Engineers discover why toucan beaks are models of lightweight strength
...variety of purposes, from gathering fruit from the tips of tree branches, to defending themselves. Bird beaks are typically either short and thick or long and thin. The Meyers team decided to prospect for a novel material in toucan beaks because they are both long and thick. Emerald Forest Bird Gardens, ...Biotechnology's newest chemical tool
...d. To overcome this problem, the authors took some tips from organic chemistry textbooks and stabilized the transfer with a multiple carbon bond. "It turned out that our first bet, a double or triple carbon-carbon bond, placed next to the transferable carbon unit, helped to alleviate the problems that ha...Normal chromosome ends elicit a limited DNA damage response
...roken strands of DNA that need to be repaired, the tips of chromosomes are tucked in and shielded by a pha... the now unprotected telomeres - congregate at the tips of chromosomes. "We believe that the localization of repair proteins to chromosome ends, and detect...Scientists map one of biology's critical light-sensing structures
...ls that respond directly to light, such as in root tips and new shoots. The phytochrome revealed by the Wisconsin team was derived from a microbe known as Deinococcus radiodurans, a bacterium renowned for its tolerance to ionizing radiation. It was only within the last eight years that scientists from Vi......ns are those that connect our spinal cord with the tips of our fingers and toes. Within such an axon, microtubules provide the tracks along which molecular motors transport their cargo, such as vesicles filled with neurotransmitters. During the last decade, our knowledge about molecular motors has increa...Recreating 'Flowers for Algernon' with a happy ending
...rooves on a record," said Silva. "But surplus Ras tips the balance between switching signals on and off in the brain. This interrupts the delicate cell communication needed by the brain to record learned information." The UCLA team began searching for a safe drug that would zero in on Ras and overcome i...Survey finds family conversation key to organ donation
...alk? conversation starter guide that offers simple tips to help would-be donors initiate the critical organ donation conversation. Linkages to Life events feature local organ donors, recipients and transplant medical professionals at church services sharing their stories and discussing the dire need for o...AAAS elects NJIT professor as Fellow for math modeling research on the brain
...ying the electrical behavior of brain cells. "The tips of these electrodes must be extremely fine, about a micron in diameter," he said. To solve the Korteweg-de Vries equation, Miura helped develop the inverse scattering method for solving nonlinear partial differential equations. The equation was or...A water tale for all seasons: When it comes to hydration and exercise, the system works
...etween a 2:30 and a 2:42 marathon Common sense" tips on hydration BETHESDA, Md. (Sept. 4, 2005) For ... work of others," it added. Some 'common-sense' tips on hydration The Boy Scout adage still holds: "Check urine color. It should be relatively clear. ...Newly completed chimp genome helps scientists learn more about human DNA
...s in their coding. In both humans and chimps, the tips of the chromosomes typically accumulate mutations much more quickly than the interiors of the chromosomes. Areas of chimp and human DNA that are evolving faster than in other mammals include genes linked to ion transport, a common signaling process a...Gold bowties may shed light on molecules and other nano-sized objects
...eces of gold, each about 75 nanometers long, whose tips face each other in the shape of a miniature bowtie. The device operates like an antenna for a radio receiver, but instead of amplifying radio waves, the bowtie takes energy from an 830-nanometer beam of near-infrared light and squeezes it into a 20-n...Long sought-after flowering signal found
...t its product, the FT protein, acts at the growing tips of the plant to activate the flowering process. T...rotein, which in contrast to FT is produced at the tips of branches, is only active when bound by FT protein. Since the FT gene is induced in leaves, but FT...Gradient guides nerve growth down spinal cord
...nsory nerves. These nerves have a receptor on the tips of their growth cones, known as Frizzled3, which responds to Wnts. In this paper, the researchers show that the nerves growing in the opposite direction are driven down the cord, away from the brain, under the guidance of a receptor, known as Ryk, wi...Long-sought flower-inducing molecule found
...ed in the plant leaves is transported to the shoot tips where it induces the formation of flowers. This kn...oduce a substance that is transported to the shoot tips where it induces the formation of flowers. In the 30-ies a Russian scientist called this mysterious ...Trees, vines and nets microbial evolution changes its face
...trunk and the most recently evolved species at the tips of the branches. Microbiologists have argued for a long time that this representation doesn't really hold true for microbes, which often exchange genes among different species. Their claim has been that the evolution of these organisms is better repr...At long last, scientists figure out how plants grow
...y for the growth hormone. Auxin is produced in the tips of plant shoots and branches. The hormone travels downward toward the roots. It migrates into plant cell nuclei, where it is picked up by the TIR1 portion of a four-protein complex called SCF(TIR1). SCF(TIR1) and auxin binds to yet another protein th...PNAS highlights for the week of May 16 - 20
...d semiconductor. The chain had nonadhesive leucine tips and an adhesive aspartate center, while the semiconductor had parallel veins with alternating strong and weak adherence properties. Adhesion dropped when the separation between the veins bonding the aspartate became so small that the leucine segments...Mechanism for the captation of nutrients in plants- unknown to date
..., basic knowledge of this mechanism provides great tips for the rational design of experiments aimed at enhancing vegetable species in the interest of humanity. One of the great questions thrown up by the fact that saccharose pick-up is produced via endocitosis is, fundamentally, to find out if the saccha...Cerebral navigation: How do nerve fibers know what direction to grow in?
...ntricate network. Growth cones, structures in the tips of growing axons, are responsible for steering axons in the right direction, guided by a complex set of signals from cells they encounter along the way. Some signals lure the axons to extend and grow in a particular direction; others are inhibitory, ...... between the medicinal and the non-medicinal forms tips too far the wrong way, the bacteria can no longer adequately control the fungal infections. Although more than 100 crop protection products based on microorganisms are available throughout the world, bacteria are still not widely used in these as th...