Jefferson scientist's patent dramatically improves
... Jonathan Brody, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery and colleague Scott Kern, M.D., at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have developed a technique that makes a DNA separation technique called electrophoresis five times faster and less expensive than now is possible. It coul...Researchers witness natural selection at work in dramatic comeback of male butterflies
... Within 10 generations that spanned less than a year, the proportion of males of the Hypolimnas bolina butterfly on the South Pacific island of Savaii jumped from a meager 1 percent of the population to about 39 percent. The researchers considered this a stunning comeback and credited it to the rise of a suppressor gene that holds in check the Wolbachia b...Burning fat and carbohydrate during exercise
... During exercise and physical activity, the primary fuels used by muscles are carbohydrate and fat. When mild exercise is performed there is a tendency to burn relatively more fat and less glucose, but as exercise becomes more intense, a...HHMI awards Brandeis professor $1 million to draw minorities into science
Waltham, MA Brandeis chemistry professor Irving Epstein has been awarded $1 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to spearhead a novel program aimed at drawing more minority students into science and medicine. The $1 million award one of 20 nationwide designed to energize scientific education at the undergraduate level--comes at a time when the dearth of minorities in the scie...Caspase-14 protects our skin against UVB and dehydration
... ...<p...Prehistoric remains reveal a drastic shift in northern fur seal ecology
... ... "We were able t...Growing nerve cells in 3-D dramatically affects gene expression
... The study, published in the May issue of Tissue Engineering, adds to a growing body of research showing that culture techniques can significantly affect cell growth and function. This research shows that cells grown in a laboratory in 3-D environments, not in flat petri dishes, are more like cells gr...MIT device draws cells close -- but not too close -- together
... Now MIT researchers led by Sangeeta Bhatia, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and Brigham and Women's Hospital, have solved the problem with a novel device. The work promises to allow researchers to perform ce...Plant size morphs dramatically as scientists tinker with outer layer
... Now, in the March 8 issue of the journal Nature, research...Tundra disappearing at rapid rate
... The boundary, or treeline, between forest and tundra ecosystems is a prominent landscape feature in both Arctic and mountain environments. As global temperatures continue to increase, the treeline is expected to advance but th...In many habitats, competition is the drama, but benefactors set the stage
Is the world basically good or basically bad? It appears that in the natural world the answer is "basically good." Positive interactions in which plants and animals benefit from association with one another create the basis for many of the world's ecosystems. Coral reefs, kelp forests, marshes, and other familiar habitats can harbor a diversity of life by providing shelter from both harsh condit...Dramatic results from combo therapy surprises Krabb-disease researchers
Jan. 9, 2007 -- By all expectations, it shouldn't have worked as well as it did. A combination of bone marrow transplantation and gene therapy greatly lengthened the lives of laboratory mice doomed by a rapidly progressing, fatal neurodegenerative disorder also found in people. ... The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers who made the discovery set out with low hopes...NIH Nanomedicine Center draws on NYU School of Medicine expertise
... As part of a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) nanomedicine grant, David Roth, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Pathology and the Irene Diamond Professor of Immunology, is c...SNM takes action to alter DRA provision for imaging payment caps
... The proposed reductions for diagnostic imaging rei...Dramatic shift from simple to complex marine ecosystems occurred 250M years ago at mass extinction
CHICAGO--The earth experienced its biggest mass extinction about 250 million years ago, an event that wiped out an estimated 95% of marine species and 70% of land species. New research shows that this mass extinction did more than eliminate species: it fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's oceans. ... Ecologically simple marine communities were largely displaced by complex commu...Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity
on 21 November. The discovery expands the known taxonomic breadth of metabolic disease and suggests that the study of microbes found in human intestines may provide a greater understandin...Climate change creates dramatic decline in red-winged black bird population
... When Patrick Weatherhead put his 25-year data about the red-winged black bird alongside climate records, he found a direct correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The NAO is a dominant cause of winter climate variability in the North At...New genetic analysis forces re-draw of insect family tree
... ... ... The results a...Of I robots go solar; new system could drastically reduce herbicide use
... ... <p...UGA researchers discover cell-wall carbohydrate that is crucial to anthrax bacterium
... Since that time, governmental authorities have been engaged in a race to find ways to keep citizens safe if terrorists attack again with Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia, collaborating with scientists at the federal Centers for Disease Control...Research could lead to dramatic improvement in scanning for serious diseases
... ... They hope that electron spin resonance imaging will eventually take a three-dimensional "snapshot" image of the chemical state of an organ such as the heart. This would b...UC develops new approach to Web-based drug withdrawal warnings
... ... "Information about drug withdrawals may not reach patients quickly enough to prevent potentially dangerous side effects," explains Peter Embi, MD, lead author on the UC-based study publish...Disabling a carbohydrate trigger reduces obesity and appetite
... ... In a study that appears in this month's...Rehydrate -- your RNA needs it
... ... ... RNA e...Brain gene shows dramatic difference from chimp to human
One of the fastest-evolving pieces of DNA in the human genome is a...gene linked to brain development, according to findings by an...international team of researchers published in the Aug. 17 issue of...the journal Nature. ... In a computer-based search for pieces of DNA that have undergone the...most change since the ancestors of humans and chimps diverged, "Human...Accelerated Region 1" or HA...Draft environmental impact statement prepared for USAMRIID facilities at Fort Detrick
The Department of the Army has issued a Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) associated with the construction and operation of new U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) facilities and the decommissioning and demolition or re-use of the existing USAMRIID facilities at Fort Detrick, Maryland. A Public Meeting for the DEIS will b...Dragon Symposium highlights success of projects
... Opening the symposium, Dr. Liao Xiaohan, Vice Director of the Department of High Technology and Industrialization, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China, highlighted the success of the Dragon Programme and the scientific results achieved so far, after two years of fruitful cooperation. ...The Dragon Programme a joint undertaking between ESA, MOST and the National Remote Sensin...Policy makers draw up list of 'top 100' ecological questions
Environmental policy makers have come up with a list of the "top 100" ecological questions most in need of an answer. The list, published online in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, is the result of an innovative experiment involving more than 600 environmental policy makers and academics, and includes crucial questions such as which UK habitats and species might be los...Loss of central vision with age may be linked to quality of dietary carbohydrates
Boston-- Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of vision loss in older adults and a person's risk may partly depend upon diet. When it comes to carbohydrates, quality rather than quantity may be more important, according to new research by Allen Taylor, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research C...Even when faint, ovary scent draws sperm cells
... Knows he, that never took a pinch ... Nosey, the pleasure thence that flows? ... Knows he the titillating joy ... Which my nose knows. ...... O nose, I am as proud of thee ... As any mountain of its snows; ... I gaze on thee, and feel that pride ... A Roman knows. ...... -- Anonymous ...... BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Mice are known to have a keen sense of smell, but it's not just their noses that a...Dragonfly migration resembles that of birds, scientists say
Princeton, N.J. - Scientists have discovered that migrating dragonflies...and songbirds exhibit many of the same behaviors, suggesting the rules...that govern such long-distance travel may be simpler and more ancient...than was once thought....... The research, published in the May 11 Biology Letters, is based on data...generated by tracking 14 green darner dragonflies with radio...transmitters w...Lack of a key enzyme dramatically increases resistance to sepsis
According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and...Rutgers team's coal-to-diesel breakthrough could drastically cut oil imports
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. Professor Alan Goldman and his Rutgers team in collaboration with researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a way to convert carbon sources, such as coal to diesel fuel. ...... This important advance could significantly cut America's dependence on foreign oil what President Bush called "an addiction" in his 2006 State of the Uni...Simple idea to dramatically improve dengue vaccinations
HOUSTON, March 29, 2006 -- An innovative new study explains, for the first time, the failure of previous attempts to vaccinate against the four known Dengue viruses, and it suggests a very simple solution injecting the four vaccines simultaneously at different locations on the body....... A mosquito-born disease, Dengue kills tens of thousands of people per year and sickens 100 million more. Kno...Moderate lifetime reductions in LDL cholesterol dramatically reduce risk of heart disease
A new genetic analysis of more than 12,000 individuals has found that a decrease in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, of as little as 15 percent, sustained over the long term can dramatically reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The reduction in LDL observed in this study can easily be achieved with a low dose of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. ...... ...... "What...Drawing a crowd: How progenitor cells are recruited to tumor blood vessels from the bone marrow
Cells within the bone marrow (progenitor cells) that express a protein called CD34 have been shown to leave the marrow and travel to sites of tissue injury to mediate repair. Once the cells arrive at the site of injury it has been demonstrated that they can turn into a variety of different cell types, including blood vessel cells, muscle cells, nerve cells, and blood cells, which enhances wound...Scientist uses dragonflies to better understand flight
If mastering flight is your goal, you can't do better than to emulate a dragonfly.... With four wings instead of the standard two and an unusual pitching stroke that allows the bug to hover and even shift into reverse, the slender, elegant insect is a marvel of engineering.... Z. Jane Wang, professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Cornell University, presented her research on flying syst...Drawing a crowd: Understanding the signals that bring inflammatory cells into the lung
Understanding the connection between influx of immune cells into the lung and acute lung injury is essential, since lung damage tends to occur secondary to increased lung inflammation. In a study appearing online on February 16 in advance of print publication in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Klaus Ley and colleagues from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville de...Study reveals dramatic metabolic differences in how adults, infants and children process drugs
A Medical College of Wisconsin study provides the strongest and most complete evidence to date of major changes occurring during human development in the types and levels of enzymes responsible for the disposition of drugs and environmental chemicals. ... ...These enzymes can inactivate drugs, activate them, or do both, depending on the compound and the number of enzymes involved. Similarly, some...Penn researchers provide recommendations for artificial nutrition and hydration
For two decades, doctors have followed an ethically-established agreement about the appropriate use of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) for patients who are seriously ill or in a persistent vegetative state. Generally, patients or their surrogates have been able to accept or refuse ANH based upon considerations that guide most treatment decisions, i.e., potential benefits, risks, burden,...