Scientists solve the mystery of how Botox attacks nerves and eliminates wrinkles
... authorities suspect was a cheap, non-FDA-approved imitation of Botox. The botulinum toxin works by invading nerve cells, where it releases an enzyme that prevents muscle contraction. In recent years, scientists have determined that the enzyme binds to specific sites on proteins called SNAREs, which form a com...Baby songbirds and human infants learn sounds in similar ways
...te with each other through a process of listening, imitation and practice. For the rest, including nonhuman pri...he birds were 43 days old, two clear strategies of imitation were apparent. About half the birds tended to repeat one song syllable many times; from these repeti...Elephants imitate sounds as a form of social communication
...with similar social systems as elephants use vocal imitation to maintain individual-specific relationships, "study co-author Stephanie Watwood of WHOI said. "Our study suggests that elephants may be using their vocal learning abilities in a similar manner, and opens a fascinating new area for research on how e...Royal Society study on adaptability of fish to warming oceans
...elli, Dr E Visalberghi and Dr PF Ferrari Although imitation remains elusive in monkeys, this experiment found that monkeys recognise when they are being imitated. Ten pigtailed macaques were tested by two experimenters. One experimenter imitated the monkeys' actions with an object, the other performed tempora...For young canaries learning their song, freedom in youth gives way to rules in adulthood
...duals. All the birds that at first sang a detailed imitation of their tutor, however, reprogrammed their songs ... that shared common material: the juvenile slavish imitation of an atypical, phraseless song, and the adult song that reworked a subset of sounds into a differen...Study in Royal Society journal on world's only horned rodent
...S ANGELES, CA, 90095-1606, USA Dynamic games with imitation predict vaccinating behaviour by Dr C.T. Bauch (rspb.2005.3153) The literature on vaccine scares generally focuses on individual perception of vaccine risks. However parents also take into account the current level of disease prevalence in the popu...Coming to grips with robot learning
...ks are still very restricted." According to Knoll imitation is a powerful shortcut to successful task learning...he functional and neuropsychological mechanisms of imitation learning was the aim of the ArteSImit project funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies initiat...Zebra finches remember songs dad sang
...n studying the songbird brain can tell us how this imitation trick is actually performed by cells in the brain," Vicario says. "The bird's brain provides a laboratory for studying how memories that underlie vocal learning are stored in the brain and how the stored memories are used to guide the development of ...Social imitation in neonatal monkeys
... Mimicry exists throughout the animal kingdom, but imitation with a purpose--matching one's behavior to others'...uomi, and colleagues explored the possibility that imitation evolved earlier in the primate tree by studying neonatal imitation in rhesus monkeys, which split fr......sound like them at their first meeting, before any imitation has occurred. Parrots display a gift, rare among most animals, of learning new vocalizations throughout their lifetime. A highly social, monogamous species, the budgerigar likely uses multiple aspects of vocalizations when choosing mates and mainta......endently among hominins and chimpanzees or through imitation of humans by chimpanzees. This study confirmed that chimpanzees and human ancestors share for thousands of years several cultural attributes once thought exclusive of humanity, including transport of raw materials across the landscape; selection an...Researchers create artificial enzyme that mimics the body's internal engine
...using organic compounds as building materials. The imitation site, which involves an elaborate sequence of 32 chemical steps, was built from scratch and took several years to develop. The site contains the three active centers found in the naturally occurring enzyme: an organic molecule called phenol, an iro......st by factory ships that grind up the fish to make imitation crab and other minced-fish products.) In the last few years, Humboldt squid have also been expanding their range southward along the coast of South America, and may be threatening hake fisheries there as well. Over the last five or ten years, Humbo...