Tag: "decades" at biology news

FDA sees nanotech challenges in every product category it regulates

... the agency’s insufficient resources—which for two decades have not kept pace with inflation—making sure that FDA has the capacity to safely manage nanotechnology must be the shared responsibility of Congress and our political leaders,” argued Rejeski. “The agency must be ‘nano-ready’ for the products on the...

Caribbean frogs started with a single, ancient voyage on a raft from South America

...The field work for the study required nearly three decades to complete because many of the species are restricted to remote and isolated mountain tops or other inaccessible areas. Some species included in the study now are believed to be extinct because of habitat degradation and possibly other causes such ...

Studies to find better ways to preserve human eggs, ovarian tissue under way

...ng slow-freezing techniques, used successfully for decades to preserve sperm and embryos, to a more rapid method of cryopreservation that transforms tissues into durable glass-like structures. Phase I trials under way at the Medical College of Georgia are comparing the two approaches in human ovarian tiss...

Researchers examine carbon capture and storage to combat global warming

...cy and progress Engineers have more than three decades of experience putting carbon dioxide into oil reservoirs, where it increases oil production by making the oil expand and ''thin out'' such that it flows more easily, Benson said. ''That experience gives us confidence that we know how to drill the ...

Scientists close in on missing carbon sink

...ad been collected by aircraft across the globe for decades but never before synthesized. The team found that some 40 percent of the carbon dioxide assumed to be absorbed by northern forests is instead taken up in the tropics. "Our study will provide researchers with a much better understanding of how tree...

Genome of Clostridium botulinum reveals the background to world's deadliest toxin

...s to knock out genes in clostridia. "Even after decades of research, only a handful of mutants had been made in clostridia, and none in C. botulinum," Professor Minton explains. "We have developed a highly efficient system, the ClosTron, with which we have, in a few months, knocked out over 30 genes in fo...

Resistant HIV quickly hides in infants' cells

...ore, during, and following birth. In the last few decades the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the United States has been reduced from 25 percent to its current rate of less than 2 percent. However, the transmission of drug-resistant strains of HIV from mother to child is still a problem, and...

Scientists identify prion's infectious secret

Researchers have known for decades that certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as mad cow disease or its human equivalent, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, result from a kind of infectious protein called a prion. Remarkably, in recent years researchers also have discovered non-pathogenic ...

Sleepless for science: Flies show link between sleep, immune system in Stanford study

...uld be to turn to established fly strains isolated decades ago that possess disruptions in their genes controlling circadian rhythm. In this case, these mutant flies could be kept under exactly the same light and temperature conditions as the normal flies. They looked at flies that were defective in one o...

Discovery of 'master switch' for the communication process between chloroplast and nuclei of plants

...ges the environment will be facing over the coming decades through global warming, this puzzle piece has become more pressing for plant scientists, who hope that understanding the stress responses of plants will, in time, lead to new generations of plants that are, among other things, more drought- and stres...

Researchers find link between food odors and lifespan in fruit flies

...ve effect on longevity. Scientists have known for decades that restricted dietary intake can increase the li... effect on longevity. Scientists have known for decades that restricted dietary intake can increase the lifespan of many species, but the mechanism that cau...

Transfusion expert urges wider use of filtered blood

...rs at the University of Rochester, leaders for two decades in the study of "transfusion immunomodulation," believe otherwise. Giving donor blood to someone, Blumberg said, is akin to a temporary organ transplant. In many cases the transfused blood modifies a person's immune system ?either in a favorable or u...

Pitt study notes decline in male births in the US and Japan

...d 127,000 fewer males in Japan over the past three decades and suggest that environmental factors are one explanation for these trends. “The pattern of decline in the ratio of male to female births remains largely unexplained,?said Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., lead investigator of the study, director o...

Bypassing eggs, flu vaccine grown in insect cells shows promise

...rld facing the threat of pandemic bird flu. For decades the nation’s efforts to prevent flu have centered on growing flu virus in hundreds of millions of fertilized eggs, with each egg containing less than a teaspoonful of material that will ultimately become part of a vaccine. It’s typically a six-month ...

Study examines risk of soft tissue sarcomas in hereditary retinoblastoma survivors

...sue sarcomas and finds that this risk persists for decades after the original retinoblastoma diagnosis. The f...most retinoblastoma patients received when treated decades ago. Radiation is used less frequently today because of the risk of second cancers. Ruth A. Kleine...

Bacterial walls come tumbling down

...ic called moenomycin. Moenomycin has been used for decades in animal feed to promote livestock growth. Bacteria have shown very little evidence of resistance to this antibiotic so far, and scientists think related compounds may be promising candidates for use in humans. "This enzyme is an awesome target f...

Misclassified for centuries, medicinal leeches found to be 3 distinct species

... mistakenly using Hirudo verbana in their work for decades may call much of this research, including hundreds of scientific publications, into question and force a reconsideration of what scientists think they know about this widely studied species. Siddall and his colleagues examined mitochondrial and nu...

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells

... Harvard Medical School. "It has been known for decades that both the placenta and amniotic fluid contain multiple progenitor cell types from the developing embryo, including fat, bone, and muscle," said Atala. "We asked the question, 'Is there a possibility that within this cell population we can capture...

Tumor-suppressor gene is critical for placenta development

... rare cancer of the eye called retinoblastoma. Two decades ago, it was identified as the first tumor-suppressor gene, a class of genes that protects cells from becoming cancerous. It has since been shown to be inactivated in many cancers. In this study, researchers shut off the Rb gene in stem cells that ...

University of Alberta researchers unravel intricate animal patterns

...mmunicate, has not been stated explicitly." For decades people have puzzled about how animals—fish schools, locust swarms, large flocks of birds--form large complex dynamical groups. It is clear individuals in the group are only communicating with nearby neighbours, but then the groups somehow emerge spon...

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