Molecular thermometers on skin cells detect heat and camphor
...mperature), and this causes them to open and allow electrically charged ions to pass through and cause an electrical potential that signals the brain. Patapoutian and his colleagues discovered TRPV3 a few years ago by conducting a computer search through an early-assembled draft of the human genome. Its sequence ...Liposome finding implies electrical effect on cell development
...lds. In particular, the surprising finding of such electrically caused bionanotubule formation may reveal a previously unknown process involved in the development of structures like axons and dendrites in nerve cells. Hayes will present the results of the experiments at a 2 p.m. March 15 session entitled "Colloi...Ophthalmologists and physicists team up to design 'bionic eye'
...ose sporting retinal implants, the infrared flower electrically stimulates the implant's array of photodiodes. The result? They may not have to settle for merely smelling the roses. Complex processing: The eyes have it The eye is a complex machine. It has more than 100 million photoreceptors. "If we compare it ...Fat may affect electrical impulses in brain, heart
... Academy of Sciences that the proteins in specific electrically responsive cell pores--voltage-sensing potassium channels--can bind to molecules of palmitate. Palmitate is a saturated fatty acid previously linked to "hardening" of the arteries and obesity and is a common fat in unhealthy diets. "In effect, the a...Scientists propose new method for studying ion channel kinetics
... single channel and detect the flow of ions and to electrically observe whether the channel open and closed. By looking at how long the channel stays open or closed, they also could infer that there are several different open and closed states. Using models called Aggregated Markov Processes, the researchers are ...PNAS highlights for the week of May 16 - 20
...ace, pH, and the solvent between them. In general, electrically charged amino acids bonded more strongly, while uncharged ones bonded less strongly. Some substrates were more adherent, especially the semiconductors and aluminum. The most adhesion occurred between charged amino acids and the semiconductors. The le...Scientists create artificial cricket hairs
... depositing and structuring various thin layers of electrically insulating and conducting materials, creating structured electrodes on a suspended membrane. The structured electrodes form two capacitors with the underlying substrate. Long hairs, made of a photo-structurable polymer (SU-8), are put on top of the m...Microbes found to produce miniature electrical wires
...covered a tiny biological structure that is highly electrically conductive. This breakthrough helps describe how microorganisms can clean up groundwater and produce electricity from renewable resources. It may also have applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which develops advanced materials and de...New research puts a fresh spin on current thinking of speech evolution in humans
...in this region. When this area in the monkey was electrically stimulated, oral and facial motor responses were evoked such as jaw movement sequences, as well as respiratory responses. In addition, Broca's area is connected with a region of the brain immediately in front of it that is involved in the retrieval...New genome comparison finds chimps, humans very similar at DNA level
...als, production of sperm and cellular transport of electrically charged molecules called ions. Researchers suspect the rapid evolution of these genes may have contributed to the special characteristics of primates, but further studies are needed to explore the possibilities. The genomic analyses also showed that ...Making plant cells work like miniature factories
... mass of individual ions molecules that have been electrically charged. Plant material is ionized into a gas, sorted in an analyzer chamber according to the mass-to-charge ratios, and collected by an ion detector. The detector converts ion flux into a proportional electrical current. Finally, the magnitude of th...Jefferson scientists uncover new clues to how crucial molecular gatekeepers work
...e charge changes. The inside of the cell (normally electrically negative), becomes more positive. In turn, the voltage sensor, a positively charged transmembrane segment called S4, moves towards the outside of the cell through a small molecular gasket called a gating pore. This movement somehow causes the ion cha...Amazing nanotech in Boston: Weighing DNA, digital heat flow, electromechanical butterfly images
...og's muscle to contract when he touched it with an electrically charged metal scalpel. The new, 21st-century demonstration promises to yield a host of previously unknown information in a variety of biological structures including cartilage, teeth, and even butterfly wings. Employing a technique named Piezorespon...New discoveries about neuron plasticity linked to learning and memory
...tant area of the brain for short-term memory) were electrically stimulated using a high frequency pattern called theta-bursts. Theta-bursts mimic the electrical stimulus that shoots through neurons when animals perform a learning task. The researchers found that when stimulated with theta-bursts, hippocampus neur...Carnegie Mellon U. scientist receives NSF funding to build innovative mass spectrometer
...ter consists of three components: an ion source to electrically charge the sample; a mass analyzer to separate the newly charged ions by their unique mass-to-charge ratio; and a detector to generate a recordable ion signal. The end result is a mass spectrum of the sample, which can help reveal the sample's compos...New predation management methods reduce conflict between humans and carnivores
...ugh conditioning. In this category are fladry with electrically charged wires ("turbo fladry"), paintball-type weapons that use rounds filled with capsicum powder, and guns that fire rubber bullets. Tagging of predators with radio collars that activate protection devices can improve the effectiveness of some meth...Biggest physics meeting of the year
...muscles, solar cells, energy storage, solar sails, electrically conducting appliqués, and several types of lamps, displays and sensors. These sheets are transparent, flexible, light, and extremely strong, and can be produced quickly. Ray Baughman of the University of Texas at Dallas ( ray.baughman@utdallas.edu , ...Biological motors sort molecules one by one on a chip
...erting these kinesin-motors and microtubules in an electrically directed transport system that is made by the researchers using nano-fabrication techniques. The researchers turned the system around: the kinesin-motors are fastened in large quantities on a surface with their 'feet' up; the microtubules (measuring ......issue-engineering methods have been used to create electrically conductive tissue for the heart. Results appear in...s integrated with the surrounding heart tissue and electrically coupled to neighboring heart cells. Optical mapping of the heart showed that in nearly a third of th......robe which transforms toxic metals can sprout tiny electrically conductive wires from its cell membrane, he reason... Laboratory, who documents the seeming ubiquity of electrically conductive microbial life in the July 10 advance online Proceedings of the National Academy of Scien...