Oxygen in Biological News

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... the climate was warmer, ocean basins were oxygen poor, voluminous volcanism occurred, and Earth's ... and intense in this time. Middle Miocene oxygen minimum zone expansion offshore West Africa: ... limestones tell us a great deal about sulfur and oxygen cycles in the ocean at the time that those ...

Bad mitochondria may actually be good for you

... called MCLK1 produce elevated amounts of reactive oxygen when young; that should spell disaster, yet ... explaining the aging process; over time, reactive oxygen species produced by mitochondria while they make ... energy inefficient and produced a lot of harmful oxygen radicals; yet surprisingly, when these mice were ...

Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'

... gas than methane. On the early Earth, where oxygen was absent from the atmosphere, sulfates were ... manganese and iron oxides are made in today's oxygen atmosphere, they where also formed by photochemical reactions in a low oxygen atmosphere. These oxides were probably more ...

Explosive growth of life on Earth fueled by early greening of planet

... that sequestered carbon, led to the build up of oxygen and allowed higher life forms to evolve. ... the Precambrian world which featured low oxygen levels and simple, bacteria dominant life forms into the kind of world we have today with abundant oxygen and higher forms of plant and animal life." ...

Scientists track chemical changes in cells as they endure extreme conditions

... meaning it can't survive in the presence of oxygen yet it participates in many geochemical processes in which oxygen levels fluctuate. For example, it thrives in algae mats, which produce very high concentrations of oxygen during the day. Scientists have puzzled over ...

Toxic molecule may help birds 'see' north and south

... zero spin. They suggested that molecular oxygen is that partner," Schulten said. "We propose that the reaction partner is not the benign oxygen molecule that we all breathe, but its close cousin, superoxide, a negatively charged oxygen molecule." When Solov'yov showed that ...

NOAA forecast predicts large 'dead zone' for Gulf of Mexico this summer

... is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in ... decomposes, and consumes most of the life-giving oxygen supply in the water. The dead zone size was ... size of the dead zone. This hypoxic, or low-to-no oxygen area, is of particular concern because it ...

Protein regulates movement of mitochondria in brain cells

... regulator (HUMMR), is produced in a state of low oxygen called hypoxia. HUMMR is induced by another ... in the cell that help it function in a low oxygen environment. The primary role of HUMMR is to ... in that the body operates at a relatively low oxygen level. While the air we breath consists of ...

Simple drug treatment may prevent nicotine-induced SIDS: Study

... after birth, the adrenal glands act as a critical oxygen sensor. A drop in blood oxygen levels will stimulate the release of ... the adrenal glands were able to respond to oxygen deprivation, therefore reversing the lethality of ...

Pediatric carbon monoxide poisoning linked to video games after Hurricane Ike

... the only hospital in Houston with a hyperbaric oxygen treatment center that is capable of treating ... combustion of organic matter with an insufficient oxygen supply. When kept inside the home generators give ... A hyperbaric chamber is used to give 100 percent oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure to patients ...

Tips from the American Journal of Pathology

... Pathol 2009, 174: 2073-2085 Treatment for oxygen Toxicity Dr. Marieke van Zoelen and ... identified a therapeutic target for preventing oxygen toxicity. They present these findings in the ... Journal of Pathology . Breathing molecular oxygen at high pressures may ...

Tumor growth and chemo response may be predicted by mathematical model

... in brain cancer. Tumors obtain nutrients and oxygen by harnessing the surrounding blood vessels and ... Since there typically aren't enough nutrients and oxygen to support tumor cells, an uneven distribution of ... of the uneven distribution of cell nutrients and oxygen to overall tumor behavior. For different ...

Computer model predicts brain tumor growth and evolution

... model was built on formulas that predict how much oxygen tumor cells consume and the rate of oxygen diffusion, and quantitative measures of cell ... manipulated. For example, to test if oxygen consumption rates influence tumor growth, the ...

Babies born to native high-altitude mothers have decreased risk of low birth weight

... to the Andes Mountains deliver more blood and oxygen to their fetuses at high altitude than do women ... artery of Andean women delivered more blood and oxygen to the fetus compared to women of European ... the uterine artery blood flow, the greater the oxygen delivery to the fetus and the greater the baby's ...

Star Trek-like technology offers noninvasive monitor for patients and athletes

... system that uses light to measure tissue oxygen and pH will soon be an alternative to the painful ... astronauts know how quickly they are using up the oxygen in their life-support backpacks. If spacewalking ... to determine metabolic rate, along with tissue oxygen and pH. One unique advantage of Dr. Soller's near ...

New study overturns orthodoxy on how macrophages kill bacteria

... their most potent poisons, known as reactive oxygen species (ROS), on targets outside the cytoplasm. ... more cells. "It's been assumed that reactive oxygen species kill the bacteria by going into the ... suggests that the superoxide and other reactive oxygen species are not making it from the macrophage ...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 15, 2009

... sensor first for instant monitoring of brain oxygen Analytical Chemistry Scientists in Italy ... sensor that gives second-by-second readings of oxygen levels in the brain. The new microsensor smaller ... treatments to raise or lower their brain oxygen levels. The simple sensor quickly and reliably ...

Weizmann Institute scientists develop a unique approach for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen

... a new mode of bond generation between oxygen atoms and even defined the mechanism by which it takes place. In fact, it is the generation of oxygen gas by the formation of a bond between two oxygen atoms originating from water molecules that ...

A missing enzyme conveys major heart protection in pre-clinical work

... damage to their heart pumps and a lack of oxygen in their heart tissues, which are typical effects ... if you block the major artery to a heart, oxygen tension drops in the tissues you can't get oxygen to the tissues and they die," Stamler said. "This ...

Microbes in mud flats clean up oil spill chemicals

... of the chemicals depending on whether or not oxygen is present. In aerobic conditions (where oxygen is present), benzene, toluene and naphthalene, ... rapidly degraded by microbes. In the absence of oxygen degradation was slower and only toluene was ...

Deep-sea rocks point to early oxygen on Earth

... that not only did the oceans contain abundant oxygen then, but that the atmosphere was as oxygen rich as it is today, according to geologists. ... there is hematite, there is not necessarily oxygen in the water or the atmosphere." The key to ...

Water acts as catalyst in explosives

... Detonations of high explosives made up of oxygen and hydrogen produce water at thousands of ... the atoms act as a dynamic team that transports oxygen between reaction centers. "This was news to ... (H) and hydroxide (OH) atoms in water transport oxygen from nitrogen storage to carbon fuel under PETN ...

ORNL, Southern Cal set sights on preventing blindness

... diseases that starve eye tissue and nerves of oxygen might be averted with a procedure being developed ... new class of smart prosthetic implants to provide oxygen to retinal tissue being deprived of oxygen because of restricted blood flow. This condition ...

Symposium to look at genetic basis of exercise

... The heart can pump more blood, delivering more oxygen to the muscles. The muscles get stronger, and so ... The more capillaries in the muscle, the more oxygen the muscle will have available during exercise. ... while researchers measure changes in maximal oxygen uptake (a measure of aerobic fitness), blood ...

Dancing 'adatoms' help chemists understand how water molecules split

... RICHLAND, Wash. -- Single oxygen atoms dancing on a metal oxide slab, glowing ... chemists better understand how water splits into oxygen and hydrogen. In the process, the scientists have ... water. The chemical reactions between water and oxygen are central to such varied processes as hydrogen ...

Stem cell infusion and hyperbaric oxygen treatment improve islet function in diabetes

... hyperbaric (above the normal air pressure of ) oxygen treatment (HBO) before and after ASC has found ... of Stem Cell Argentina. "In addition, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, used primarily in the treatment of ... remedy. Once more, the effect of the hyperbaric oxygen therapy, they hypothesized, would be to increase ...

Sea Grant awards $820,000 for research under EPA's Long Island Sound study

... the historical problem of the Sound's low oxygen conditions as well as emerging issues of red tide ... will examine hypoxia--the condition of low oxygen that presents numerous environmental challenges. ... dissolved gases in the Sound to gain insight into oxygen exchange between surface and bottom waters. ...

Researcher seeks to turn stem cells into blood vessels

... of these environmental factors is the amount of oxygen to which the stem cells are exposed. Reducing the oxygen these cells require creates a condition called ... "because some research indicates that a lack of oxygen causes stem cells to form blood vessels in order ...

Study: Fluid buildup in lungs is part of the damage done by the flu

... in the lungs, interfering with the supply of oxygen to the rest of the body. An immune response ... high doses of an influenza A virus to compare oxygen levels and fluid clearance in infected mice to ... doses of flu experienced a steady decline in oxygen in their blood and higher levels of fluid in the ...

Dramatic expansion of dead zones in the oceans

... findings are reported in a paper 'Long-term ocean oxygen depletion in response to carbon dioxide emissions ... weaken in response to global warming, these oxygen minimum zones would expand much more still and invade the deep ocean." Extreme events of ocean oxygen depletion leading to anoxia are thought to be ...

Researchers first to 'see' reactive oxygen species in vital enzyme

... reactions, including those that use molecular oxygen (O2) to help convert food into energy in animals, ... and in some types of bacteria a process known as oxygen activation. Although scientists have ... flavoproteins, they've been blind to exactly what oxygen activation looks like within these enzymes. ...

Study helps explain connection between sleep apnea, stroke and death

... hindering or stopping breathing and causing blood oxygen levels to drop and blood pressure to rise. The ... and begins breathing, restoring normal blood oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Ordinarily, the ... flow velocity had significantly lower blood oxygen levels during sleep took longer to recover from ...

Ocean acidification from CO2 emissions will cause physiological impairment to jumbo squid

... emissions. They found that the squid's routine oxygen consumption rate was reduced under these ... and deeper waters during the daytime where oxygen levels are extremely low. "Squids suppress ... surface waters at night," he said. "If this low oxygen layer expands into shallower waters, the squids ...

Researchers create new class of fluorescent dyes to detect reactive oxygen species in vivo

... to detect and measure the presence of reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are highly reactive metabolites of oxygen that have been implicated in a variety of ...

Cost of hatchling turtles' dash for freedom

... Queensland decided to measure hatchling turtles' oxygen consumption rates as they swam for safety. Booth ... to sea. Meanwhile, Booth measured the youngsters' oxygen consumption as they swam for 18hours to find out ... after embarking. Analysing the hatchlings' oxygen consumption, Booth found the same trend ...

Drops in blood oxygen levels may be key to sudden death in some epilepsy patients

... during seizures. "Significant drops in blood oxygen levels are more common than we thought in ... to find that 12 percent of these patients' blood oxygen levels actually dropped below 70 percent during ... females to experience dangerously low levels of oxygen during seizures. The findings support the idea ...

AGU journal highlights: Nov. 11, 2008

... 7. Studying Saturn's oxygen ion supply NASA's Cassini spacecraft is ... and satellites, Martens et al. study molecular oxygen ions (O 2 + ), a minor species they estimate to ... indicating that Rhea is a source of neutral oxygen to the inner magnetosphere. Title: ...

Montana State University researchers find gene that regulates mold's resistance to drugs

... infections even when inflammation reduces its oxygen supply, said Robert Cramer, senior author of a ... the mold becomes much more vulnerable to lack of oxygen and can no longer grow to cause disease. The ... the gene, the mutant could no longer grow when oxygen was limited, which occurs during mold infections. ...

Red-eyed treefrog embryos actively avoid asphyxiation inside their eggs

... early developmental stage actively respond to oxygen levels in the eggas reported in the Nov. 7, 2008 ... is available inside. Warkentin has measured oxygen levels as low as 2% air saturated in the middle ... movement, kept their developing head in the oxygen sweet spot. "Once we started with the behavior ...

Where optics meets medicine

... a stroke, part of the brain becomes starved of oxygen and nutrients. When this happens, neurons in that ... because hemoglobin, the protein that ferries oxygen within the bloodstream, will absorb light differently depending on whether it carries oxygen or not. Recently Hoy and his colleagues ...