Bird brains show how trial and error may contribute to learning
...egrative Neuroscience. A similar brain pathway in humans may explain how children learn to talk by listening to themselves and others, and how adults learn and hone new motor skills, such as tennis. The process relies on feedback about what works and what doesn't, also called experience-dependent or perfor...New RNA polymerase discovered in plants
...r DNA methylation, higher organisms from plants to humans have a host of developmental problems, from dwarfing in plants to tumor development in humans to certain death in mice. Pikaard thinks that Pol IV helps make siRNAs that then direct DNA methyla...Joslin scientists show knocking out two key signals will cause diabetes
...findings in mice may someday lead to strategies in humans to boost these two different signals, providing a powerful new way to treat the different metabolic components present in the most common form of diabetes. "By lowering the level of two key insulin signaling proteins in liver cells, we began to uncov...UCF stem cell research may hold promise for treating Alzheimer's disease
... animals need to be conducted before any trials on humans can be done. Sugaya's colleagues include Jose Pulido, formerly a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Sugaya's wife, Ikuko, a research associate in his UCF lab. Technologies from the ...Prehistoric jawbone reveals evolution repeating itself
...g evidence of multiple origins of acute hearing in humans and other mammals. The discovery of the prehistori...r what scientists call accessory bones bones that humans and most other mammals do not have." The lower jaw of the human is made up of just one bone, the den...Ingestion of afterbirth appears to promote maternal behavior in mammals
...ch may lead to novel ways of treating addiction in humans by manipulating the effectiveness of the opiates w... Kristal. "In fact, there may be an adaptation in humans that mitigates against ingestion. We don't know. The introduction of POEF to human mothers after del...Scientists document complex genomic events leading to the birth of new genes
...P gene cluster may help to explain what sets apart humans and other primates from the rest of the animal kin...and is the only cytogenetic distinction separating humans from apes. At the molecular level, however, the differences among the species are much more complex...Alcohol's effects on gene expression in the central nervous system
...otivated behaviors," noted McBride. "Studies with humans indicate that this brain region is sensitive to the effects of heavy alcohol drinking and repeated withdrawals. The microarray technique provides insight into cellular changes that occur over time with chronic alcohol drinking and repeated withdrawa...Study links Ebola outbreaks to animal carcasses
All recent Ebola virus outbreaks in humans in forests between Gabon and the Republic of Congo...ndangered apes from illegal hunting and to protect humans from deadly outbreaks." The paper provides definitive proof for the assumption that Ebola moves from...UC researchers discover gene that causes heavy metal poisoning
...ne in this family," says Dr. Nebert. "We know that humans carry the same gene and gene family. Thus, we have...ed how nonessential heavy metals cause toxicity in humans or other vertebrates. "We believe that the Slc39a8 gene could be responsible for the transportation...Embryonic stem cells treated with growth factor reverse hemophilia in mice
...ce lack the clotting substance factor IX, which in humans results in the hereditary bleeding disorder known as hemophilia B. This disease, much less common than hemophilia A, affects roughly one of every 35,000 people, primarily males. Although embryonic stem, or ES, cells can differentiate into most cell ...Genomics champion Eric Lander receives 2004 AAAS Public Understanding of Science & Technology Award
...tober 1999, for example, Lander explained that all humans are 99.9 percent similar from the genetics standpoint. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton incorporated this fact into more than 100 speeches, including a State of the Union Address. A leader of the Human Genome Project, Lander worked closely with U....Experiments provide proof of how traveling in groups protects insects
...day. Why such groups of insects form has mystified humans for thousands of years. One firmly held belief was that God was punishing men and women for their sins. A more recent, scientific theory has been the "safety-in-numbers" idea -- that the small animals congregate periodically as a way of protecting th...When the bones of two early humans were found in 1967 near Kibish, Ethiopia, they wer..."These are the oldest well-dated fossils of modern humans ( Homo sapiens) currently known anywhere in the world," the scientists say in a summary of the stud...Map of human genetic variation across populations may promise improved disease treatments
...tions and likely date back to the exodus of modern humans out of Africa. But, other genetic differences may be specific to certain populations, explained David R. Cox of Perlegen Sciences, Inc., in Mountain View, California. The research thus should "provide a tool for exploring many questions remaining reg...Researchers identify target for cancer drugs
...mplex conserved in species as diverse as flies and humans supports the claim that the mTOR/rictor complex is indeed a missing piece of the puzzle. According to Sarbassov, "If we find a molecule that can block the mTOR/rictor complex, then we may be able to prevent Akt from becoming active and contributing t...Teams build robots that walk like humans
...one from MIT, have built walking robots that mimic humans in terms of their gait, energy-efficiency, and control. The MIT robot also demonstrates a new learning system that allows the robot to continually adapt to the terrain as it walks. The work, to be described in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Scie...Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...al of Virology. Transmission of animal viruses to humans poses a growing threat worldwide. The recent emergence of SARS, a coronavirus transmitted to humans from wild animals in live animal markets, reinforces the need for virus surveillance in exotic wildl...Enzyme shown to help protect genomic stability
...es known as telomeres, has been linked to aging in humans and an elevated risk for aging-related diseases, the most prominent of which is cancer. For this reason, insights into the mechanisms of gene silencing could provide important guideposts for new approaches to retarding aging or treating cancer. Now, ...Brain region learns to anticipate risk, provides early warnings. suggests new study in Science
...ult, but we still needed to test the prediction in humans to demonstrate that the model prediction was correct." The researchers also tested their theory using another computer model that had been previously developed to support an existing theory of the ACC as a system focused on conflict resolution. "By s...