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Yellowstone microbes fueled by hydrogen, according to U. of Colorado study

Microbes living in the brilliantly coloredhot springs of Yellowstone National Park use primarily hydrogen forfuel, a discovery University of Colorado at Boulder researchers saybodes well for life in extreme environments on other planets and couldadd to understanding of bacteria inside the human body.A team of CU-Boulder biologists led by Professor Norman Pace, one ofthe world's leading expe...

Vitamin A's paradoxical role in influencing symmetry during embryonic development revealed

In this week's journal Nature, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have solved one of the "holy grail" puzzles of developmental biology: the existence of a mechanism that insures that the exterior of our bodies is symmetrical while inner organs are arranged asymmetrically. In research with zebra fish, as a model for human biology, Juan-Carlos Belmonte a...

Virtual animal shelters ?How the Internet is transforming the experience of pet adoptions

Across the United States, independent pet rescue organizations are growing in number, working to place abandoned animals in loving new homes. Although the majority of these organizations operate out of clusters of private foster homes, they're successfully winning high visibility for placing their pooches. In a presentation at the 100th annual meeting of the American Sociological Associati...

'Gadonanotubes' greatly outperform existing MRI contrast agents

Researchers at Rice University, the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have created a new class of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents that are at least 40 times more effective than the best in clinical use. The new agents -- dubbed gadonanotubes -- use the same highly toxic metal, gadolinium, t...

U. of Colorado researcher identifies tracks of swimming dinosaur in Wyoming

With their long stalks and feathery arms, marine animals known as sea lilies look a lot like their garden-variety namesakes. Perhaps because of that resemblance, scientists had always assumed that sea lilies stayed rooted instead of moving around lik...

Fitting in: Newly evolved genes adopt a variety of strategies to remain in the gene pool

The largest-ever experimental analysis of duplicated genes provides insight into mechanisms of evolution When Mother Nature creates an identical copy of a gene in an organism's genome, the duplicated copy is usually deleted, inactivated, or otherwise rendered nonfunctional in order to prevent genetic redundancy and to preserve biological homeostasis. In some cases, however, gene duplicat...

New U. of Colorado at Boulder flu chip may help combat future epidemics, pandemics

A novel "Flu Chip" developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder that can determine the genetic signatures of specific influenza strains from patient samples within hours may help world health officials combat coming epidemics and pandemics. Tests last month on the new technology by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed the CU-Boulder Flu Chip can determine...

Animal models show that anabolic steroids flip the adolescent brain's switch for aggression

Anabolic steroids not only make teens more aggressive, but may keep them that way into young adulthood. The effect ultimately wears off but there may be other, lasting consequences for the developing brain. These findings, published in February's Behavioral Neuroscience, also showed that aggression rose and fell in synch with neurotransmitter levels in the brain's aggression control region. B...

Red Tide causes sea turtle die-off in El Salvador

A "Red Tide" event that occurred off the coast of El Salvador late last year directly caused the deaths of some 200 sea turtles, according to test results released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations. Responding to requests from the Salvadoran government and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)for assistance, WCS veterinary pathologist Dr...

Sweet 'water taste' paradoxically predicts sweet taste inhibitors

A scientific paradox linking artificial sweeteners such as saccharin with a sensory experience in which plain water takes on a sweet taste has guided researchers to an increased understanding of how humans detect sweet taste. Reporting in an advance online publication in Nature, scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center describe how certain artificial sweeteners, including sodium...

New HIV study identifies high-risk subgroups of adolescents

A new study from the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and Brown Medical School unveils profiles of adolescents at the greatest risk for HIV. Amongst a group of high-risk teens, researchers found that those at highest risk for the disease (those who engaged in the most unprotected sex acts) were mostly white males with mental health problems. Prior studies have found that risky sex...

Flick of whiskers helps tease out brain's 'shadow' signaling system

By blowing gentle puffs of air onto a mouse's whiskers and watching how its brain reacts, scientists are discovering that a long-overlooked signaling system in the brain is crucial to our everyday activity. The work is the latest in a growing body of evidence that star-shaped brain cells known as astrocytes aren't simply support cells but are stars of the brain in their own right, say rese...

Green tea and the 'Asian Paradox'

There is a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer in Asia where people smoke heavily, which may be accounted for by high consumption of tea, particularly green tea, according to a review article published by a Yale School of Medicine researcher. "We do not yet have a full explanation for the 'Asian paradox,' which refers to the very low incidence of both heart disease and can...

Adolescent but not adult hamsters are more aggressive on low dose of fluoxetine

New research offers tantalizing clues as to why some teenagers taking common anti-depressants may become more aggressive or kill themselves. The research is published in the October Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Neuroscientists at the University of Texas at Austin found that juvenile hamsters given low doses of fluoxetine hydr...

Peering into the shadow world of RNA

The popular view is that DNA and genes control everything of importance in biology. The genome rules all of life, it is thought. In particular, RNA produ...

Scientists find hormone activity explains adolescent mood swings

The "raging hormones" of puberty are known to produce mood swings and stress for most teenagers, making it difficult to cope with this period of life. Until now, the specific causes of pubertal anxiety have not been identified, making it harder to understand and treat adolescent angst. In the current edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers led by Sheryl S. Smith, PhD, prof...