Holding in Biological News

Genetic tags reveal secrets of memories' staying power in mice

... memory to last long-term, the neural connections holding it need to be strengthened by incorporating new ... located the neural connections, called synapses, holding a specific fear memory. In the process, they ... hippocampus synapses -- presumably the ones holding the memory. Synaptic connections are made onto ...

Holding breath for several minutes elevates marker for brain damage

... researchers said. The release of S100B into the blood suggests that holding one's breath for a long time disrupts the blood-brain barrier, they said. ... dry, but mimicked a static apnea dive in which the divers float face down holding their breath. The divers used whatever preparatory techniques they ...

UBC study establishes formula for predicting climate change impact on salmon stocks

... investigations, the UBC team captured and placed individual fish in holding tanks of varying temperatures to simulate traversing different river ... them simultaneously back to the migratory run. Fish released from a high holding temperature were half as successful as those from colder environments at ...

Vobile Launches VideoDNA Live; Enables Real-Time Digital Content Protection for Live Broadcast Events

... Beijing Olympic will be the first digital Olympic Games in history. Rights holding Broadcasters (RHB's) are facing new challenges to protect their ... a spokesperson for CCTV.com, the official Internet and mobile phone Rights holding Broadcaster of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "We are very pleased with ...

Fish farms drive wild salmon populations toward extinction

... fish has increased, says Morton. There used to be only a few farms, each holding about 125,000 fish. But now we have over 20 farms, some holding 1.3 million fish. The farmed fish are providing a habitat for lice that ...

MIT Holding, Georgia Southern University, and MEVLABS successfully test the PROVECTOR

... Dr. Thomas M. Kollars, Jr., Chief Scientific Advisor of MIT holding and Chief Executive Officer of MEVLABS, commented, The PROVECTOR provides ... carry. Working in tandem with MEVLABS and Georgia Southern University, MIT holding is honored to be at the forefront of developing the PROVECTOR, a possible ...

Freshwater fish at the top of the food chain evolve more slowly

... they evolved the optimal size and shape for catching fish roughly 20 million years ago natural selection seems to have kept them in an evolutionary holding pattern, the researchers say. "At some point in the history of this group, some of them started feeding on fish," says Wainwright. "And once they ...

Shaw to receive prestigious honor for plant pathology research

... and the U.S. Department of Agriculture fund his research projects. Shaw earned his doctoral degree from Cornell University in 2000. After holding a post-doctoral position at the University of Georgia, he joined the Texas A&M University plant pathology and microbiology department as assistant ...

Battle of the sexes benefits offspring, says research

... and creating future offspring. "This creates a conflict of interest between parents, since each parent would benefit by leaving their partner holding the baby whilst they go off and start a new brood elsewhere. "This is exactly what happens in most animal species, so we wanted to understand how ...

Pushmi-pullyu of B-cell development discovered

... that two chromatin remodeling complexes, conglomerations of several different proteins known to burn energy and physically move the tiny spools holding DNA, played a role. In a series of cell-culture experiments they showed that the two chromatin remodeling complexes, SWI/SNF and Mi2/NuRD, had ...

Gene predicts how brain responds to fatigue, human study shows

... to compensate for lack of sleep. "The extent to which individuals are affected by sleep deprivation varies, with some crashing out and others holding up well after a night without sleep," said Michael Chee, MBBS, at the DukeNational University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, an expert on ...

Humans related to orangutans, not chimps, says new Pitt, Buffalo Museum of Science study

... been overshadowed by molecular analyses that link humans to chimpanzees, but that those molecular comparisons are often flawed: There is no theory holding that molecular similarity necessarily implies an evolutionary relationship; molecular studies often exclude orangutans and focus on a limited ...

Infant formula adulteration with melamine underscores need for better detection methods

... the recent adulteration of infant formula and other milk products with the industrial chemical melamine, the U. S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention is holding an international workshop this week to explore better ways to detect deliberately falsified protein content in food ingredients. The presence of ...

Two Central High (Philadelphia) grads honored by AIBS

... and the development of quantitative curricula for life science undergraduates. He is well known for service on numerous editorial boards, holding leadership positions in several scientific societies, editing four books on biology, and for being a leader in promoting the interaction of ...

Shellfish face an uncertain future in a high CO2 world

... history and environmental setting, implying that predictions may be more complex than previously thought. "In the Chesapeake Bay, oysters are barely holding on, where disease and overfishing have nearly wiped them out. Whether acidification will push Eastern oysters, and the many species that depend on ...

Gene therapy could expand stem cells' promise

... at Weill Cornell Medical College. Stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into any of the different tissues making up the human body, thus holding the promise of treating or curing diseases such as multiple sclerosis or spinal-cord injury by replacing diseased cells with healthy cells. But ...

NASA Earth system science meeting celebrates 20 years of discovery

... program: to study our home planet from space as an inter-related whole, rather than as individual parts. To acknowledge this milestone, NASA is holding a symposium June 22-24 to examine the accomplishments of 20 years of NASA's Earth system science program and discuss what discoveries and ...

Monitoring water through a snake's eyes

... as few parts per million," says Prof. Katzir. Cities like New York are especially susceptible to a chemoterrorist threat. With many skyscrapers holding water reserves on the top of the building, a terrorist only needs to introduce poison into a tank to wreak havoc. "A terrorist wouldn't have to kill ...

System that regulates blood pressure is amiss in some healthy, young blacks

... Dr. Diamond says. To make sure the "fight-or-flight" mechanism designed to raise blood pressure to escape a tight spot was not to blame for holding onto sodium, the researchers measured heart rates but could find no relationship. Fat, which produces aldosterone, a hormone that can increase sodium ...

Georgetown University's Howard J. Federoff, M.D., Ph.D. receives Bernard Sanberg Memorial Award

... Tampa, Fla. (May 4, 2009) The American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR), holding its 16th Annual Meeting April 30 May 2 in Clearwater Beach, Florida, has awarded The 2009 Bernard Sanberg Memorial Award for Brain Repair to Howard ...

Social separation stops flu spread, but must be started soon

... on personal freedom, they appear to have a key role to play in delaying the development of a 'worst case' influenza epidemic. They may be critical in holding back an epidemic until vaccines are deployed on a sufficient scale that subsequent relaxation of these rigorous measures will not result in a ...

New findings in taste and smell

... smell and taste disorders. Among those contributing to advancements are members of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS), which is holding its 31st annual meeting in Sarasota, FL, April 22-26, 2009. In Sarasota, scientists are presenting their latest research findings on topics ranging ...

Breaking the ties that bind: New hope for biomass fuels

... the hidden structures of the body. Langan and his colleagues found that although cellulose generally has a well-ordered network of hydrogen bonds holding it together, the material also displays significant amounts of disorder, creating a different type of hydrogen bond network at certain surfaces. ...

Sugar on bacteria surface serves as base for a web of resistance

... is typical of higher organisms, but has rarely been seen in bacteria, Wozniak said. The researchers believe this cell death disrupts the matrix holding the existing biofilm together, releasing Psl and a host of nutrients and enzymes that support new "swimming" cells that move out of the biofilm to ...

What's protected, what's not?

... the database provides geographic boundaries, land classification (Federal, State, City, or Private), land owner or manager, management designation, holding name, IUCN category, WDPA Site Code, GAP status codes, and a suite of reference information. One of the goals of the PAD-US Partnership is to ...

Rutgers study finds many consumers ignore food product recalls

... direct messages such as 'throw the food in the garbage' or 'return the food to the store for a refund,' should motivate action. Keeping people in a holding pattern is more likely to result in inaction, and it certainly increases the likelihood that someone might eat the food by accident." The authors ...

Imperial College London and NTU collaborate to offer joint Ph.D. programs in engineering and science

... idea for the Joint PhD Programme started in 2007 when NTU and Imperial College began to engage in active discussions on research and collaboration, holding annual symposiums. ...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 1, 2009

... cell vehicles powered by hydrogen, scientists in Michigan are reporting development of a sponge-like nanomaterial with a record-high surface area for holding gases. Just 1/30th of an ounce of the material has the approximate surface area of a football field. Their study is scheduled for the April 1 issue ...

Getting down to cancer basics

... and shows the depths to which cancers will plumb in order to get themselves ready to go." The normal UTX protein modifies part of the structure holding DNA together in our cells. The composite DNAprotein structure, called chromatin, is not simply a scaffold, but plays an active role in controlling ...

Scripps scientists find structure of a protein that makes cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy

... shape of an upside down "v" or a tipi with a large cavity inside. The cavity's interior is lined with amino acids that bind to various substances, holding them in place. The top part of the tipi resides inside the cell membrane and has two openings for substances to enter; the bottom portion sticks out ...

Optimum running speed is stride toward understanding human body form

... transition between walking and running. For example, she points out, both a very fast walk and a very slow run can feel physically awkward. While holding great interest for athletes and trainers, the mechanics of running may also hold clues to the evolution of the modern human body form: tall and ...

Study to evaluate success of parental involvement in early childhood education

... work with parents on how to communicate with their child effectively to help them enhance their performance in school. "An example would be a parent holding up a jar of juice and saying, 'Do you want this?' We teach the parent to help expand their child's vocabulary by not using words like this, that and ...

If you're aggressive, your dog will be too, says veterinary study at University of Pennsylvania

... (41 percent), "physically force the release of an item from a dog's mouth" (39 percent), "alpha roll"physically -- rolling the dog onto its back and holding it (31 percent), "stare at or stare down" (30 percent), "dominance down" - physically forcing the dog down onto its side (29 percent) and "grab dog ...

Tree lizard’s quick release escape system makes jumpers turn somersaults

... distances ranging from 14.9-29.9 cm. But how well would the animals perform without their tails? Encouraging the lizards to drop their tails by holding them, just like a hungry predator would, Bonvini then persuaded the tailless reptiles to jump while Gillis filmed them. As soon as the first animal ...

Results of the third school nutrition dietary assessment study published

... with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Improving the nutritional quality of the foods that schools serve their students and holding officials accountable for that quality is critically important if the country hopes to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic," said C. Tracy ...

Physics, math provide clues to unraveling cancer

... research journals and a new grant program from the National Cancer Institute. Traditional cancer biology involves taking a sample of cells and holding them in time so they can be studied. Then the researchers look at that slice of cells to understand what signals and pathways are involved. But that ...

What we don’t know still hurts us, environmental researchers warn

... the Earth's dynamic and complex biophysical and social systems. "In only a few cases are the abilities of ecosystems to provide human well-being holding steady, and in almost every case we're seeing declines in ecosystems underpinning human well-being," said Dietz, who was involved in the original ....

The Evolution of Human Aggression: Feb. 25-27 conference

... Turchin of the University of Connecticut will argue that conflict between groups generated the evolutionary pressures that favored the social forces holding together complex societies of hundreds of millions of people. 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, Alta Room at the Alta Club, downtown Salt Lake City ...

Stanford launches $100 million initiative to tackle energy issues

... and master's degrees in petroleum engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard University. He has spent his career in the energy industry, holding president and/or CEO positions at Hamilton Oil Co.; Tejas Gas Corporation, subsequently a Shell Oil Co. subsidiary; and ScissorTail Energy and Hermes ...

MIT researchers explain mystery of gravity fingers

... Again, the answer has to with the surface tension. Before the water can flow down the film, it must build up enough energy to overcome the tension holding it in place. So what was missing from earlier models of water moving downward through soil that made it appear to move as a steady, horizontal ...