Tag: "stretching" at biology news

Ice core 'dipstick' indicates West Antarctic ice has thinned less than believed

...aking the ice sheet thinner over time, you're also stretching it much farther, so the individual layers get much thinner than they would be in a steady state," Waddington said. Waddington is lead author of a paper describing the research, which is being published online March 23 in Geology, a journal of the Ge...

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...ean Pine-Oak Woodlands, a rugged, mountainous area stretching from Mexico to the Southwestern United States, is one of nine newly identified hotspots. Three other hotspots that extend into U.S. states or territories -- the California Floristic Province, the Caribbean Islands, and Polynesia-Micronesia -- remain ...

Breakthrough isolating embryo-quality stem cells from blood

...t. This allows laser beams strong enough to detect stretching to be used without killing the cell. According to Dr Michael Watts, an expert in haematology and stem cells at University College London, there are just 10,000 primitive cells in the average adult's bloodstream. Of those, only 500 might have the pot...

Purdue researchers use enzyme to clip 'DNA wires'

... placing strands of DNA on a silicon chip and then stretching out the strands so that their encoded information might be read more clearly. The current work by Ivanisevic's team builds on that previous research. Kinsella created the magnetic particles, which are made from a ceramic iron oxide material about 4 ...

Scientists discover global pattern of big fish diversity in open oceans

...n has been elusive. Using the only global data set stretching back to the 1950's ?Japanese longline fisheries data ?and cross referencing these data with scientific observer data from the US and Australia, this study is the first to map communities of these open ocean travelers. Pelagic longlines are the most ...

Chemical 'band-aid' prevents heart failure in mice with muscular dystrophy

... the cell in response to that stretch. "It's like stretching a rubber band," Yasuda says. "You can do specific ...dividual cardiac myocytes. Our hypothesis was that stretching created small tears or holes in the myocyte membrane, which allowed calcium ions to get inside the c...

Taking a flying jump

...athway', initiate a "take-off" sequence, involving stretching of the legs and depression of the wings that can move the fly in a specific direction. Previous studies did not detect directional jumping1, but observations were made in conjunction with non-directional stimuli such as switching lights on and off. ...

NASA satellite data provides rapid analysis of Amazon deforestation

...NASA website The Amazon, a vast tropical forest stretching across South America, is so large that if you were to take pictures of the region with optical photographs, it would take about ten years to get a composite image of the area. To make matters worse, its landscape is constantly evolving. So, scientist...

Researchers learn how blood vessel cells cope with their pressure-packed job

...ve gained a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make t...d to gain a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases. B...

Sahara's edge studied from ground, air and space to improve water management

...Iullemeden aquifer located south of the Sahara and stretching over the territories of Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Aquifer project federates as users the national water Ministries of those three countries, as well as those of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. The international Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) is the us...

Research: Snails were overlooked contributors to marsh destruction

...t: the loss of an estimated 250,000 acres of marsh stretching over 900 miles on the Gulf and southeastern coasts between 1999 and 2003. So says a paper set to appear Friday in the journal Science. "It's important to note that drought was the trigger that initiated these events ?and because drought stress is b...

Protein 'nanosprings' most resilient found in nature

...rved something unexpected: as long as they stopped stretching the molecules before they were completely unfolded, the extension was fully and immediately reversible. The ankyrin repeats showed no sign of wear after multiple stretch-relaxation cycles over a large range of applied forces, the team found. When ex...

Marine 'dead zone' off Oregon is spreading

...indicate. There have been reports of dead crabs stretching from the central Oregon coast to the central Washington coast. Some dissolved oxygen levels at 180 feet have recently been measured as low as 0.55 milliliters per liter, and areas as shallow as 45 feet have been measured at 1 milliliter per liter. T...

Surprise finding for stretched DNA

..."DNA's helical structure implies that twisting and stretching should be coupled, hence the prediction that DNA s...uent spinning of the rotor bead in response to the stretching can be recorded. "When we apply tension to the DNA molecule, changes in the rotor bead angle refle...

Study shows pine bark naturally decreases severe chronic venous insufficiency

... the higher dosage," said Rohdewald. Continuous stretching from CVI permanently enlarges veins. Past studies have shown that treating edema with Pycnogenol® prevents the development of spider veins. Pycnogenol® also helps prevent existing spider veins from getting larger and more prominent. When edema is suc...

Researcher gives hard thoughts on soft inheritance

...shore birds acquired their long legs by constantly stretching their legs to lift themselves out of the water and that generations later that kind of environment gave rise to birds with long legs. Neo-Lamarckian views of evolutionary change stress the importance of the environment in altering inheritance. ...

New biologic treatment for tennis elbow may replace surgery for chronic sufferers

...-treatment both groups began a 2-week standardized stretching program and at 4 weeks patients were allowed to return to normal sporting and recreational activities. Follow-up visits were planned at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 6 months post-treatment, with a final overall evaluation. Using the visual analog scale, at...

Invasive ants territorial when neighbors are not kin

...e "supercolonies" containing millions of nests and stretching hundreds of miles. Researchers have disagreed on the reason for the lack of aggression between ants from different nests in the same colony. "Some ecologists have hypothesized that environmental factors act to reduce aggression among Argentine a...

Engineering the heart piece by piece

...ng of the contracting force in just seven days, by stretching the BEHM at 1 Hertz. The growing of heart muscle, heart valve and blood vessel tissue in the lab also requires careful control of conditions such as temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, nutrients and pH level. This can then encourage th...

Applied scientists create wrinkled 'skin' on polymers

...es for the mixing of flow at very small scales and stretching of proteins and DNA. These new efforts, while at early stages of development, are very promising." ...

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