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What scientists know about jewel beetle shimmer

"Jewel beetles" are widely known for their glossy external skeletons that appear to change colors as the angle of view changes. Now they may be known for something else--providing a blueprint for materials that reflect light rather than absorbing it to produce colors. Scientists at the Georgia ...

Scientists are learning more about big birds from feathers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Catching adult eagles for research purposes is no easy task, but a Purdue University researcher has found a way around the problem, and, in the process, gathered even more information about the birds without ever laying a hand on one. "Many birds are small, easy to catch ...

Recent news reports of sweetener reformulations raise questions about motivations

WASHINGTON, DC The misleading "health" halo surrounding highly-publicized marketing campaigns regarding sweetener reformulations is starting to dim. Recent announcements by Starbucks and other brands that they will remove high fructose corn syrup from certain products are being called into que...

Harvard scientists solve mystery about why HIV patients are more susceptible to TB infection

A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology ( http://www.jleukbio.or...

Caltech researchers explore how cells reconcile mixed messages in decisions about growth

PASADENA, Calif.The cells in our body are constantly receiving mixed messages. For instance, an epithelial cell might be exposed to one signal telling it to divide and, simultaneously, another telling it to stop dividing. Understanding the process by which these competing environmental cues are re...

Discovery raises new doubts about dinosaur-bird links

CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs. The conclusions add to other evolvin...

MSU discoveries upend traditional thinking about how plants make certain compounds

EAST LANSING, Mich. Michigan State University plant scientists have identified two new genes and two new enzymes in tomato plants; those findings led them to discover that the plants were making monoterpenes, compounds that help give tomato leaves their distinctive smell, in a way that flies in t...

100 reasons to change the way we think about genetics

For years, genes have been considered the one and only way biological traits could be passed down through generations of organisms. Not anymore. Increasingly, biologists are finding that non-genetic variation acquired during the life of an organism can sometimes be passed on to offspringa p...

Songs raise awareness about aquatic invasive species

MADISON A new initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is using music to raise public awareness about aquatic invasive species in the state. "Research shows music can influence how we respond to messages, affecting memory, emotion, attitudes, and even behavior," says Bret Shaw, assi...

Findings uncover new details about mysterious virus

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - An international team of researchers has determined key structural features of the largest known virus, findings that could help scientists studying how the simplest life evolved and whether the unusual virus causes any human diseases. The mimivirus has been called a poss...

Experts lay to rest long-held misconceptions about high fructose corn syrup at ILSI-USDA workshop

WASHINGTON, DC A supplement to be published in the June issue of the Journal of Nutrition encourages the scientific community and the general public to stop demonizing high fructose corn syrup as the culprit of obesity and to rethink the myths about high fructose corn syrup's impact on the Amer...

Students least informed about environmental science are most optimistic

Will problems associated with environmental issues improve in the next two decades? According to an analysis of student performance on PISA 2006--an international assessment of 15-year-olds--students who are the best informed about environmental science and the geosciences are also the most realis...

Frogs reveal clues about the effects of alcohol during development

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) cause malformations in babies, including facial defects, short stature, and mental and behavioral abnormalities. The African frog, Xenopus, is a valuable tool for understanding early vertebrate development since these embryos ...

Concerns about food safety to be spotlighted at U of Minnesota symposium

Recent nationwide outbreaks of food-borne illnesses have triggered calls for more regulation along with plunging consumer confidence. A symposium at the University of Minnesota this week will explore the complexities of the food-safety issue. The conference, "How Safe is our Food Supply? Expect...

Hear about emerging trends in toxicology research

What: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will have a major presence at the annual Society of Toxicology (SOT) meeting in Baltimore, Md. Scientists from the NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program (NTP), which NIEHS ad...

New models question old assumptions about how many molecules it takes to control cell division

Blacksburg, Va. -- A single cell whether a yeast cell or one of your cells is exquisitely sensitive to its surroundings. It receives input signals, processes the information, makes decisions, and issues commands for making the proper response. As with any control system, noise errors, slip-ups,...

Researchers disprove 15-year-old theory about the nervous system

COLUMBIA, Mo. A delay in traffic may cause a headache, but a delay in the nervous system can cause much more. University of Missouri researchers have uncovered clues identifying which proteins are involved in the development of the nervous system and found that the proteins previously thought to ...

Sea bed provides information about present climatic change

This release is available in Spanish . Lately, every drought, flood or hurricane which happens in the planet is connected with climatic change, and therefore the interest of society and scientists is getting to know this phenomenon better. Climatic change is connected at present with th...

Entrepreneurs wanted for NJIT workshops about how to launch a business

Have a great idea or invention but don't know where to turn? Then consider yourself a candidate for an upcoming day of four workshops for first-time entrepreneurs sponsored by the NJIT Enterprise Development Center and the Alumni Association of NJIT. Set for Jan. 24, 2009, at the NJIT Campus Cent...

Honey bees on cocaine dance more, changing ideas about the insect brain

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. In a study that challenges current ideas about the insect brain, researchers have found that honey bees on cocaine tend to exaggerate. Normally, foraging honey bees alert their comrades to potential food sources only when they've found high quality nectar or pollen, and only wh...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

EAST LANSING, Mich. Diversity is valuable socially, economically and now environmentally. Research by Michigan State University scientists has found that growing more corn to produce ethanol creating less diverse landscapes reduces the ability of beneficial insects to control pests, a loss v...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

EAST LANSING, Mich. Diversity is valuable socially, economically and now environmentally. Research by Michigan State University scientists has found that growing more corn to produce ethanol creating less diverse landscapes reduces the ability of beneficial insects to control pests, a loss v...

Rare disease provides clues about enzyme role in arrhythmias

A University of Iowa study provides insight into a calcium-sensing enzyme already known to play a role in irregular heartbeats and other critical functions. The researchers showed that the enzyme, calmodulin kinase II (CaM kinase II), contributes to arrhythmia in an extremely rare disease called T...

Myth about 'dirty old men' supported by science

Middle-aged men want younger women, often touting their intelligence and their high income. This is shown in research at Gothenburg University and Oxford University that studied 400 lonely hearts ads to see how men and women choose partners. Research in the theory of evolution includes a numbe...

Pregnant women with asthma can be more confident about some medicines

Budesonide sprays can be regarded as safe for pregnancy - other asthma drugs have not been as well studied though Women can usually keep using the same asthma drugs they were using before they got pregnant. Budesonide sprays are the best studied and can be regarded as safe. More trials of ot...

Research challenges conventional notions about salmon survival

In a paper published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, researchers used new tagging and tracking technologies to show the surprising result that the survival of juvenile salmon in two major west coast rivers was similar, despite the presence of an extensive network of dams in one river s...

Research about plant viruses could lead to new ways to improve crop yields

An interdisciplinary group of scientists has obtained the first detailed information about the structure of the most destructive group of plant viruses known: flexible filamentous viruses. The cost of worldwide crop losses due to plant diseases is estimated at $60 billion annually. Alth...

The truth about cats and dogs

Thinking about adopting a perky little puppy as a friend for your fluffy cat, but worried that they'll fight -- well, like cats and dogs? Think again. New research at Tel Aviv University, the first of its kind in the world, has found a new recipe for success. According to the study, if the cat ...

What a sleep study can reveal about fibromyalgia

Research engineers and sleep medicine specialists from two Michigan universities have joined technical and clinical hands to put innovative quantitative analysis, signal-processing technology and computer algorithms to work in the sleep lab. One of their recent findings is that a new approach to ...

Exploding chromosomes fuel research about evolution of genetic storage

Human cells somehow squeeze two meters of double-stranded DNA into the space of a typical chromosome, a package 10,000 times smaller than the volume of genetic material it contains. "It is like compacting your entire wardrobe into a shoebox," said Riccardo Levi-Setti, Professor Emeritus in Phys...

Male fish deceive rivals about their top mate choice

When competitors are around, male Atlantic mollies try to hide their top mate choice, reveals a new study published online on July 31st in Current Biology , a Cell Press journal. They feign disinterest in females after onlookers enter the scene. What's more, after encountering a rival, the tr...

Nature publishes new evidence about the deep biosphere written by biogeoscientists

Biogeoscientists show evidence of 90 billion tons of microbial organismsexpressed in terms of carbon massliving in the deep biosphere, in a research article published online by Nature , July 20, 2008. This tonnage corresponds to about one-tenth of the amount of carbon stored globally in tropical ...

Children born after donor insemination should be told as soon as possible about their conception

Barcelona, Spain: It is better for children conceived by donor insemination to be told of their origins at an early age, according to the first large-scale study of people who are aware of their donor conception. If the children are not told until they are 18 or older, they are more likely to have...

Get smart about what you eat and you might actually improve your intelligence

New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to MIT scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve co...

Primate's scent speaks volumes about who he is

DURHAM, N.C. -- Perhaps judging a man by his cologne isn't as superficial as it seems. Duke University researchers, using sophisticated machinery to analyze hundreds of chemical components in a ringtailed lemur's distinctive scent, have found that individual males are not only advertising the...

New bee checklist lets scientists link important information about all bee species

In time for National Pollinator Week, June 22 through June 28, biologists have completed an online effort to compile a world checklist of bees. They have identified nearly 19,500 bee species worldwide, about 2,000 more than previously estimated. There is a current crisis known as "colony collapse ...

New study raises concerns about proposed mitigation strategy for marine bycatch

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Huge numbers of fish, seabirds, and other marine animals are routinely killed and discarded after being inadvertently caught during fishing operations. Known as marine bycatch, this problem is an ongoing challenge to the fishing industry, regulatory agencies, and conservationists. ...

Scientific information largely ignored when forming opinions about stem cell research

MADISON - When forming attitudes about embryonic stem cell research, people are influenced by a number of things. But understanding science plays a negligible role for many people. That's the surprising finding from a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison communications researchers who have...

How about dessert?

People with highly developed emotional sensibilities are better at making product choices, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Consumers who understand their emotional ability can make higher quality consumption decisions such as health decisions and product choices,"...

Scientists discover stinging truths about jellyfish blooms in the Bering Sea

A new study helps explain a cyclic increase and decrease of jellyfish populations, which transformed parts of the Bering Sea--one of the U.S.'s most productive fisheries--into veritable jellytoriums during the 1990s. The study shows that the availability of food for jellyfish may cap the potent...