Which came first, the moth or the cactus?
...desert. That's important because his ultimate goal reaches far beyond the Sonoran Desert to a fundamental rethinking of ecological theory for such mutualistic interactions. "I develop theoretical models, equations that attempt to explain mutualistic relationships like the one between the moth and the cactu...Study finds contaminated water reaching Florida's offshore keys
...taminated groundwater mixes with surface water and reaches the reef, the corals as well as human health might be harmed. The findings were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Water Quality Protection Program Steering Committee in Marathon, Fla. Lipp and doctoral s...Increase in creeping vines signals major shift in southern US forests
...and essentially reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the forest floor. Some of the competing plants die because they can't get enough light. The likely result is that more vines will grow on existing trees, and compete directly with tree seedlings, Allen said. A steady increase in vine numbers will l...Brightly colored birds most affected by Chernobyl radiation
...inly in mountain regions where the underlying rock reaches the surface. There are no studies of the biological consequences of such variation in natural levels of radioactivity, but we suggest that some of the consequences can be predicted from the present study....A new system for collaboration in cell communication
...ecurity measure designed to ensure that the signal reaches the receptor cell in the proper fashion, neither too weakly nor too strongly. Using RNA interference techniques (RNAi), the researchers observed that it was necessary to disactivate the signal in both groups of cells in order to prevent the message f...Fine particulate matter from traffic may influence birth weight
...at a minor fraction of the fine particulate matter reaches the blood through the lungs and influences the placenta or other organs which are responsible for regulating the growth of the foetus. Studies from the US and Poland have for example shown that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which are produc...Physicist cracks women's random but always lucky choice of X chromosome
... nascent protein plugs narrowly wins that race and reaches an energy state in which it can pull together all the material building up in both plugs into a single protein plug. That single plug then closes off one of the XIST suicide genes allowing its host X chromosome to continue to operate. However the oth...Study helps preserve Arctic whale, Eskimo subsistence hunt
...serve a primary food source for Eskimos in the far reaches of Alaska, and also may provide a useful tool for studying genetic variation in other migratory animals. The bowhead whale, devastated in the 19th and early 20th centuries by commercial whaling fleets, has been a food staple for Eskimos and other ...Pointing a finger at the source of fecal bacteria
...reek the most contaminated tributary to the middle reaches of the Platte River. The researchers used two fecal source-tracking tools to analyze contaminated water and stream-sediment samples in the Plum Creek watershed. The source-tracking tools use genetic material from bacteria collected in water and se...Ocean's 'twilight zone' may be a key to understanding climate change
... below the surface. Because the carbon often never reaches the deep ocean, where it can be stored and prevented from re-entering the atmosphere as a green-house gas, the oceans may have little impact on changes in the atmosphere or climate. The research is the result of two international expeditions to the...Terahertz imaging goes the distance
...bs THz radiation so strongly that most of it never reaches the object to be imaged. At the upcoming CLEO/QELS meeting in Baltimore, an MIT-Sandia team will demonstrate the first real-time THz imaging system that obtains images from 25 meters away. The technique takes advantage of the fact that there are a ...Scientists track impact of Asian dust and pollution on clouds, climate change
...ds, precipitation, and the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth," explains NCAR scientist Jeff Stith, a principal investigator on the project. "We want to determine how the various particles of dust and pollutants influence clouds and climate, and how far downwind those effects occur." "PACDEX comes at a ...NASA predicts nongreen plants on other planets
...sed on the planets atmosphere where the most light reaches the planets surface. The dominant photosynthesis might even be in the infrared. "This work will help guide designs for future space telescopes that will study extrasolar planets, to see if they are habitable, and could have alien plants," said Vict...Researchers figure out what makes a simple biological clock tick
...d Up2 the phosphorylation level increases until it reaches a peak level. Following this "P" phase, the hexamers begin dephosphorylating through phases Down1, Down2 and Down3, reaching its lowest level in the "T" phase (T for trough) and then it starts over. The analysis also found that, in addition to KaiA,...Volcanic plumbing dictates development of deep-sea hydrothermal vents
...ling are aligned. More heat from volcanic activity reaches the sea floor, and both sides of the ridge are flat and wide, with an abundance of lava being erupted. The non-aligned zones, where magma upwelling is not directly beneath the rise, are deeper, with less frequent eruptions on the surface, and they la...Tracking sperm whales and jumbo squid
...s species is found only in the eastern Pacific, it reaches from Alaska to Chile and supports the largest cephalopod fishery in the world," said Gilly, an authority on squid who is based at Stanfords Hopkins Marine Station. "Its very rare to find a place like the Gulf of California where you can actually se...Joslin researchers discover a surprising culprit in the search for causes of diabetic birth defects
...s, the research does suggest that once the glucose reaches the concentration where the Glut2 transporter functions efficiently, that is probably sufficient to cause malformations," said Dr. Loeken. "The best we can do now to prevent malformations in diabetic pregnancy is to help a woman establish good blood ...First direct electric link between neurons and light-sensitive nanoparticle films created
...uthor on the Nano Letters paper. "When the current reaches the neuron membrane, it depolarizes the cell to the point where it fires, and you get a signal in the nerve." Although light signals have previously been transmitted to nerve cells using silicon (whose ability to turn light into electricity is empl...Vitamin D deficiency widespread during pregnancy
...rthern latitudes, where less ultraviolet radiation reaches the Earth. Indeed, vitamin D deficiency is more than three times as common in winter than in summer for all women of childbearing age in the United States. Even so, the Pittsburgh researchers' study is cause for concern. "This study is among the la...Vet College gets grant to develop fish virus diagnostic technique
...rigerated, the virus will decompose by the time it reaches the lab." The researchers also will investigate the virus' stability in fresh and turbid water to see how these conditions impact detection. The grant will specifically focus on muskellunge fisheries in the St. Lawrence River, Chautauqua Lake and the...