Brain-mapping technique aids understanding of sleep, wakefulness
...may help to explain why once a person wakes up and moves around, he tends to stay awake. "We all know subjectively and objectively that there is a very strong force regulating sleep, but there is very little knowledge about the actual biological mechanism controlling sleep," said Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, p...Researchers make gains in understanding antibiotic resistance
... ribosome, through which the growing peptide chain moves during synthesis. This tunnel is normally blocked by macrolide antibiotics. In the mutant form, the tunnel widens, which may explain why macrolide antibiotics are no longer effective. According to Steitz, insights about the ribosomal origins of anti...NTP roadmap for the future, celebration of 25 years
...strategy will also provide a long-term vision that moves toxicology away from an animal-based enterprise, including developing non-mammalian models. "A Roadmap for the Future" defines how NTP will integrate new methodologies with proven approaches to "test smarter." Background: For more than 25 yea...A whole lot of shaking goin' on triggers early hatching in red-eyed tree frogs
...embryos start to wiggle frantically. As the snake moves to take another morsel, the embryos rupture their egg capsules, drop into the water, and, as tadpoles, swim away to safety -- hatching one to three days earlier than they would have if left undisturbed. What cues prompt the embryos to hatch early w...Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme
... action, including the way it binds to the DNA and moves along the base pairs as it recognizes and methylates the A nucleotides," says Dr. Cheng. "Using this information we can potentially design a drug to inhibit this particular enzyme's chemical reaction or its DNA binding process. This kind of rationa...Motor transport in bio-nano systems
...sive, but relative to its size, the motor molecule moves very fast: indeed, on the macroscopic scale, its m...ven more surprising if one realizes that the motor moves in a very viscous environment since it steadily undergoes many collisions with a large number of wat...PNAS highlights for the week of May 9 - 13
...orthern Thailand. In patrilocal societies, a woman moves to the village of her new husband. In matrilocal societies, a man moves to the village of his new wife. The researchers examined how this dispersal of the sexes affects the...Molecular spies illuminate drug resistance proteins
...to understand where the substrate binds and how it moves across so that one can start thinking about designing inhibitors of these molecules," Mchaourab said. "Whether it's resistance to infectious diseases or resistance to chemotherapy, the goal is to silence these proteins by designing inhibitors that b...Scientists generate patient-specific stem cells, Science study says
... disease in cells in the laboratory. The work also moves scientists one step closer to the goal of transplanting healthy cells into humans to replace cells damaged by diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes. Each of the 11 new human embryonic stem cell lines was created by transferring the nuclear geneti...Scientists use gene transfer technology and common virus to block neuropathic pain
... ganglion, but an enzyme expressed by the GAD gene moves to nerve terminals in the spinal cord where it triggers production of a powerful neurotransmitter called GABA. "GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the nervous system," Fink says. "It's like a hall monitor for the nervous system; it damp...Digging in the dirt for life's biochemical foundations
...ogen from the soil and then links it to carbon and moves this combination molecule towards the plant. Then just before delivery to the plant cell, it unhitches the carbon and releases only the nitrogen to the plant." The researchers demonstrated the results in a highly controlled laboratory environment, so...Scientists devise way to measure RNA synthesis on the fly in a live cell
...e of RNA, the MS2 fused to the fluorescent protein moves rapidly. But when bound to RNA, the fused proteins move more slowly. From the speed of motion, "we can infer the concentration of RNA present inside the detection volume and a single living cell," said Thuc Le, a graduate student in Biochemistry & M...Fragment of yellow fever virus may hold key to safer vaccine
...les. As soon as the problem is solved, the caravan moves on. Once the disease comes back, people realize they are lacking certain information." To learn more about the immune response and to identify the necessary components of an improved vaccine, ter Meulen turned to survivors of acute yellow fever in t...Hummingbird flight an evolutionary marvel
...lift with two mirror-image halfstrokes as the wing moves back and forth in a figure eight pattern, producing nearly equal lift during the downstroke and upstroke. Hummingbird wings move in a similar pattern, and like insects, a hummingbird can invert its wings turn them upside down during the upstroke a ...MIT develops 'Anklebot' for stroke patients
... of a clock. If movement does not occur, MIT-Manus moves the person's arm. If the person starts to move on his own, the robot provides adjustable levels of guidance and assistance to facilitate the person's arm movement. In the first clinical trial, the researchers found that stroke patients who used the m...Genetics center to launch new genetic-testing initiative
... As genetic testing for human disease increasingly moves from the science lab to clinical application, The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today that it is making a significant new investment in the Genetics and Public Policy Center to improve the overall effectiveness, safety, and reliability of genetic t...Global warming increases oyster sensitivity to pollution
...es continually between air, water and soils. As it moves easily through the food chain, high levels are reported in seals. In humans, cadmium interferes with calcium metabolism and deposition in the bone. Accumulation over time can cause serious illnesses such as itai itai disease. Future research will foc...Actin moves chromosomes: Discovery changes fundamental thinking
... July 13, 2005). "No one has ever shown that actin moves chromosomes," says Dr. Jan Ellenberg, the EMBL researcher whose group carried out the research. "We were able to do so because our group is one of the few that studies cell division in starfish - an ideal model for observing division in living animal......nd die. The ant adjusts its walking mechanism and moves over this slippery surface. This enables it to reach the pitcher and help itself to the food supply. Further research is going on to investigate the running and swimming mechanisms in more detail....Major new UNC-based drinking water study suggests pregnancy fears may be overstated
...ot. But overall -- on balance -- I'd say this work moves the evidence in a reassuring direction and should serve to lessen concerns." Because of the overall negative results, he and his colleagues do not plan to make policy recommendations to water managers and municipalities, he said. If possible, future ...