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Tag: "tongue" at biology news

Columbine flowers develop long nectar spurs in response to pollinators

...-happens in a way that allows flowers to match the tongue lengths of the pollinators that drink their nectar, biologists have found. The researchers were Justen Whittall of the University of California at Davis and Scott Hodges of the University of California at Santa Barbara. They were funded by the Natio...

Synthetic peptide targets latent papilloma virus infections

...le-like warts. Unlike unsightly warts on the skin, tongue or penis, warts in the cervix are often flat and easily overlooked unless laboratory staining is used to find signs of pathology, as in Pap screening. If untreated or left to flare up repeatedly, the warts can progress to cancer. Earlier work by Bo...

Researchers show that veins stiffen as we age

...y also administered a nitroglycerin pill under the tongue of each participant to relax the veins. In each case, they found that the tests had no effect on the response of the veins in either age group. "Thus, we think that the stiffening of our veins as we age is probably due to structural changes, such a...

Gene key to taste bud development identified

...mulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform into tas...de insights into the interactions between SOX2 and tongue stem cells during embryonic development, but also into how stem cells continue to operate in adults,...

Sensory feedback during speech: The brain attunes to more than just sound

...enness of the jaw or the changing positions of the tongue or lips. To investigate how such somatosensory cues are used during speech production, the researchers in the new work were able to dissociate the contribution of these cues from auditory cues by using a robotic device that slightly altered the pa...

Teenager moves video icons just by imagination

...nsional Space Invaders game by actually moving his tongue and hand. He was then asked to imagine the same movements, but not to actually perform them with his hands or tongue. When he saw the cursor in the video game, he then controlled it with his brain. "He cleared out the whole level one basically on ...

Researchers examine why food tastes bad to chemotherapy recipients

...e metallic flavor –?the taste of metal ions on the tongue and the production of metal-catalyzed odors in the mouth that create a retro-nasal effect. "I am attempting to gain a better understanding of the metallic sensation, its prevention, and application to human health," Dietrich said. Along with two of...

Ohio University researchers discover evolutionary oddity in flamingos

...d swish their heads from side-to-side. Their large tongue acts like a piston, sucking water into the front o...en pushing it out the sides. Fringed plates on the tongue trap algae and crustaceans in the circulating water. "The flamingos' feeding habits have captur...

Scientists solve sour taste proteins

...o proteins in the taste buds on the surface of the tongue that are responsible for detecting sour tastes. W...onosodium glutamate or MSG). Each taste bud on the tongue contains separate, distinct subsets of cells that specifically detect each taste -- sweet cells resp...

Variation in bitter-taste receptor gene increases risk for alcoholism

... a gene variant for a bitter-taste receptor on the tongue is associated with an increased risk for alcohol dependence.The research team studied DNA samples from 262 families, all of which have at least three alcoholic individuals. The families are participating in a national study called the Collaborative S...

Living taste cells produced outside the body

...te receptor cells are located in taste buds on the tongue and in the throat. These cells contain the receptors that detect taste stimuli: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). Each taste receptor cell lives for only about 10-14 days, after which it is replaced. The new taste cells develop from a p...

Purdue researchers find key to rice blast fungus

...eceptors (GPCR). In humans, GPCRs are found on the tongue and in the nose and are part of what makes foods taste different. The scientists discovered that rice blast fungus has more than 40 GPCRs that probably are regulating the signals at the beginning of the penetration pathway. "We are working on the b...

Bitter or sweet? The same taste bud can tell the difference

... the rear of the tongues of rats. (The back of the tongue has the highest concentration of taste buds.) They isolated single cells from individual taste buds. They attached very small, fine electrodes to these single cells in Petri dishes in order to record the electrical activity of each cell. They also ap...

Canada approves marijuana-based pain spray

...vex is administered through a spray pump under the tongue or on the inside of the cheek, providing reliable, self-administered pain relief. The spray formulation allows for more flexible dosing than an oral tablet, well suited to the variable nature of neuropathic pain experienced by people with MS. “Becau...

Discovery may lead to better Candidiasis drug

...sh spots and ulcers on the membranes of the mouth, tongue and throat. It affects primarily people with weakened immune systems caused by antibiotics, chemotherapy or by diseases such as AIDS. Thrush also affects many denture wearers. The condition can be treated with antifungal medication in otherwise heal...

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