blue

Researchers discover way to make cells in the eye sensitive to light

...sive. They found that as well as beingsensitive to blue light, melanopsin uses light at different wavelengthsto regenerate itself. In some forms of hereditary blindnessphotoreceptors are lost entirely, but the retinal ganglion cells, thecells which signal to the brain, remain intact. The researchers belie...

Poplar trees redirect resources in response to simulated attack

... carbohydrate in the untreated plant (red is high; blue is low). Panel B shows that when that same plant is retested after exposure to jasmonic acid, a potent plant hormone that makes the plant 'think' it's under attack, it partitions more of its carbohydrates to the roots for storage. ...

Purdue proves concept of using nano-materials for drug discovery

... tested the devices with an enzyme that produces a blue color when combined with a liquid that contains mo...ed with the enzyme, causing a reaction and turning blue in the process, which demonstrated that the device works. The Center for Membrane Protein Biotechno...

Scientists develop new color-coded test for protein folding

..., turning purple when the pH reached 5.8 and light blue at pH 4, which is close to the acidity of wine. La... caused the solution to quickly change from red to blue as the acidity increased. The researchers were surprised to discover that, when the pH was raised f...

Light therapy may combat fungal infections, new evidence suggests

...required for C. neoformans normal response to both blue and ultraviolet light. Moreover, the researchers found, mice inoculated with C. neoformans lacking either of the light-sensing genes remained healthy 30 days later, while those infected with the normal fungus died by day 30. The finding points to n...

Studies reveal how plague disables immune system, and how to exploit the process to make a vaccine

...ose cells, when exposed to fluorescent light, glow blue instead of green. This technique enabled the team to identify the cell types targeted by the bacteria. Two days after the mice were infected, their spleens were filled with bacteria. Although the overwhelming majority of immune cells in the spleen a...

Chickadees can help humans get their bearings

... concept when a prominent landmark, in this case a blue wall, was present. "Getting oriented is an important part of solving many spatial navigational problems, such as locating your car in the parking lot at the end of a long day in the office. This discovery points to the fact that our early experience...

Genetic links could unlock clues to leading cause of blindness

...versus lifestyle and environmental factors such as blue light, part of the spectrum of natural visible light. Frequent exposure to blue light rays has been linked to macular degeneration. If the disease is going to be treated early, Daw...

Stressed cells spark DNA repair missteps and speed evolution

... in the double strands of DNA that are its genetic blue print. Usually, when this happens, special protein machinery in the cell copies the missing DNA from another chromosome and rejoins the broken ends around the newly synthesized genetic material. "It fixes the hole in the DNA by copying similar info...

Scientists get first glimpse at how plants, most animals repair UV-damaged DNA

...UV-damaged DNA, and hit the mixture with a kind of blue strobe light to simulate the energy that it would receive from visible light. Because the light pulses lasted less than a trillionth of a second, the researchers were able to make a very fast series of measurements to follow how the chemical reactio...

Female butterflies go for sparkle -- not size -- when choosing to mate

... reflective patterns on their wings in the form of blue or violet bands of coloration. "Our assumption is that they are there for sexual selection purposes as well," she said, "but we still don't know what causes the change from a female's preference for relatively small pupils in this species to the lik...

Method slashes quantum dot costs by 80 percent

...epending on the size, shifting from the red to the blue end of the spectrum as the crystals get smaller. The reproducible synthesis of high-quality quantum dots became a reality in the early 1990s when researchers at MIT pioneered a new method of producing quantum dots with uniform sizes and well-define...

The right drug at the right time

...epending on the size, shifting from the red to the blue end of the spectrum as the crystals get smaller. The reproducible synthesis of high-quality quantum dots became a reality in the early 1990s when researchers at MIT pioneered a new method of producing quantum dots with uniform sizes and well-define...

Sudden change in social status triggers genetic response in male fish, study finds

...s. His body color changes from dull gray to flashy blue or yellow, and a prominent black stripe ("eyebar") appears across his face. This physical transformation signals to males and females alike that he's the top fish now and will vigorously defend his newly acquired breeding grounds. "We found that wh...

Algal protein in worm neurons allows remote control of behavior by light

...oral responses by simply illuminating animals with blue light. The work paves the way for better understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, and with muscles, to regulate behavior in intact, living organisms. Generally speaking, detailed information about the activity and function of specifi...

Expert dispels bird flu paranoia

...acial and comb swelling and mouth and comb turning blue and report any worries to your local government biosecurity officer. Don't eat raw or undercooked chicken. Don't use untreated water, use clean town water or bore water. "Consumers of poultry meat and egg products should not be concerned as t...

Genetic key to growth of new arteries is identified

...ragments of the MMP2 gene coupled to the so-called blue gene. Leg muscles turned blue only in the strain of mice with the specific gene fragment that turns on in response to arterial blo...

Plants give pests sock in the gut

...rchers tested the permeability of the matrix using blue dextran, a fermented sugar solution commonly used as a molecular size marker. Results showed that Mir1-CP created holes in the matrix. To replicate the test in vivo, the researchers fed caterpillars with plants susceptible to the insects and those ...

Sea coral's trick helps scientists tag proteins

...e tags are zapped with an intense pulse of visible blue light. The dramatic color change "makes it possib...escent markers, Dendra can be activated by visible blue light, which is less harmful to living cells and does not require special laser equipment, Konstanti...

Lizard 'third eye' sheds light on evolution of color vision

...parietal, eye, distinguishes two different colors, blue and green, possibly to tell the time of day. Speci... eye photoreceptors contain two pigments per cell, blue and green. Having two different pigments allows the cell to respond to two different colors of light...

The diversity of marine life in the Gulf of Maine region is much greater than previously thought

...ke the diatoms, to gigantic, the largest being the blue whale. The smallest species, like the phytoplankto...oplankton also are the species that give otherwise blue oceans (reflecting the color of the sky) their varying colors. Two of the microscopic plant speci...

Uncovering sex-change secrets of black sea bass

..., assistant professor of zoology, peers into a big blue plastic tub. Inside, black sea bass circle slowly in the dim light. The converted barn is now an aquaculture research facility for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and home to Berlinsky's latest research. Black sea bass feature prominen...

Research tracks whales by listening to sounds

...ific Northwest sound different than populations of blue whales that live in the western Pacific Ocean, and those sound different from populations of blue whales off Antarctica. And they all sound different than the blue whales off Chile. "The whales in...

Hopkins researchers develop new tool to watch real-time chemical activity in cells

...n on or off the PKA enzyme by looking for green or blue glowing cells. Of the 160 chemicals tested, three caused cells to turn on the switch and two others caused cells to turn off the switch. The 160 chemicals tested are from the Johns Hopkins Clinical Compound Library, a collection of about 3,300 c...

Mussels evolve quickly to defend against invasive crabs

...rab species may precipitate evolutionary change in blue mussels in as little as 15 years. The study, by UN...een these crabs and these mollusks." Crabs prey on blue mussels by crushing their shells. Freeman looked at the inducible defense ?shell thickening ?of b...

Choosy females make colourful males

...She examined two closely related species, one with blue males and the other with red males. Females prefer males of the right colour, blue or red, and within those categories they choose the most brightly coloured males. They do so for goo...

Study provides first look at the 'birth' of a retina cell

... that appears as fluorescent green when exposed to blue light. This fluorescent protein allows scientists to identify even a few cells that are destined to be rods at very early stages of development. "For the first time we were able to see retina cells during early development, allowing us to pinpoint t...

Nice guys do finish first in lizards' evolutionary race

...an eye on things. Research has focused on why the blue throats are willing to cast aside their own opport...me loners ?why not go it alone?" McAdam said. "The blue throats can set up new territories and be successful. That's the evolutionary puzzle that we needed ...

Researchers find that bumblebees' flower choice matters

...cies to the garden ?a native plant known as "great blue lobelia." So far, the bees continue their strong attraction to purple loosestrife. "This preference for purple loosestrife or other exotics could threaten reproduction of native plants and have devastating effects on ecosystems," Karron says. Wh...

Found -- the apple gene for red

...anins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits," says the leader of the CSIRO Plant Industry research team, Dr Mandy Walker. "Colour is a very important part of fruit marketing," she says. "If fruit doesn't look good, consumers are far less likely to b...

Blue eyes -- A clue to paternity

...is inherited as follows: If both parents have blue eyes, the children will have blue eyes. If both parents have brown eyes, a quarter of the children will have blue eyes, and three qu...

Batfish to the rescue!

...bit of reef, the rare batfishes emerged out of the blue and cleaned up most of the weed. "Worldwide, coral reefs are in decline," says Professor Dave Bellwood of CoECRS and James Cook University. "Commonly this takes the form of the coral being smothered by weedy growth, a transition known as a phase-...

Psst! Coffee drinkers: Fruit flies have something to tell you about caffeine

... the color of their bellies to see what they ate - blue indicating a preference for eating sugar, red indicating a preference for bitter caffeine, and purple indicating no preference. Flies missing the critical taste receptor protein Gr66a consumed the bitter caffeine solution to the same extent as the s...

Rising ocean temperatures, pollution have oysters in hot water

...or their commercial or recreational value, such as blue crabs, sheepshead, croaker and stone crab," Sokolova said. "Some of these species, such as blue crabs, use oyster beds and reefs as nursery areas and as feeding grounds." The oyster beds are also ...

Researchers identify neurons that assign value during learning

...vated simply by illuminating fruit fly larvae with blue light. This tool allowed the researchers to test whether such an activation of certain neurons can actually substitute for external stimuli--for example, reward or punishment--in an associative-learning experiment. The researchers found that if an od...

German researchers develop first non-invasive test to measure skin aging

...te tissues to emit light at shorter wavelengths -- blue in the case of collagen, and green in the case of ... collagen and elastin will then respond by glowing blue and green. Currently, dermatologists who want to check out the collagen network of a patient's der...

Triple threat: World fin trade may harvest up to 73 million sharks per year

...tion. "One of the most productive sharks is the blue shark, and it appears that the catch rate is near the maximum sustainable level," says Clarke. "But such assessments were not available for other, less productive shark species. It is quite likely that sustainable catch levels have already been exc...

By 2048 all current fish, seafood species projected to collapse

... clear to me that we hardly appreciate living on a blue planet," Worm said. "The oceans define our planet, and their fate may to a large extent determine our fate, now and in the future." ...

Microbes compete with animals for food by making it stink

...e because of texture, they fed stone crabs, lesser blue crabs and striped hermit crabs noodle-like test foods made from pureed forms of either the freshly thawed menhaden or the rotten bait. Researchers found that, no matter the rotten bait's texture, stone crabs avoided eating the rotted, microbe-laden f...

MIT: Pulsing light silences overactive neurons

...evised a technique to stimulate neurons by shining blue light on them, so with blue and yellow light the researchers can now exert exquisite control over the stimulation and inhibition...

NASA predicts nongreen plants on other planets

...at the chlorophyll in most plants on Earth absorbs blue and red light and less green light. Therefore, chl...ore red light particles reach Earth's surface than blue or green light particles, so plants use red light for photosynthesis. There is plenty of light for l...

A 'traffic light' for neurons means 'go' for improving brain research

...makes affected neurons more active when exposed to blue light. Deisseroth and collaborators first showed t...ugh a microscope. In some experiments, exposure to blue light caused the worms to wiggle in ways they weren't moving while unperturbed. When the lights were...

Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators

... a while, it’s like changing from a mosquito to 76 blue whales or 3,000 bull elephants,” Hay explained. “That’s a pretty dramatic difference.” Defensive responses are often seen in higher plants, but this is believed to be the first report of such a complex and species-specific response in marine phyt...