St. Jude study solves mystery of mammalian ears
...illate. That, in turn, would amplify the sound. An opposing group of scientists maintains that although the vibration of the outer hair cell body itselfsomatic motilitydoes maximize the vibration of the cilia, the cell body works independently of its cilia. That is, vibration of the mammalian cell dominates t...Unraveling the physics of DNA's double helix
...cused more attention on the chemical bonds between opposing bases, measuring their strength by "unzipping" the molecules' two strands, Marszalek said. Studies of intact DNA make it difficult for researchers to separate the stacking from the pairing forces. To get around that problem in the new study, the D...Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators
... consumers, identify those consumers and change in opposing ways depending on which consumers are present. The behavior could have implications for global climate change because Phaeocystis blooms play a key role in the carbon cycle of cold oceans, accounting for up to 85 percent of local productivity durin...'War Between the Sexes': The coevolution of genitalia in waterfowl
...ists in the oviduct appear designed to exclude the opposing twists of the male phallus. It's an exquisite anti-lock-and-key system." The number of sacs and spirals in the reproductive tract of various female waterfowl correlates strongly with the length of the male phallus. Comparing the phallus size and o...New chemistry approach promises less expensive drugs
...oesn't fit the same doors because its teeth are in opposing locations." The two forms are indistinguishable by most modern lab tests, yet our bodies can tell the difference. Where one enantiomer might be the basis for a helpful drug, its mirror image might do nothing for the body, or even damage it. "Thi...Swimming 'to the left' gets bacteria upstream, and may promote infection
...cells swim in a straight line, but near a surface, opposing forces of flow and bacterial forward motion cause the bacteria to continuously swim to one side to the left." The study determined that swimming "to the left" is a hydrodynamic process that is fundamentally related to the way the cells propel thems...Public agrees global warming exists, but divided over seriousness of problem
...h of this on media efforts to give equal weight to opposing sides of the debate. Despite this uncertainty, he said, public consensus is growing that society must tackle global warming. "We're moving toward a tipping point, but we're not quite there yet," he said. Krosnick will detail his survey findings and...AAAS honors defenders of evolution with Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award
... Kennesaw, Georgia. McCoy took on a public role in opposing a decision by the Cobb County School Board to require stickers on biology textbooks that read, in part: "Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things." The AAAS selection memorandum notes that "each of these individuals ...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...e, RS neurons responded to rotations in one of two opposing directions. Each RS group drove motoneurons that led to a corrective movement. 4. A Fly Model of Parkin-Induced PD Tzu-Kang Sang, Hui-Yun Chang, George M. Lawless, Anuradha Ratnaparkhi, Lisa Mee, Larry C. Ackerson, Nigel T. Maidment, David E. Kran...New miniaturized device for lab-on-a-chip separations
...oundary electrophoresis" (GEMBE), works instead by opposing the movement of the mixture's components with a stream of buffering solution flowing at a variable rate. Like salmon swimming upstream, only the most mobile components can move up the channel against the highest buffer flow rates, but as that flow is...JCI table of contents: December 14, 2006
...ion, but the mechanisms by which it mediates these opposing effects and which effect predominates in vivo have not been clearly established. Using mice, researchers from Emory University have shown that in vitro, IFN-gamma directly inhibits the differentiation of cells that destroy bone (osteoclasts) and indi...How movement lubricates bone joints
...flexing motion caused cartilage on the surfaces of opposing bones to slide against each other, creating so-called shear forces. In one large surface region of continuously sliding cartilage, 40 percent of the chondrocytes were secreting proteoglycan 4, whereas in the same areas of cartilage in immobilized joi......ex between two fusogenic molecules embedded in the opposing membranes. In the second protocol, two lipid vesic...se leads to the formation of membrane pores in the opposing membranes, which subsequently fuse in order to dispose of the edges of the pores. Both for ligand-...MIT designs portable 'lab on a chip'
...c pump, tiny electrodes with raised steps generate opposing slip velocities at different heights, which combine to push the fluid in one direction, like a conveyor belt. Simulations predict a dramatic improvement in flow rate, by almost a factor of twenty, so that fast (mm/sec) flows, comparable to pressure-d...Algae provide new clues to cancer
... to dissect. Understanding how cells balance the opposing processes of growth and division in order to achieve size control is more than just a fascinating intellectual pursuit for cell biologists: loss of size control is a hallmark of cancer cells, which exhibit severe defects in regulating growth and divi...Researchers to develop active nanoscale surfaces for biological separations
.... These "lipid bilayers," which are made up of two opposing layers of fat molecules, act as the cell's barrier to the outside world. DNA molecules move on these surfaces in two dimensions, much like objects on a conveyor belt. Kane and his colleagues recently discovered that the mobility of DNA molecules is c...Global changes alter plant growth schedule
...ector of the project. "It highlights the fact that opposing responses of different species to global changes may cause us to underestimate the degree to which natural communities are already responding to changing environmental conditions."...Tiny airborne particles are a major cause of climate change
...hed in Science Express online, weaves together two opposing effects of atmospheric aerosols to provide a comprehensive picture of how they may be affecting our climate. Cloud formation is dependent upon the presence of small amounts of aerosols such as sea salt and desert dust. These tiny particles serve a...Genetic tug of war determines sexual differentiation
...ation results from the interplay between these two opposing signals." The researchers published their findings in the May 22, 2006, issue of the journal Public Library of Science-Biology. Their research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. In mammals, a fertilized egg with two X chromosomes wil......vered effect is a surprise. "What we found is an opposing effect where particulate pollution changes clouds so they warm the surface," Garrett says. "This effect is most pronounced in Arctic winter when it is dark and there is no sunlight. The Arctic winter is when it is most polluted because there is almos...