alkaline

Hydrogen and methane provide raw energy for life at 'Lost City'

...roorganisms at Lost City are living in fluids with alkaline pH that ranges from 9 to 11, which is nearly as caustic as Liquid-Plumr, Kelley says. This compares to the previously studied black-smoker vents where organisms are well adjusted to acidic pHs. Further, she says, Lost City microbes appear to live of...

Life in deadly conditions

...nditions. It was found in pools which are strongly alkaline (pH-value of about 11) with an extremely high salt...y, and in contrast to other organisms that grow in alkaline conditions, functions with a "normal" proton. The Max Planck researchers could thus refute the parad...

Study uncovers placental microtransfusions lead to transmission of AIDS virus during childbirth

...cord blood samples -- a protein known as placental alkaline phosphatase as an indicator of maternal-fetal microtransfusion. "This enzyme, made in the placenta, is very big -- usually too big to pass through the natural barrier that protects babies from disease-causing organisms mothers sometimes carry before...

How sperm crack the whip

...ong been known that a spermatozoa's arrival in the alkaline environment of the female reproductive tract trigg...the sperm cell membrane called ion channels. In an alkaline environment, these pores open and allow calcium to enter the cell. In earlier experiments, the res...

Report warns about carbon dioxide threats to marine life

...nteraction with carbon dioxide is making them less alkaline and more acidic. The increased acidity lowers the concentration of carbonate ion, a building block of the calcium carbonate that many marine organisms use to grow their skeletons and create coral reef structures. "This is leading to the most dramati...

Swell gel could bring relief to back pain sufferers

...reased the pH to biological levels by injecting an alkaline solution. Professor Freemont, who works in the Division of Regenerative Medicine in the School of Medicine, said: "This research was motivated by the urgent need for a non-surgical method for repairing intervertebral discs. "Our approach has th...

Cancer tip -- Nanoparticles can damage DNA, increase cancer risk

...d C60 fullerene nanoparticle suspensions using the alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis assay (Comet assay) to quantify breaks in single and double stranded DNA. The team chose these particular nanoparticle types because they are commonly used commercially ?in electronics, textiles and sporting goods ?an...

Fascinating spider silk

...ic spider protein when the pH was maintained at an alkaline level. At high pH, the normally uncharged tyrosine groups in the protein are deprotonated, which gives them a negative charge. This charge weakens the interactions between the hydrophobic, lipophilic regions of the proteins, which are necessary for o...