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Molecular biology fills gaps in knowledge of bat evolution

One in five mammals living on Earth is a bat, yet their evolutionary history is largely unknown because of a limited fossil record and conflicting or incomplete theories about their origins and divergence. Now, a research team including University of California, Riverside Biology Professor Mark Springer, has published a paper in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Science that uses molecular...

Quantum Dots Research Leads to New Knowledge about Protein Binding in Plants

UC Riverside researchers from the Departmentsof Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering andBotany and Plant Sciences have worked together to discover a way toutilize to uncover new knowledge about the binding of a protein at the growingpollen tube tip. This protein plays a critic...

Scientists Propose Sweeping Changes to Naming of Bird Neurosystems to Acknowledge Their True Brainpower

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Mylan Technologies, Inc., for the first generic version of Alza Corporation's Duragesic Patch (Fentanyl Transdermal System) used to treat patients suffering from severe chronic pain that cannot be managed with alternative analgesics. When applied to the skin, this patch technology delivers fentanyl, an opioid pain medication that is s...

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

An international team worked on the verge of the Sahara to gather data on the ground and in the air, to be compared with imagery of the same region acquired by ESA satellites. The results will be used in support of an ambitious project to apply satellite remote sensing to improve monitoring and management of vast water aquifers concealed beneath the desert. High-resolution radar as well as...

World's pledge to halve hunger by 2015 looks like empty promise

Almost 200 countries agreed in 1990 to cut worldwide hunger in half by 2015. That commitment is now looking like an empty promise -- all talk and no action -- according to a Cornell University expert on world hunger. If business proceeds as usual, just as many people will be hungry in the world -- 800 million -- in 2015 as there were 16 years ago, said Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell's Babc...

Knowledge of infection may prevent spread of herpes virus

A new study suggests that the risk of transmitting the virus that causes most cases of genital herpes could be cut in half by more testing and informing sexual partners of infection. The study is published in the July 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Until recently, there was little evidence to show that knowledge of infection would lead to decreased tra...

MatBase -- A new transcription factor knowledge base released by Genomatix

Genomatix Software GmbH, a pioneer and leader in the analysis of eukaryotic transcriptional regulation, releases MatBase, a knowledge base of transcription factors (TF). It contains genomic TF binding sites and protein binding domains, related literature, more than 27.000 known TF ?gene interactions, experimentally verified complexes with other TFs (promoter modules), and weight matrix de...

Polynesia explorers created worldwide web of scientific knowledge

Scientific travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries led waves of daring expeditions into Polynesia, netting oceans of discoveries about its geography, flora and fauna and people. But they were more than simply courageous collectors of artifacts and statistics, says the author of a new book. These seafaring naturalists were the producers and mediators of a new "global network of scientific...

Knowledge of dendritic cells branches out

A new type of cell that generates crucial cells of the immune system has been discovered at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. With this new knowledge, medical researchers can begin to consider the development of customized immune therapies using this new cell to target specific infections such as HIV, malaria and influenza;certain cancers; and even autoimmune diseases. Dendritic cells (...

Plant-cell-produced technologies-cutting edge approach to bringing solutions to the market

Four months after the world's first vaccine made in plant cells has received regulatory approval in the US, Dow AgroSciences is organising a Science Conference in Brussels on 7 June 2006 in order to share this knowledge with European researchers, scientists, decision-makers and industry representatives. The pioneering vaccine developed by Dow AgroSciences works against the Newcastle diseas...

Edge density key to controlling gypsy moth spread

Controlling population peaks on the edges of the gypsy moth range may help to slow their invasion into virgin territory, according to a team of researchers. "Slowing the spread of the gypsy moth is a priority in forest management in the U.S.," says Ottar Bjornstad, associate professor of entomology and biology, Penn State. "Understanding the underlying patterns in the spread of invasive s...

Trying to control pain can be a double-edged sword, say scientists

Scientists have shown for the first time why a feeling of control helps us reduce pain. The research, carried out at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL, London, has implications for how patients with persistent pain can cope with what is often a debilitating condition. Using fMRI scanners, which allow scientists to examine how the brain operates, the research, led by Dr Katj...

Cancer cells forming blood vessels send their copper to the edge

New information about a link between the growth of blood vessels critical to the spread of cancer and the copper in our bodies has been discovered by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, using a beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. Growing new blood vessels from existing ones ?a process called angiogenesis ?is import...

Mother knows best: Plant knowledge key to childhood health in remote Amazon

In a remote area of the Amazon, globalization is threatening the time-honored transmission of plant knowledge from generation to generation, with adverse effects on childhood health and nutrition. In a novel study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that parents, and especially mothers, who know more about plants and how to use the...

Metacognition: Faced with a test, rats can check their knowledge first

Researchers have found evidence that rats are capable of metacognition—that is, they can possess knowledge of their own cognitive states. This ability, which can also be thought of as the capacity to assess or reflect on one's own mental processes, was previously only recognized in humans and other primates. The findings are reported by Allison Foote and Jonathon Crystal of the University of Geor...

New knowledge improves rice quality

A major international initiative is being launched to try to boost the income of the world’s millions of poor rice farmers and at the same time provide consumers with more nutritious, better tasting food. New scientific knowledge is allowing rice researchers to develop better quality rice varieties that could fetch a higher price from consumers, especially increasingly affluent rice consum...

Women well informed about breast cancer, yet lacking knowledge about current treatments

According to a new GfK Roper Public Affairs survey sponsored by CancerCare, a national nonprofit cancer support organization, while the majority (76 percent) of women surveyed said they know at least a fair amount about breast cancer, many remain unaware of the important recent progress made in treatment. Fewer than one out of four (23 percent) women ages 50-65 have heard of new therapies for...