rays in Biological News

Over 50 percent of oceanic shark species threatened with extinction

... of wide-ranging oceanic pelagic sharks and rays reveals serious overfishing and recommends key ... discarded. Frequently, discarded sharks and rays are not even recorded. Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to ...

The top 5 ways medical physics has changed health care

... can now deliver beams of energetic electrons or X rays to malignant tumors -- at doses capable of ... and laboratories of physicists including: X rays Discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895, the application of these rays to medical imaging was recognized and embraced ...

KGI professor contributes new insights on 'jumping genes'

... Sheldon Schuster, PhD, KGIs president. Dr. rays research provides evidence that this movement of ... originally discovered moveable genetic elements. rays research also follows on the work of molecular ... a similar mechanism of chromosome healing. rays laboratory conducts research in systems biology, ...

Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker awarded the Order of the Rising Sun

... Research Foundation), has received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold rays with Neck Ribbon in Tokyo, in honour of his many years of service to ... in 1875 and is conferred in different classes, takes the form of rays of sunlight from the rising sun, symbolising the Japanese flag "hi no ...

The sunlight solution for better health

... Because of pollutants and changing weather patterns, fewer of the sun's rays are reaching us. The world is literally becoming a darker place. In areas ... the sun's rays, keeping them from reaching the surface of the Earth. Those rays that do reach us have been decreasing in radiation strength. The ...

Small satellite takes on large thunderstorms

... educational opportunities." TGFs are short, powerful bursts of gamma rays emitted into space from Earth's upper atmosphere. The gamma rays are thought to be emitted by electrons traveling at or near the speed of ...

Vitamin D in brain function

... milk, but our supply typically comes mostly from exposure to ultraviolet rays (UV) in sunlight. UV from the sun converts a biochemical in the skin to ... been selected during evolution because it protects against the burning UV rays of the sun in the tropics. White skin has been selected for allowing as ...

UVA researchers explain cell response to skin-damaging UV rays

... Va., Oct. 1, 2007 -- Its well known that overexposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun can cause major skin problems, ranging from skin cancer to ... your skin is damaged. But what is not so well known is exactly how UV rays specifically interact with your DNA and the complex organelles and ...

Symposium to discuss geoengineering to fight climate change at the ESA Annual Meeting

... atmospheric seeding, would cool the climate by releasing light-colored sulfur particles or other aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays back into space. This approach mimics what happens naturally when volcanoes erupt; in 1991, for instance, an eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the ...

Changing climate likely to make 'super weed' even more powerful

... major center for life sciences research at the University of Delaware. "The toxin secreted by Phragmites is degraded by sunlight -- ultraviolet rays -- and causes severe deleterious effects on other native plants," Bais said. "Our research also addresses the growing questions of increased UV-B ...

Elevated water temperature and acidity boost growth of key sea star species: UBC researchers

... Baja California. It is most commonly found in the northeastern Pacific. They can actually range in color from purple to orange to brown and have five rays that can range in length from 10 to 25 centimetres. They are considered a keystone speciesa species that exerts a disproportionate effect on their ...

AGU journal highlights -- March 25, 2009

... http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010732 3. Underground subatomic-particle measurements yield meteorological clues When high-energy cosmic rays interact with molecules in the atmosphere, they produce muons, negatively charged elementary particles that can be detected at ground level or ...

Research links evolution of fins and limbs with that of gills

... a patterning function in gills before the origin of vertebrate appendages, the research concludes. And this function has been retained in the gill rays of living cartilaginous fishes. ...

New simulation shows consequences of a world without Earth's natural sunscreen

... life from DNA-damaging radiation. The gas is naturally created and replenished by a photochemical reaction in the upper atmosphere where UV rays break oxygen molecules (O 2 ) into individual atoms that then recombine into three-part molecules (O 3 ). As it is moved around the globe by upper ...

European satellites provide new insight into ozone-depleting species

... for understanding the origins of stratospheric bromine." The stratospheric ozone layer that protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays is vulnerable to the presence of certain chemicals in the atmosphere such as chlorine and bromine. In spite of its much smaller concentrations, ...

Global warming threatens Antarctic sea life

... says Rich Aronson, professor of biological sciences at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. "The shell-cracking crabs, fish, sharks and rays that dominate bottom communities in temperate and tropical zones have been shut out of Antarctica for millions of years because it is simply too cold ...

Research yields new clues to how we locate objects in space

... floating at the location of the imaged data. They achieved this by mounting a video display and mirror onto the handle of the transducer. Light rays coming from the monitor are bounced back by the mirror, placing the image at its originating location (the abdomen, for example). Viewing the ...

Ecologists use oceanographic data to predict future climate change

... ice in the Arctic. "When the Arctic cools and ice sheets and sea ice expand, the increased ice cover increases albedo, or reflectance of the sun's rays by the ice," says Greene, the lead author on the paper. "When more of the sun is reflected rather than absorbed, this leads to global cooling." ...

Repairing DNA damage: Researchers discover critical process in cancer treatment

... Montreal, November 6, 2008 From the sun's UVA rays to tobacco smoke, our environment is chock-full of DNA-damaging agents that can lead to cancer. Thanks to our body's DNA repair mechanisms, however, ...

Trustee makes donation to start new solar energy research center at Rensselaer

... center on molecular chemistry and biochemistry to map out the step-by-step processes that nature's perfect green machines go through to convert solar rays into life-sustaining energy, according to Rensselaer Provost Robert Palazzo. "The research will begin by looking at the processes that plants use to ...

Vitamin D a key player in overall health of several body organs, says UC Riverside biochemist

... achieve good health by involving all 36 target organs." Vitamin D is synthesized in the body in a series of steps. First, sunlight's ultraviolet rays act on a precursor compound in skin. When skin is exposed to sunlight, a sterol present in dermal tissue is converted to vitamin D, which, in turn, ...

Fish cancer gene linked to pigment pattern that attracts mates

... Center this fall as a postdoctoral fellow. He hopes to conduct further studies on the habitat, such as whether stronger exposure to the sun's UV rays might be driving more instances of skin cancer in the wild. ...

Sunburn alert: UVB does more damage to DNA than UVA

... sunburn will be the red glare that most folks see and feel. But unfortunately, even when there is no burn, the effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays can have deadly consequences. Thanks to a new research study published in the July 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal , scientists now know why one ...

2 new therapies show promise for cancer patients

... diagnosed with a simple biopsy, the risk of BCC increases for those individuals with a family history, or prolonged exposure to ultraviolet (or UV) rays from the sun. While BCC has an extremely low rate of metastasis, it can lead to scarring and disfigurement if left untreated. The trial results ...

Missions to Mars

... by cosmic rays, whose health risks are not known in detail. Unlike the situation in space, the earths surface is largely shielded from cosmic rays by the planets atmosphere and magnetic field. In general, radiation can damage human cells and their genetic material. In addition to causing cancer, ...

Popcorn-ball design doubles efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells

... equal the width of a human hair.) Then they clumped these into larger agglomerations, about 300 nanometers across. The larger balls scatter incoming rays and force the light to travel a longer distance within the solar cell. The balls' complex internal structure, meanwhile, creates a surface area of ...

Oceanic sharks worldwide at serious risk from high-seas fishing, rising demand for shark products

... sharks in the North Pacific to rebuild, and current domestic management measures that appear to be keeping the population stable. Sharks and rays of the open ocean remain among the least studied predators, said Dr. Pikitch, and this book is a critical contribution to the body of knowledge. My ...

Wisconsin researchers describe how digits grow

... in the adult chicken's toes. These alternate with the interdigits, also consisting of mesenchymal tissue, which fill the space between the digit rays and eventually regress. Scientists know that the gene Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) plays an important role in determining the form and number of digits, ...

New research reveals shark superhighways and hotspots

... the known species live in the cold, dark waters of the deep oceanbelow 200 meters. Despite being out of sight, these sharks (and their cousins, the rays and skates) are not out of reach of modern fishing equipment. Bottom trawling in particular is threatening to severely deplete these populations. ...

Valuing ocean services in the Gulf of Maine -- New approaches for conflict resolution

... while the traditional mainstays of the commercial fishery - cod, haddock and flounders - have alternated in abundance with small sharks and rays which have far lower economic value than the traditional groundfish species. ...

Predicting the radiation risk to ESA's astronauts

... Earth consists of three main components: Particles trapped in the Earths magnetic field; particles that arrive from deep space called Galactic Cosmic rays (GCRs) and particles expelled from the Sun during solar eruptions. These components all vary with time, mainly due to the unpredictable activity of ...

Penn engineers create carbon nanopipettes that are smaller than cells and measure electric current

... will be useful for concurrently measuring electrical signals of cells during fluid injection. In addition, the pipettes are transparent to X rays and electrons, making them useful when imaging even at the molecular level. Adding a functionalized protein to the pipette creates a nanoscale ...

Surgery without stitches

... is so toxic that its limited to external applications, says Dr Foster. Other devices use ultra-violet light to effect rather poor sealing, but UV rays are damaging to living cells The beauty of this is that infra-red laser doesnt cause any tissue damage. Better still, Surgilux has anti-microbial ...

PET/CT imaging proves golden for detecting cancer in children

... rates than normal cells, and the radiopharmaceutical is drawn in higher amounts to cancerous areas. PET scans show where FDG is by tracking the gamma rays given off by the radionuclide tagging the drug and producing three-dimensional images of their distribution within the body. PET/CT offers precise ...

Climate gas could disrupt food chain

... briefing today. Microbes in the ocean produce the gas dimethyl sulphide, or DMS. It causes clouds to form above the sea, which reflect the suns rays away from the earth. Research suggests that plankton produce more DMS when they get hot so that clouds will cool them down. Our work on the effect of ...

Ohio scientists develop blue-blocking glasses to improve sleep and ADHD symptoms

... The individual puts on the glasses a couple of hours ahead of bedtime, advancing the circadian rhythm. The special glasses block the blue rays that cause a delay in the start of the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Normally, melatonin flow doesnt begin until after the individual goes ...

Frog study takes leaf out of nature's book

... the tree canopy of the rainforest and are exposed to sunlight for long periods of time, so this study will also examine the effect that ultraviolet rays have on the fitness and viability of captive-bred frogs. Nearly a third of the worlds 6,000 amphibian species are threatened with extinction and ...

New light trap captures larval stage of new species; DNA barcode technology used

... of goby that wasnt quite right, said Jones. That individual differed slightly from the known species of Atlantic gobies by having fewer fin rays and lacking a frenum, the small fold of tissue in the pelvic fins of most gobies that forms a sucking disc for grasping the substrate. The fish ...

Quantitative PET imaging finds early determination of effectiveness of cancer treatment

... rates than normal cells, and the radiopharmaceutical is drawn in higher amounts to cancerous areas. PET scans show where FDG is by tracking the gamma rays given off by the radionuclide tagging the drug and producing three-dimensional images of their distribution within the body. PET scanning provides ...

Contrast agent trials in swine

... deliver reliable results for every level of tissue density, alternatives are being sought. Near-infrared fluorescence mammography, which works with rays of near-infrared (NIR) light instead of X-rays, is a highly promising techniquealthough effective contrast agents have thus far been lacking. A team ...