Tag: "sniff" at biology news

Newborn neurons like to hang with the 'in' crowd

...of Nature Neuroscience. At first, they gingerly sniff out pre-existing connections between brain cells but as the new neurons mature over time they get emboldened and muscle out the old guys. "Adding new neurons could be a very problematic process if newborn cells would make connections all over the pla...

Get a whiff of this: Smell test could sniff out serious health problems

...opment by University of Cincinnati researchers may sniff out olfactory disorders that could be an early war...based on the very simple observation that when you sniff and you detect a smell, you take a smaller sniff than if you inhaled and didn’t detect a smell,?Fran...

Cloning the smell of the seaside

...uts at the Christmas dinner table! - and the birds sniff out their plankton food in the lonely oceans at astonishingly low concentrations. Scientists have known about DMS for many years but the genes responsible for its production have never before been identified. The new findings will be published in ...

Penn study on olfactory nerve cells shows why we smell better when we sniff

...our brain perceives what we smell, explains why we sniff to smell something, and why our sense of smell is synchronized with inhaling. "The driving force for such synchronization remained a mystery for more than 50 years," says senior author Minghong Ma, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience. "These...

Instruction manual for creating a molecular nose

...eal benefit at times: this kind of biosensor could sniff out poisons, explosives or drugs, for instance. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry recently revealed a technique for integrating membrane proteins into artificial structures. Memb...

Contrary to common wisdom, scientist discovers some mammals can smell objects under water

... mammals, like rats and mice. "Rats and mice don't sniff the way we do," Catania said. "They push air 'out-in out-in' in a fashion strikingly similar to what the star-nosed mole is doing, except that it is doing it under water." Catania mounted a high-speed video camera so that it pointed up through the ...

Mutant mice show key autism traits

...example, they were far less likely to approach and sniff new mice introduced into their cage, compared to normal mice. And while normal mice show markedly less interest when such new mice are later reintroduced, the mutant mice did not show such a reduction in interest. This abnormality indicated "impaired...

New roles for growth factors: Enticing nerve cells to muscles

...extend tentacle-like protrusions called axons that sniff their way through a labyrinth of attractive and repulsive chemical cues that guide them to their target. While several recent studies discovered molecules that repel motor neuron axons from incorrect targets in the limb, scientists at the Salk Inst...

New study examines how sense of smell affects mating and aggression in mice

...ale and put her in a cage, the male will initially sniff her, a process known as chemoinvestigation, and th...pe male encounters another male, he will typically sniff the male and then initiate a fight. However, the mutant males were defective in sniffing the test wi...

Researchers Create DNA-Based Sensors for Nano-Tongues and Nano-Noses

...f military-grade explosives. The nanosensors could sniff molecules out of the air or taste them in a liquid, suggesting applications ranging from domestic security to medical detectors. "What we have here is a hybrid of two molecules that are extremely sensitive to outside signals: single stranded DNA, wh...

Study shows humans have ability to track odors, much like bloodhounds

...ability of dogs, we apparently have the ability to sniff out and locate odors, according to a new study by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley. Student volunteers presented with odors to one nostril or the other could reliably discern where the odor was coming from, and functional magne...

1