A new study of living cells could revolutionize the way we test drugs
...chers modified apparatus used originally to detect weak magnetic fields in superconductors*. Unfortunately, these modifications reduced the sensitivity of the technique, and the normal activity of the yeast cell could not be detected. This is the first time such a technique has been used on a living cell....Mutation improves memory, may lead to memory-enhancing pill
...the researchers explained. One, which is evoked by weak training protocols, yields only transient phenomenaincluding short-term memory, lasting for minutes to hours, or the beginning stages of longer-term memory storage, lasting for one to three hours. The second component, which follows strong or repetit...Are all male's liars and cheaters? Yes -- if they're crayfish!
...Males were routinely bluffing their opponents with weak claws to achieve dominance. They used claws more for intimidation than actual strength. Male crayfish lie and cheat their way to the top, whilst females appear to be honest displayers of their own strength, Robbie Wilson said. This is important wo...Engineering the heart piece by piece
...placed every few years. And people with clogged or weak blood vessels might get a new natural replacement, instead of a factory-made one. These possibilities are all within reach, and could transform the way heart care is delivered, say University of Michigan Medical School researchers in the new issue ...Targeting tumors the natural way
...en several receptors are displayed together. These weak "multivalent" interactions cut down on cases of mistaken identity, because if the agent contacts the wrong cell type, it can be easily displaced. The team got the idea to mimic this process from efforts to transplant pig organs into primates. The su...Some caterpillers just don't want to grow up
...rrently available data, the effect seems to be too weak to fully explain the large proportion of caterpillars delaying development. Based on a simple model expansion, the scientists predict that added benefits achieved by slow-developers after emergence would also tip the balance in favor of slow developm...Largest physics meeting of the year, in Denver
...at this slight asymmetry could be an effect of the weak nuclear force. Future studies will use a new free-electron laser to probe other electron energy levels in RNA. (V35.7) AMOEBAE MAY BE SMARTER THAN WE THINK Unless they are following the smell of food, microbes are generally thought to move in a...2-step process filters evolution of genes of human and chimpanzee
...l, neutral or beneficial, the selective forces are weak and luck determines their fates. In step two, a new mutation that has been fortunate enough to survive the initial elimination process, and confers some benefit, can then spread quickly through positive selection. The more radical the mutation, ...A first glimpse of the influenza replication machine
...d to understand the flu polymerase and to look for weak points that could be targeted by drugs," says Darren Hart, whose team participated in the research at EMBL Grenoble. "But no one could get enough protein to analyse its structure. We developed a way to use robots to screen tens of thousands of experi...AGU Journal highlights -- February 23, 2007
...y tremors, which consist of swarms of intermittent weak signals at relatively low frequencies (1 to 8 hertz) and last from days to a few weeks once activity begins, were first discovered along Japan's Nankai trough, a location known to generate great earthquakes. Previous research has suggested that these...Treatment extends survival in mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy
.... However, the drugs in those clinical trials are weak HDAC inhibitors with other biological effects that may limit their usefulness for treating this disease. More importantly, none of the previous studies has demonstrated that HDAC inhibitors can extend survival when delivered after symptoms appeared....Problem forgetting may be a natural mechanism gone awry
...hers examined the animals neurons and used a slow, weak electrical signal to make the synapses less sensitive - an effort to squelch or depress the cellular communication - he found that the samples from younger animals and older animals that had the highest memory scores throughout their lives were more ...Largest-ever search for autism genes reveals new clues
...es just as a high level of static can drown out a weak radio signal. To amplify the power of possible linkages detected, the researchers analyzed many subsets of data, variously excluding from the sample factors like the submicroscopic anomalies, female sex, and ethnicity. These analyses unmasked seve...Changes in west coast marine ecosystems significant
...through the 1990s characterized by warm waters and weak upwelling. That regime ended abruptly in late 1998, and the California Current system entered a four-year period of cold ocean conditions, according to Bill Peterson, a NOAA oceanographer who works out of OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newp...World's oldest rocks show how Earth may have dodged frozen fate of Mars
...d water existed at Earth's surface even though the weak sun should have been unable to warm the planet above freezing conditions. But high concentrations of CO2 or methane could have warmed the planet, according to the research team. The ancient rocks from Quebec contain iron carbonates believed to hav...'Electric' fish shed light on ways the brain directs movement
...s type of fish does something remarkable: it emits weak electrical signals which it uses to "see" in the dark. According to Fortune, several characteristics, including this electric sense, make this fish a superb subject for the study of how the brain uses sensory information to control locomotion. "Th...Some brain-damaged patients quit smoking with ease, researchers report in Science
...anialmagnetic stimulation, which involves inducing weak electrical currents in the brain tissue, to disrupt the insula's activity. (Currently this technique doesn't penetrate deep enough to reach the insula, however.) "The insula also carries out lots of normal everyday functions so we would want to ma...Drug strategy makes cancer genes get lost in translation
...he discovery of a small molecule that targets such weak mRNA, preferentially interrupting its translation ..., the researchers explained. The lengthy region of weak mRNAs serves as an obstacle for the ribosomal machinery that does the translating, making it a chall...Scientists identify gene that may indicate predisposition to schizophrenia
... a region that has been previously shown to have a weak correlation to schizophrenia. A number of environmental factors, including prenatal exposure to disease, have been reported as risk factors of schizophrenia. However, the researchers argue that sensitivity to environmental stressors varies widely am...Big vegetarian mammals can play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, study finds
...was possible to predict where the effects would be weak or strong in terms of "primary productivity"-the transformation of solar energy into plant tissue during photosynthesis. Plants in areas of high primary productivity grow faster, making more energy available throughout the food chain. The study revea...