Evolutionary scrap-heap challenge: Antifreeze fish make sense out of junk DNA
...fe has produced many coding genes and conventional thinking assumes that new genes must come from pre-existing ones because the probability of a random stretch of DNA somehow becoming a functional gene is very low if not nil. This cod antifreeze gene might be an exception to this because it consists of a shor...Vitamin D and flavonoids examined for impact on breast and ovarian cancers
... future breast cancer risk," Knight said. "Current thinking is that exposures during adolescence or before a full-term pregnancy may have a greater effect, as that is when breast tissue is going through the most rapid development." Knight emphasizes that these findings are preliminary estimates of the risk re...Blood pressure medication may revolutionize treatment of Marfan syndrome
...ransforming growth factor beta. In a sea change in thinking about the origins of the disease, researchers have...ion led Dietz's group to a radical change in their thinking about the nature of Marfan syndrome. Instead of the disease being caused by loss of a structural pro...Other highlights in the April 19 JNCI
...rmine if surrogate endpoints are closer to wishful thinking or reality." Contacts: Article: Elizabeth Streich, Columbia University, 212-305-6535, eas2125@columbia.edu , and Tracy Hinkenbottom, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 212-305-5587, trh9001@nyp.org Editorial: NCI Press Officers, 301-496-6641, NCIPre...World first research to speed up cure for ear infections
...dical treatment. "We tend to ignore ear infections thinking they will go away or we might have a reluctance to visit the doctor but in third-world countries the problem is common due to the lack of available treatment," he said. Dr Ghassemifar said the results of other gene targeting research have indicated ...Even at small scales, the big decisions are made at the water cooler
...ually can understand, and it will give us a way of thinking about the harder problems of understanding the brain as a whole." Under observation, even two retinal cells located right next to each other seem to be marching to different drummers rather than being coordinated very strongly. But when the team look...Lactic acid not athlete's poison, but an energy source - if you know how to use it
...right thing. These discoveries reshape fundamental thinking on the organization, function and regulation of major pathways of metabolism."...Lack of a key enzyme dramatically increases resistance to sepsis
...er-production runs contrary to some of the current thinking in sepsis research," Ulevitch said. "The general thinking is that this initial cytokine 'storm' is harmful, and that belief has been the basis of a number of ...Penn researchers discover gene that creates second skeleton
...nd in post-natal tissues will undoubtedly re-focus thinking and stimulate new research directions," says Shore. "This discovery will have a major impact on the study of skeletal biology and regenerative medicine. "This single amino acid substitution is predicted to change the sensitivity and activity of the r...Discoveries should aid research into cause of ALS
...ve disorders. "For some time researchers have been thinking that copper, which causes the protein to be bluish-green in color, was the bad guy in this disease," said O'Halloran. "But the data has been building up to say that something else may be responsible for the toxicity. Our results suggest that the stat...NIEHS Director unveils new strategic plan for environmental health sciences
...ving document that reflects the current collective thinking about the direction the field of environmental sciences needs to go," said Dr. Schwartz. "We will continue to have open and frank discussions with members of the public, researchers, community advocates, and practitioners as we set priorities and ta...Balancing male fertility and disease resistance
...velopment, which will greatly influence our way of thinking in future studies."...Research shows how visual stimulation turns up genes to shape the brain
...rcuits." These discoveries may lead to new ways of thinking about genetic therapies to correct early vision disorders. Because the brain is so altered by abnormal vision, restoring vision to a child afflicted with cataracts or strabismus, an eye misalignment which can impair vision, may not be enough to corre...Scientists find gene in obese mice that increases type 2 diabetes
...sease. "The hope is this will open up scientists' thinking to realize that there are other cells of importance (in diabetes) beyond beta cells," says Susanne Clee, the lead author of the new Nature Genetics study. Genetic factors are believed to account for roughly half of an individual's risk of developing ...Robots manipulating animal behaviour
... the infiltrator robots even fool the insects into thinking they are real creatures. The roach pheromones a blend of molecules developed by the project partner from the Universit de Rennes I, France enable various forms of communication, including recognition and attraction. For example, when a roach detect...K-Staters design and build a low-cost remote sensing tool for environmental studies
...op fields for problem areas, for example. "We keep thinking of new civilian uses for it," Ham said. He also said it will help his own research, which focuses on measuring the movement of gases between the prairie and the atmosphere. Ham collects data via a mini-network of six meteorological towers on the Konz......ng to feed the queen's larvae. Previous scientific thinking indicated that the variation in help given might be proportional to genetic relatedness. Those less closely related to the queen would help out less. This new study, however, shows that more distantly related wasps aren't in fact lazier. Instead, th...Massive duplication of genes may solve Darwin's 'abominable mystery' about flowering plants
...to, and tobacco, and longer ago in maize. But the thinking was that human breeders might be artificially selecting for duplication events in crop species by "selecting desirable traits like rapid growth, high yield, and even large stature," says dePamphilis. Detection of still more ancient whole-genome dupli...Methane-belching bugs inspire a new theory of the origin of life on Earth
...nary work as well." "We've taken a new approach to thinking about the evolution of life from a thermodynamic perspective," Ferry says. "It reshapes the two previous theories of life's origin, it shows how they overlap, and it extends both of them significantly." The apparently irreconcilable "heterotrophic" ...