Diatom genome reveals key role in biosphere's carbon cycle
...rating the oceans, and nutrients. "Oceanographers thought we understood how diatoms use nitrogen, but we dis...rust says. "Diatoms display features traditionally thought to be restricted to animals and other features thought to be restricted to plants. Diatoms, with com...NIH awards new $14.5 million, five-year grant to the Scripps Research Institute
...s can be solved rapidly. "Ten years ago, people thought it would be very difficult to solve kinase structures. Now they are being solved left and right," says Stevens. "The same could happen with membrane proteins -- we just need that technological breakthrough to unleash it."...Don't stand so close to me: A new view on how species coexist
...and does not age. Trade offs in life histories are thought to prevent Darwinian demons from evolving. Rather, similar species are allowed to coexist....College students recognized & rewarded for their innovative work
...n. Sahin was still an undergraduate when he first thought about the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), an instru...rying to learn the inner workings of cells. Sahin thought about making the AFM probe vibrate in a harmonic, and realized he could provide depth and richness t...... is surprising because "Homo erectus has long been thought to have gone extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago," although recent studies suggested Homo sapiens might have had contact with Homo erectus in Asia 50,000 years ago. Reed says: "Not only did modern humans live contemporaneously with c...Endangered frogs coexist with fungus once thought fatal
...ng Frog ( Rheobatrachus vitellinus ), which is now thought extinct, and the Eungella Torrent Frog ( Taudactylus eungellensis ), which later reappeared in a few small populations. In the PLoS Biology study, Retallick et al. tested tissue samples taken from frogs between 1994 and 1998 - before the disease ha...HHMI researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck win 2004 Nobel Prize
...the brain's higher cortex, which handles conscious thought processes, and to the limbic system, which generates emotional feelings. Each olfactory neuron in the epithelium is topped by at least 10 hair-like cilia that protrude into a thin bath of mucus at the cell surface. Somewhere on these cilia, scientis...Below the surface: New clues to plant signaling from the roots
...hormones, such as cytokinin and abscisic acid, are thought to be transmitted from root to shoots, yet these hormones have no clearly established role in coordinating shoot growth. In the new work, University of Utah researchers Jamie Van Norman, Rebecca Frederick, and Leslie Sieburth identify a gene, ca...Irwin Rose wins 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
...on. Cancer and some neurodegenerative diseases are thought to be related to disruptions in this pathway. From the work of Rose, Ciechanover and Hershko, it is now possible to understand at the molecular level how modification by attachment of ubiquitin results in breakdown of unwanted proteins inside cel...Old bones unearth new date for giant deer's last stand
...hange has revealed that the giant deer, previously thought to have been wiped out by a cold spell 10,500 year...annual growth of their huge antlers. Indeed, it is thought that the antlers would have prevented males from entering even moderately dense woods, at least for ...U-M scientists see ubiquitin-modified proteins in living cells
...d location within the cell. Originally, scientists thought ubiquitin was simply a universal "destroy me" signal for unneeded or harmful proteins, but it has recently been found to be associated with many other cellular functions. "The same ubiquitin signal can cause one protein to be degraded, but anothe...T cell's memory may offer long-term immunity to leishmaniasis
...op lifelong immunity to reinfection, this has been thought to depend upon the continued presence of the Leishmania parasite. Indeed, it has been shown in mice that if the parasite is entirely removed, the host can become reinfected with disease. Scott and his colleagues wondered if, despite the app...Drought in the West linked to warmer temperatures
...tern United States is so vulnerable to drought, we thought it was important to understand some of the long-term causes of drought in North America," said lead author Dr. Edward R. Cook of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory's tree ring laboratory. The study revealed that a 400-year-long period of elevated a...'Junk' DNA may be very valuable to embryos
...e third of the mouse and human genomes, previously thought to be non-functional, may play some role in the regulation of gene expression and promotion of genetic diversity. Dr. Barbara B. Knowles and colleagues from The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, found that distinct retrotransposon types are u...New method identifies chromosome changes in malignant cells
...defenses. In some instances, genes that biologists thought were being turned "on" or "off" by normal regulatory chemicals within cells may actually have been added or deleted, said Troyanskaya. When a group of genes appears to be turned on or off together, biologists often look for a master regulator that co...New study on smallpox in monkeys reveals tactics of a killer
... similar to human smallpox. Previously, scientists thought it impossible for the smallpox virus to sicken any species other than humans. Following on that discovery, Dr. Relman and a separate team of researchers did molecular-level analysis of how the smallpox infection altered gene expression patterns i...Study in Royal Society journals presents evidence for inherited factors in homosexuality
...spicuous coloration and ornamentation in males are thought to result from sexual selection. However, these 'showy' traits can also incur increased predation risk. We examined the trade-off between sexual selection and natural selection in dragon lizards. Our results reveal that in species occupying closed ...UNC scientists identify sticky protein in sickle cell red blood cells
...fellow in Parise's laboratory. "It was previously thought that sickle red blood cells lodged in blood vessels because they're sickle-shaped, more rigid and just became physically stuck," said Brittain, the study's co-author. "But while the physical lodging is a component, an equally important component is t...Health, food, new technologies featured during ACS meeting Oct. 17-20 in Peoria, Ill.
...and other foods, they say. Dark honey is generally thought to contain higher levels of antioxidants than the ...ging from margarine to cookies to fried snacks and thought to cause elevated levels of bad cholesterol, will be the focus of an afternoon symposium entitled Ap...Effort to control trade in great white sharks gets teeth from international community
...arks, along with many other shark species, are now thought to be endangered by a combination of game fishing and commercial harvests for fins, which are highly sought in Asia's fish markets for shark fin soup. There are no exact figures on regional or worldwide populations of great whites. "The great white s...