Bird moms manipulate birth order to protect sons
...an," Badyaev said. "What should a mother do in the face of shifting mortality risk?" "To leave the nests sooner and still survive outside of nests, the kids need to grow faster," Badyaev said. "But the mechanisms which regulate nestling growth in relation to changing mortality were not known." So the ...Protein folding: Building a strong foundation
...n which of their parts were the most stable in the face of chemical and thermal fluctuations. "We found that the most stable parts of the final, folded protein come together first during the folding," said co-author Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology and of ...Islands spark accelerated evolution
...rs. How long animals can continue to evolve in the face of these changes, however, remains to be seen....Animal physiology conference sheds light on human physiology
...birds have both the guts and the kidneys needed to face the challenges of their watery and sugary diets," he said. Information embargoed until lecture is completed, 3 p.m., Wednesday, October 11. David R. Jones, University of British Columbia, Canada Jones' forehead-slapping moment of scientific ins...Research shows how ultrasound can deliver therapeutic molecules into living cells
...e openings in many classes of cells. Researchers face a number of challenges, including FDA approval, before ultrasound can be used to deliver drugs in humans. For example, the effects of the ultrasound were not consistent across the entire volume of cells, with only about a third affected. Researcher...It's not fair! We are programmed to resist weight loss
...w that a plateau in body weight occurs even in the face of a continued negative energy balance." In the first study, 30 obese men and women took part in a 12-week, laboratory-based exercise program in which they exercised five times a week. The second study looked at weight loss in 200 males on a comm...Widespread elephant slaughter discovered in Chad
...t far from the park headquarters, and the animal's face had been chopped off, the tusks removed. "Two days later we were flying west of that area when we saw a poachers' camp. The second time we passed over I saw a guy and a horse and an assault rifle in the poacher's hands. The third time we flew over,...Ancient raptors likely feasted on early man, study suggests
...ry distinctive beak and talon punctures around the face and in the eye sockets," "The skull of the Taung child has these same kinds of puncture marks." The study is online at the website of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, and is scheduled for publication in the journal's October issue. McG...Remarkable physiology allows crucian carp to survive months without oxygen
...ief way of keeping cell function in balance in the face of extreme conditions. The pump is necessary to transmit information among cells, including the neurons in the brain. The quieter the pumps, the less active and energy-consuming the brain is. However, if the pumps shut down, the cells die. Glycogen...Snap judgments decide a face's character, psychologist finds
...n between how competent a campaigning politician's face was and how great his margin of victory turned out...nds, 500 milliseconds or a full second. After each face flashed on the screen and vanished, the observers marked whether they found the face to be trustwort......site faces. The dissimilarities from the original face and between the two left or right composites were striking. To quantify these differences the researchers compared left and right side measurements on the original face. "I was looking for a standard of how much asymmetry was normal and eventuall...Researchers discover genetics markers to help predict risk for preterm birth
... than 30 percent since 1981. Babies who do survive face risks of lifelong challenges of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, and vision and hearing loss, as well as other developmental problems. While there are several factors that can help predict the risk of preterm birth, there...Researcher hits bulls-eye for antibiotic target
...w," Sanders said. "The antibiotics available today face a challenge of increasing resistance and failure. This research suggests a whole new approach to combat bacterial infections. In addition, this protein is an excellent antibiotic target because it only exists in bacteria and some plants, which means ...How HIV 'exhausts' killer T cells
...an important component of the immune system in the face of a viral attack. "It may be that in the heat of a battle that it sees it's not winning, the body makes an adjustment to try to co-exist," he said. "But we really do not know at this point." Walker emphasized that the study could not have been ...Global Environmental Change: Regional Challenges
... be better managed to improve food security in the face of global environmental change? Can the Earth's finite water resources be managed sustainably to meet the growing needs of humans and of nature in ways that avert a coming crisis? How will changing environmental conditions affect human heal...UC Davis study finds brain cell regulator is volume control, not on/off switch
...n optimal electrical activity in the neuron in the face of large changes within the brain or the animal's environment. "It's an elegant feedback system," he added. For years, scientists have attempted to study how neurons regulate the function of potassium ion channels -- pore-like openings in cell mem...Breaks in hibernation help fight bugs
...bacterial infections that could run rampant in the face of an immune system that is essentially asleep. "Animals cannot tell when they need to wake up, or if they are infected," says Luis. If the animals hibernate for long they risk serious infection, she says, while waking up frequently wastes precious...New study provides a clearer picture of breast-cancer gene mutations in American women
...women with breast cancer who carry a mutation also face an increased risk for developing a second breast cancer or ovarian cancer. "While the primary thrust of this research was to identify predictors of carrying the high-risk mutations and to clarify mutation prevalence in understudied groups, the relat...Unique Huntington's study moves forward
...e or approved treatment. The issues these patients face portend concerns that nearly everyone will confront eventually, as researchers ferret out the genes that predispose some people to heart trouble, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, stroke, and other diseases. People at risk fo...Current technology for brain cooling unlikely to help trauma patients
...educe injury from stroke and other head trauma may face a significant obstacle: current cooling devices can't penetrate very deeply into the brain. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used rats to validate a "cold shielding" effect of blood flow that they previously predi...