral Millions Of Microscopic Membranes
...the time, he approached Boxer looking for projects when David Bloom, the professor with whom he was working, decided to leave Stanford. Boxer got Ulman and Groves together and they came up with the idea of using microfabrication techniques to make smaller membrane corrals. "The hardest part was deciding w...Birds Deal With "Cocktail Party Effect"
...sounds heard in the forest during a springmorning, when all the birds are singing at once. The findin...ence betweenthe two pairs. They could do this even when they heard songexamples that contained just one of the two species' songs in thepair, a bird song so...Stronger Evidence That Global Climate Change Can Reduce The Variety Of Life
...iversity dropssignificantly during glacial periods when global ice sheets expand in size(low tilt). The mechanisms that cause diversity to change are still unclear butCronin and Raymo propose that changes in solar radiation initiate a chainreaction that reduces the productivity of surface ocean pl...'BirdSource' Website For Citizen-Science Data
...tzpatrick said: "If this had started in the 1890s when there still were passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets, perhaps we could have saved those birds. Now we can get information about diminishing species, in a form that we can understand and use, while there still is time to help." The mission of t...Vietnamese Chemist Finds New Use For Old Cashew Shells
...tingthan plain latex alone. The only problem arose when Vu ran out of cardanol samples andhad to get more from Vietnam. "When I ran out of samples, I had to request more from acolleague in Ho Chi Minh University, and he had to ship them bymail. He had to do a lot of paperwork." In addition to cardanol, Vu......ike humans stand up well against external stresses when they consume vitamin C. Last believes this research shows that ascorbic acid acts as a key free-radical scavenger and participates in important enzyme reactions. "That's why ascorbic acid is thought to play a variety of critical roles in plants and ...Blood Test Can Identify Some Children With Strep-Related Behavioral Disorders
...h penicillin. In some cases, OCD or tics willabate when a child is treated for strep throat, she said. T... "If we could potentially screen children at risk when they're young, wecould watch the children who have this trait marker for rheumatic fever moreclosely...Ten Years of Progress For Superfund Basic Research Program
...es are not particularly harmful," saidBishop, "but when they're ingested, they're broken down by thebacteria inside you into carcinogenic materials." Again, the main problem is that azo dyes are not readilydegraded in nature. Bishop has designed bioreactors in hislaboratory which use thin biofilms of Sphi...Molecular Imposter Rebuts Long
...ds with thymine's normal partner base,adenine. But when the mimic was placed into a strand of DNA, thescientists got a surprise: The cell's DNA-copyingmachinery correctly inserted adenine opposite the thymine-like basedespite the absence of hydrogen bonds. Not only wasadenine inserted opposite the thymine...Team Identifies Switch For Tumor Suppressor Gene
...ork during a very narrow time frame duringmitosis, when a cell is dividing. PP1c turns on RB through a chemical process known as de-phosphorylation, a common process in the body where a proteinknown as a phosphatase strips phosphate groups off a protein. Thestripped-down version of the RB protein sup...Duke University Students Devise Devices For The Disabled
...his condition did force him to sit on the pavement when acting asgoalie in neighborhood street hockey games. That is, until students in aDuke "Devices for the Disabled" course came to the rescue. The new course, taught by assistant biomedical engineering research professorLaurence Bohs, challenges biomed...Fund Aims To Repay Developing Nations For Valuable Genes
...neficialtraits such as disease- or pest-resistance when inserted into another plant. As new laws evolved ...ute to the fund. Moneywill flow into the fund only when a participating company begins to turna profit on the commercialization of the gene. The firms that ...A Drug Pump On A Computer Chip
...yer of silicon. The alloy forcefully changes shape when heated to around 60 degrees Celsius (140 F.). "When these materials recover their shape, they can produce very large displacements and forces," Huff said. To operate the pump, rhythmic pulses of mild electrical current are passed directly thro...New Study Shows Steps Leading To Colon Cancer
...id. The process occasionally goes awry, however, when beta-catenin becomes active in places where it sho... Cancer Institute. He called it an example of how, when scientists collaborate and build on each others' findings, society benefits. "The public supports ......oup has now a much better understanding of how and when the molybdenum is involved in the catalysis. One of their conclusions is that the transfer of a hydroxide ion is involved in the catalysis rather than an oxygen atom as previously believed. This detailed analysis should help the development of inhibi...