Tag: "bugs" at biology news

Why do insects stop 'breathing'? To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers

...utterflies, some types of fruit flies, beetles and bugs close off their respiratory systems periodically to keep out excess oxygen, thus preventing damage to their tissues. Timothy Bradley, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCI, and Stefan Hetz, assistant professor of physiology at Humbold...

Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery

... how the body develops protective immunity against bugs that invade our cells--or fails to. Now we know the players, and we would love to look at them in other diseases such as tuberculosis in the lungs and juvenile diabetes." Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health ...

The evolutionary triumph of flower power

...on the scene to attract potential pollinators like bugs and birds, it is their appeal to humans that accou... selected by humans that nature's pollinators ?the bugs and birds ?no longer find them attractive. So the job of propagating the species depends mainly on u...

To Stop Evolution: New Way Of Fighting Antibiotic Resistance Demonstrated By Scripps Scientists

...ental and potentially toxic drugs. Now some super bugs -- multiple drug-resistant bacteria -- are emerging as an even greater threat. Multiple drug-resistant TB is no longer susceptible to broad categories of antibiotics, such as rifampicin, isoniazid, and streptomycin. Some strains of the common hospita...

Bugs, even 'bad' ones, can be educationally beneficial, new book says

...d bugs. "The least creative way to get rid of bad bugs is by using insecticides," Waldbauer said. Biological control, a practice in which natural predators are introduced, is a more creative and effective way to control pests, he said. In the book, Waldbauer explains many historic and recent examples of ...

Using computers and DNA to count bacteria

...is week's Science Magazine with a new way to count bugs in dirt. Bacteria, that is, in the highly complex world beneath our feet. "Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil," by Jason Gans, Murray Wolinsky and John Dunbar, of Los Alamos' Bioscience Divisi...

Comparison of Cocaine, Methamphetamine ‘Highs?Finds Differences

...is week's Science Magazine with a new way to count bugs in dirt. Bacteria, that is, in the highly complex world beneath our feet. "Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil," by Jason Gans, Murray Wolinsky and John Dunbar, of Los Alamos' Bioscience Divisi...

UF researchers kill resistant bugs one bandage at a time

... the American public, such as antibiotic-resistant bugs occurring in hospitals across the world," said Christopher Batich, Ph.D., a UF professor of biomedical engineering and one of the coating's inventors. "This has the potential to be used widely." The coating also does what it was created to do - aids...

Colorful bacteria more dangerous

...ve discovered that the molecules that give certain bugs their color also help them resist attack by immune...disease than colorless strains. The color of these bugs comes from anti-oxidant molecules called carotenoids. Similar molecules also give carrots their colo...

A radical solution for environmental pollution

..., University of Michigan researchers show how some bugs manage to do that: by harnessing other potentially harmful chemicals known as free radicals to degrade the toxins they live on. Such insights could lead to new ways of engineering bacteria to clean up environmental messes, said associate professor o...

Stolen gene allows insect virus to enter cells

...k the evolutionary leap needed to become the nasty bugs they are today. In the study, reported in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Virology, BTI researchers Gary Blissard and Oliver Lung investigated whether a fruit fly gene, called an f gene, had originally moved from an insect to a virus or the other...

DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations, study finds

...ang are now exploring ''the funny finding that the bugs prefer DNA that's larger than natural DNA'' by making larger nucleotides. ''Size and shape are related issues, so we're interested now in keeping the size constant and changing the shape,'' Kool adds. ...

Biotech cotton 8: Bugs 0

..." Dennehy added, "These soft toxins plus the good bugs acting together have driven pesticide use to historic low levels ... this is a wonderful success of integrated pest management." Since widespread adoption of Bt cotton in 1997, insecticide use on Arizona's cotton crops is down 60 percent, said Tabas...

'Creationism is not science' ?making the case for Darwin at UCL

...needed in the 1940s. The simple reason is that the bugs you are fighting have evolved." Commenting on whether this turn towards the Intelligent Design world view could hit the UK too, Professor Ruse (whose book The Evolution-Creation Struggle was published in June by Harvard University Press) said: "Well...

Pair of studies offer new clues to combat antibiotic resistance

...a, among others. They are among the most difficult bugs to control using antibiotics, researchers say. In another study published in the journal, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard University built synthetic versions of natural substrates used by key enzymes to make teichoic acids, polymer...

Researchers use dirt to stay one step ahead of antibiotic resistance

...citing discovery points to the fact that innature, bugs in the soil survive in a very hostile environment. They dothis by developing resistance to the antibiotics produced by other soilbacteria. Understanding this process opens up a new avenue for findingnew therapies to prevent and treat antibiotic resis...

Outsmarting the smartie bug

New tools in the fight against pneumococci ?the bugs targeted by vaccines recently announced by the Department of Health ?are described by a team led by scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. They have put together a complete description of the targets of the vaccine that will help monito...

Friendly bacteria in chewing gum that bites back

...ive acid that breaks down the enamel. The friendly bugs in the gum will make the S. Mutans clump together, preventing them from becoming attached to the tooth surface. Tests reveal that the chewing gum can reduce the amount of bacteria in the mouth fifty times. Stefan Marcinowski, executive director of ...

Research reveals inner workings of immune system 'thermostat'

...the pro-inflammatory warriors that destroy harmful bugs and cause inflammation. This finding established the notion that tyk2 signaling controlled Interleukin 12, the furnace side of the system. But what controlled Interleukin 10, the air conditioner? To find out, Yap and his team conducted a series of ...

Gut microbes' partnership helps body extract energy from food, store it as fat

...genes present in this community of 10-100 trillion bugs vastly outnumber our own genes and are a key part of our genetic landscape, providing us with attributes we have not had to evolve on our own." One such attribute is the ability to digest commonly consumed complex sugars known as polysaccharides. ...

1 2