On the cutting edge: Carbon nanotube cutlery
...ls more precisely than they can today. For years, biologists have wrestled with conventional diamond or glass knives, which cut frozen cell samples at a large angle, forcing the samples to bend and sometimes later crack. Because carbon nanotubes are extremely strong and slender in diameter, they make ideal mat...Finding a cure for cancer: The holy grail of science
... a close collaboration of nuclear physicists, cell biologists and radiobiologists", commented Friedl about her project....Does natural selection drive the evolution of cancer?
...brings the thinking of ecologists and evolutionary biologists to bear on cancer biology. Insights from their work may have profound implications for understanding why current cancer therapies often fail and how radically new therapies might be devised. A review by researchers at The Wistar Institute of cur...Pressured by predators, lizards see rapid shift in natural selection
...s played out over the course of eons, evolutionary biologists have shown that natural selection can turn on a dime -- within months -- as a population's needs change. In a study of island lizards exposed to a new predator, the scientists found that natural selection dramatically changed direction over a very sh...Movies reveal that the process of insulating nerves is surprisingly dynamic
...nsparent and develop within a few days, they allow biologists to watch developmental processes as they take place: something they cannot do with mice or other mammals. These characteristics allowed the Vanderbilt researchers to obtain images of the cells involved in myelination using a confocal microscope and e......te materials as well. Furthermore it may help bone biologists to understand how a molecular level change can cause whole bones to become more prone to fracture in diseases like osteoporosis....Wielding the subtle weapons of a fungus
...s a lot of trouble for farmers worldwide. However, biologists cannot specifically alter the genes of most of these fungi in the laboratory. "Hopefully our findings on Ustilago maydis can be transferred to this group of fungi," says Kmper. The scientists now hope to find out what function the secreted proteins ...First Far Eastern leopard captured in southeast Russia by international team
...the Russian Far East, an international team led by biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society captured another species last week that carries the dubious distinction of being the world's most endangered big cat: an extremely Far Eastern leopard. One of only 30 left in the wild, the animal was captured i...Jefferson scientists find blood vessel-building protein halts blood vessels from forming in cancer
...t might have the opposite effect in tumors. Cell biologists at Jefferson Medical College and the Kimmel Cancer Center of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that the protein fragment endorepellin blocks both skin and lung cancer tumors from progressing in animal models by preventing their a...Some animals won't adapt to climate change
... in the November issue of The American Naturalist, biologists investigated the response of small animals to climate change on a remote sub-Antarctic Island. From an evolutionary standpoint, acclimatizing to a change in circumstances seems to make evolutionary sense. However, Steven Chown and Jacques Deere (both...UCSD computer scientist wins Young Investigator Award, research on snake venom proteins highlighted
...e easier to start up collaborations with groups of biologists who are generating really good data," said Bandeir...er to discuss some of the common challenges facing biologists working in today's post-genomic age. Algorithmic Biology 2006 is the first in a series of conferen...1st international study group for new 'movement' discipline
...," the article quoted Prof. Nathan as saying, "few biologists have tried to fit those data into a big picture of movement in general." Now, said the article, through the new discipline called movement ecology, Nathan and others "are beginning to derive testable hypotheses about the mobile behaviors of animals,...University of Utah biologists invented a chemical-free, hairdryer-like device the LouseBuster and conducted a study showing it eradicates head lice infestations on children by exterminating the eggs or "nits" and killing enough lice to prevent them from reproducing. T...Novel experiment documents evolution of genome in near-real time
...nditions." Because of past technical limitations, biologists have historically made inferences about rapid bacterial evolution by carefully observing changes in a handful of genes at a time or by monitoring the visible characteristics, or phenotypes, as the organisms adapt. Palsson's team used comparative geno...Cells, dyes and videotape: Online scientific methods journal incorporates multimedia
... and embryos. Images that move in real time permit biologists to more fully observe and compare biological processes. CSH Protocols now has the capability to present movies, which may be used to demonstrate particular techniques and to show examples of experimental results. Live cell imaging involves tagg...Dartmouth study contributes to research addressing malnutrition and iron deficiency
HANOVER, NH -- Dartmouth biologists are leading a research team that has learned where... We think our work will open the way for many more biologists to use this technique to examine the spatial distribution of metals in samples of interest." The ima...Key to zebrafish heart regeneration uncovered
...ing the formation of new heart muscle. Many cell biologists believe the ability to regenerate damaged heart tissue may be present in all vertebrate species, but that for unknown reasons, mammals have "turned off" this ability over the course of evolution. Zebrafish could provide a model to help researchers fi......e of vertebrate evolution." Poss said. "Thus, most biologists suspect that the machinery to optimize regeneration from progenitor cells is present, but lies dormant, in mammals." In an earlier study, Poss and his colleagues found that zebrafish have a unique ability to regenerate cardiac muscle after major inj...Global map shows new patterns of extinction risk
...s the culmination of many decades of work by field biologists and analysts, during which the planet was divided up into 100km x 100km grids, and all mammal, bird and amphibian species within each grid square were counted, using a variety of pre-existing, but never-before combined, records. The result is a compr...Researchers determine why wolves not dispersing as fast as expected in Yellowstone
... across North America until a team of mathematical biologists at the University of Alberta recently solved the puzzle. "When the wolves traveled far distances in their new environment it was easy for them to lose track of their mates, and the further they traveled the less likely it is for them to find a mat...