Steroids, not songs, spur growth of brain regions in sparrows
...he birds were given testosterone implants and were shifted to long-day light conditions, similar to what they would encounter during their breeding season in Alaska. The birds three song-control regions are called the HVC, RA and X. All are located in the forebrain and grow quickly and in sequence. The b...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...tonic inhibition was still present. The 2 subunits shifted toward perisynaptic locations in the epileptic mice in parallel with a decrease in phasic inhibition. The authors suggest that receptors containing 4 and relocated 2 may underlie tonic inhibition in the epileptic mice....Internal clock, external light regulate plant growth
...e moved to a more natural light/dark cycle, growth shifted several hours to occur just before dawn. In nature, that is the time when water is usually most available. The researchers identified the two genes, PIF 4 and PIF 5, that are connected to plant growth and regulated by the internal clock. The PIF 4 ...University of Cincinnati receives $1.7M to research molecular treatment of brain injury
...e risk of heart attack and stroke. Strauss then shifted his focus from suppression of the harmful COX-2 enzyme to the potential for elevating two theoretically helpful eicosanoids, known as HETEs and EETs. We believe eicosanoids reduce the number of inflammatory cells that fester around the injury site...Mother birds 'engineer' their offspring
...one than those species whose developmental time is shifted towards relatively longer stays in the nest than in the egg. Another pattern that emerges is a positive relationship between egg levels of androstenedione and colony size, suggesting that mothers prepare their offspring for the social conditions that...'Short-circuit' found in ocean circulation
...ic with the current, but in the process is spread, shifted and diffused by the circulation. Measurements of this spreading of the helium were used to deduce the short-circuit....DNA repair proteins monitored at double-strand break
...d evaluate its repaireven when particular proteins shifted away from the break to make room for others. A report on this work appears in the May 7 online issue of "Nature Cell Biology." The findings are important because disruption of the precise movement of these repair proteins can cause mutations, ce...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- May 2, 2007
...sa Jarvis describes how venture capital firms have shifted away from investment in early-stage drug development, which provides "seed money" for start-up firms to begin work on promising new drugs. Those firms now are putting cash into the later stages of drug development and commercialization, where risks ...Cooperative science program yields results
...ish are tightly schooled, part of their season was shifted to the fall so it would not interfere with sea lion feeding. In the fall, however, the cod are dispersed, resulting in longer tows and increased bycatch of halibut. Although the overall halibut mortality limit for the Gulf of Alaska has not been ex...African-Americans at increased risk for earlier preterm births
...Americans, but the median age for preterm birth is shifted two weeks earlier in African Americans. These findings together highlight the importance of race, particularly after correction for other risk factors, and suggest a probable genetic component that may underlie the public health problem presented by...MIT 'microsieve' could aid study of diseases
...ing and Microsystems Technology Laboratories. "I shifted my attention from DNA into the area of protein separation around 2002 with the shift to proteomics (the study of proteins)," Han said. "But the field was using decades-old gel electrophoresis technology. There is a big gap in the need for technology......ica. Under this circulation regime, the jet stream shifted southward, and as a result, the Pacific Northwest received much less marine moisture from the Pacific. This is consistent with earlier studies of vegetation in the Pacific Northwest, indicating that the region was significantly drier during the last ...Gene that makes people 'early to bed and early to rise' demystified
...pies of the Per2 "message," and the characteristic shifted sleep pattern. Eventually, such insight into the...teristics governed by the circadian clock that are shifted up by three to four hours. The syndrome is passed on in a dominant fashion, meaning that it takes ju...Trusting your instincts leads you to the right answer
...ne out was. They were unaware that their gazes had shifted to the target just before the image was hidden and their answers weren't guesswork at all. Dr Zhaoping said: "Our eye movements are often involuntary. What seems like a random darting of the eye is often an essential subconscious scanning technique...New study links western wildfires to Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures
...known El Nino-Southern Oscillation -- periodically shifted from a cool to a warm mode that lasted roughly 60 years each time, said the study authors. Warmer waters in the North Atlantic correspond with episodes of drought and subsequent fires in the West as shown by fire scars in annual tree rings studied ...Butterfly wing scales provide template for complex photonic structures
... the photonic structures, increasing the thickness shifted the reflected light toward the red portion of the ...rs, the color reflected by the alumina wing scales shifted from the original blue to green, yellow, orange and eventually pink, Wang noted. The complex nat...From hot springs to rice farms, scientists reveal new insights into the secret lives of archaea
...me of these organisms are doing in the environment shifted dramatically.'' That year, Francis and other scientists conducted independent studies on Crenarchaeota, a division of the Archaea domain that includes thermophiles and non-extremophiles. ''Crenarchaeota are everywhere-in soils, sediments, the deep ...A human taste for rarity spells disaster for endangered species
...easing pressure on rare species as their focus has shifted from killing the most dangerous animals to killing the rarest. The pursuit of social status and health can also trigger the anthropogenic Allee effect, as many rare species are coveted as luxury items--whether for handbags, exotic cuisine, or dining ...Report outlines funding to conserve half of Massachusetts's land
...ecent decades, Foster says, this pattern has again shifted in Massachusetts. A sprawling second wave of human-driven deforestation is consuming the state's woodlands at an estimated rate of more than 40 acres a day. "Unlike the earlier 'soft' deforestation that produced fields, which could eventually refor...End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources
...nning 200 years show several places worldwide have shifted from net deforestation to net reforestation the "forest transition." Forest transitions," says geographer and historian Dr. Mather, who coined the term, "occurred between 1810 and 1930 from the lowlands of Denmark to the mountains of Switzerland, ...