Re-discovered ivory billed woodpecker still faces challenge to survival
...rmation of live birds for many decades. "It's not surprising that the ivory-billed woodpecker has gone undiscovered for so long. With massive staffing shortages and a $2 billion funding backlog, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service simply can't know everything happening within their refuges," said Hirsche. The 5...Unexpected lock and key mechanism found for the assembly of tumor blood vessels
...becca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, made the surprising discovery that a receptor-ligand pair previously identified as key regulators of immune cell function puts the finishing touches on newly constructed blood vessels by allowing the two cell layers of blood vessels to recognize and "lock" together. The...From photovoltaics to solar thermal collectors: Evaluating and improving green design
... operations to 28 percent of its previous total (a surprising 13 percent of the national office average for a building of the same size). Total energy usage was 89,669 kWh, with 30,469 kWh being generated onsite by a photovoltaic (PV) system, indicating that 34 percent of the facility's total energy requirement...Scripps research scientists identify infertility molecule
...of LPA receptor knock-out mice for LPA3 produced a surprising phenotype -- fertility problems. Analyses revealed that the spacing of the embryos in the womb was altered, and the number of implanted embryos was reduced (mice have litters of pups, typically giving birth to eight or so offspring with each pregnanc...Discovery of an American salamander where it shouldn't be: Korea
...d so here (in Korea) they show up, and in the most surprising way, when some guy who's a high school teacher from Illinois goes out with his class and says, 'Let's look for salamanders, let's see what we can find when we turn over rocks and logs.'" To date, the salamander has been found in 16 locations in three...Motor transport in bio-nano systems
...o runs 200 meters in one second! This is even 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 water molecules. Because of these collisions, the molecular motor has a finite run length: After a few seconds, it u...Killer dinosaurs turned vegetarian
...issorhands," Zanno says. Kirkland says it is not surprising that Falcarius represents an intermediate step between carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs because "all lines of plant-eating animals had meat-eating ancestors." Long before Falcarius existed, numerous plant-eating dinosaurs such as brachiosaurs al...Heart failure wall stress drops 38% with moderate thyroid hormone therapy
...ss. Additionally, the anatomical changes led to a surprising reduction in left ventricular systolic wall stress despite the presence of sustained hypertension." Next steps Since there appears to be such a strong link between low thyroid function and heart failure, more animal studies need to focus on this ...Location, location, location: Effect of nuclear organization on transcriptional status
... components. This finding represents a relatively surprising positive role for gene recruitment to the nuclear periphery. "The large extent of gene reorganization in response to a developmental switch is quite amazing and represents a new level of control that will have far reaching implications in, for exampl...Social amoeba sheds light on communication in human brain
...ctyostelium discoideum as it does in humans. Their surprising finding that Valium, as well as a "natural Valium" molecule found in human brains, causes the social amoeba to enter a dormant or "sleep" phase, may provide new insights into how cells in higher organisms, including humans, communicate with each othe...Lack of coherent cloning policies reflects polarized debate, limited understanding, study says
...the report says. "Given this situation, it is not surprising that lawmakers in Washington and in various state legislatures have not been able to reach consensus on laws to regulate cloning, or how cloning ultimately might be used in medicine." "Cloning: A Policy Analysis" is available on the web site for The...New polysaccharide may help combat multidrug resistance in cancer
...that would result in drug resistance. "It is very surprising that hyaluronan is involved in drug resistance," admits Dr. Toole. "Most scientists think of hyaluronan as a structural and inert molecule. In adult tissues it plays two roles. First, it assists in tissue hydration and in biophysical properties such ...After a time-shift, mixed signals from the circadian clock
...he central circadian clock, the researchers made a surprising discovery: one part of the clock mechanism, represented by a dorsal (upper) group of cells, exhibited oscillations in activity that corresponded to slow resetting of the clock in response to the shifted light schedule, while another part of the clock...Marine sponge yields nanoscale secrets
...he protein is an enzyme that acts as a catalyst a surprising discovery. Never before had a protein been found to serve as a catalyst to promote chemical reactions to form the glass or a rock-like material of a biomineral. From that discovery, the researchers learned that this enzyme actively promotes the forma...Difference in talking louder, talking over noise depends on verbal cues, internal targets
...ed in but no instructions on how loud to speak. A surprising thing happened. The average comfortable speech level was around 80dB, about the sound level of manual tools or a doorbell ringing. The 80dB was for all subjects, regardless of sex or interaction effects. Even more amazing was that in all three of the...'Molecular zipper' may hold important clues to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and mad cow disease
... the code of its amino acids, GNNQQNY -- reveals a surprising "molecular zipper" that Eisenberg described as "pa...form fibrils. She and her colleagues reported this surprising finding in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. "Like a detective,......in their genetic origin. "These findings were both surprising and interesting, because with standard microarray analysis of messenger RNA, for every different question that you want to ask, you use totally different mRNAs that are informative for that particular question. So, it would be simply out of the quest...Discovery suggests why stem cells run through stop signs
...microRNAs do within cells keeps growing in new and surprising ways," added Carthew. "This latest discovery with stem cell division makes us wonder if microRNAs also control division of other types of cells such as cancer cells." Other authors on the Nature paper are Kenji Nakahara of Northwestern University ...Parasite whips up ideas for bowel cancer treatments
...f how the body expels parasitic worms has led to a surprising new discovery about the immune system that could help in the treatment of bowel cancer. Scientists investigating whipworms, parasites that infect one-fifth of the world's population as well as livestock and domestic animals, have discovered a new way......t the Catholic University of Leuven has led to the surprising finding that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in this disease process. Subsequent research into using VEGF as a possible treatment shows promise. A gift from the ALS Association The ALS Association was founded t...