Shedding feathers early may enhance sex appeal, new songbird study shows
(Kingston, ON) Birds that migrate early in the season may have a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, say researchers from Queen's University and the Smithsonian Institution. And it's all about the feathers. Researchers were surprised to discover that the timing...Healthy mix of GI tract microbes are key to preventing allergies and asthma
...ern countries are not exposed to enough infections early in life to prevent the immune system from reacting to harmless antigens," Noverr explains. "We're coming at it from a different angle. Our emphasis is on what's going on in the GI tract." The link between lung and gut may not seem obvious at first. B...ESA's Huygens begins its final journey into the unknown
...as successfully released by NASA's Cassini orbiter early this morning and is now on a controlled collision ... of our Solar System but also the evolution of the early Earth's atmosphere and the mechanisms that led to the dawn of life on our planet. Europ......d4 works as an antagonist of Notch signaling at an early stage, prior to the proteolytic cleavage of the receptor's intracellular domain. Further investigation revealed the specific domain by which Nedd4 interacts with Notch and pinpointed the site of origin for this interaction at the cell membrane, a fin...Vollum Institute discovery may unlock human genome
... forth when the Human Genome Project was completed early last year. "The question was how to understand the enormous amount of genomic information that has been generated," Goodman said. "Our approach will help unlock the regulatory control of the genome." The approach could heighten understanding of the p...Mouse brain tumors mimic those in human genetic disorder
...s us there may be growth signals that are produced early in life, which are critical for tumor formation and expansion," Gutmann explains. Optic pathway gliomas in humans are typically surrounded by blood vessels and microglia, which are immune system cells in the brain. But it was unclear whether the de...Minority researchers receive AACR awards
... some $80, 000 have been granted. The funds allow early career scientists to attend an AACR Special Conference. Grants for these awards are provided by the Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Scientists are nominated and receive the awards based on their qualificat...Holes in fossil shells show effects of competition and evolution
... In striking contrast, none of the shells from the early Pleistocene, middle Pleistocene, or Recent showed any signs of edge drilling. These results demonstrate how extinction may alter competitive behaviors of surviving species, affecting subsequent recovery and evolution. According to Dietl, this approac...New grant to study infertility
...utes of Health (NIH) to research fertilization and early development in the starfish. The grant is an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award. "The immediate goal is to learn fundamental principles about the molecules that direct activation of the egg during fertilization. We have recently iso...Suspect protein found to play protective role in chronic lung disease
..., mucus, and tissue damage in the lungs as well as early death in the mice lacking the protein, researchers found. A separate commentary by University of North Carolina researchers in the same issue of the journal calls the finding "surprising and important" in light of the fact that suppressing the prote...A key signaling molecule in osteoarthritis is identified
...bring us one step closer to identifying a possible early and common step in the development of different forms of osteoarthritis." Dr. Li's results suggest that inhibitors of DDR2 signaling may be useful as drugs to slow down osteoarthritis progression. This comes as good news in the wake of several drugs ...The giant eagle of Middle Earth
...om eagle bone prove that the eagle co-existed with early Polynesians. However, there is no evidence that humans were targets for this huge aerial predator. In the research paper, New Zealand researchers at Oxford University's Ancient Biomolecules Center run by Professor Alan Cooper extracted DNA from ...Mothers speak: Physicians often fall short when delivering a down syndrome diagnosis
...nsitive comments as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s. A mother in 1997, for example, heard a doctor refer to her newborn as an "FLK" ("funny-looking kid"); another who gave birth in 2000 reported, "The doctor flat out told my husband that this could have been prevented or discontinued at an earli...Protein in urine may warn of preeclampsia risk in pregnant women
...ensive screening tool to detect preeclampsia at an early stage. Because the sFlt1 molecule is too large to be filtered through urine, the investigators focused on the PIGF molecule, testing the hypothesis that urinary PIGF levels would drop prior to the development of hypertension and proteinuria in pregn...NIST/EPA study aims at healthy indoor climate
...ers said such findings highlight the importance of early testing of a ventilation system's ability to achieve design intent. The differences between actual versus the predicted ventilation rates also argue for subsequent regular maintenance checks. They noted instances where building engineers could not fi...Scientists discover unique microbe in California's largest lake
... about 7.5 million acre-feet. It was formed in the early 1900s, when flow from the Colorado River was inadvertently directed to the Salton Basin. Once the Army Corps of Engineers returned the river to its normal bed, the lake began to evaporate, gradually becoming one of the largest hypersaline lakes in th...FDA approves ABRAXANE(TM) for metastatic breast cancer
...ording to the American Cancer Society (ACS), while early detection efforts have decreased mortality rates, in 2004 an estimated 215,990 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer that had already spread. Breast cancer is still the leading overall cause of death in women between the ages of 20 a...Scientists reveal molecular secrets of the malaria parasite
...arly interesting because these proteins, expressed early in the mosquito, are the target of transmission-blocking vaccines" —that is, vaccines which raise antibodies that attack the parasite in the vector. (Such antibodies are in the "blood meal" and still work for an hour or so after the mosquito bit...Development of portable infectious disease detector
...along to Wikswo, who gave Pyle a call. That was in early September. By mid-November a joint research agreement for $120,000 for the first year was completed and signed....University of Pittsburgh receives award to study new theory of breast cancer development
... and breast cancer cells. They expect to find that early tumor stem cells will express drug-resistant pumps that can survive treatment while the majority of cancer cells, forming the mass of a tumor, will be destroyed by conventional chemotherapy. Follow-up studies on breast cancer patients who have underg...