Individual in Biological News

Study finds link between individual stress and adolescent obesity

AMES, Iowa -- Stress may indeed be a direct contributor to childhood obesity. That's according to a new Iowa State University study finding that increased levels of stress in adolescents are associated with a greater likelihood of them being overweight or obese. The study of 1,011 adolescents (...

Scripps research scientists 'watch' as individual alpha-synuclein proteins change shape

In an Early Edition publication of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ) this week, the researchers demonstrate the "alpha-synuclein dance" the switching back and forth of the protein between a bent helix and an extended helix as the surface that it is binding to changes....

'Nanoglassblowing' seen as boon to study of individual molecules

While the results may not rival the artistry of glassblowers in Europe and Latin America, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Cornell University have found beauty in a new fabrication technique called "nanoglassblowing" that creates nanoscale (billionth of ...

1 person out of every 1,000 has synaesthesia, in which an individual can smell a sound

This release is available in Spanish . The research field has grown from grapheme-colour synaesthesia to include other forms of synaesthesia in which flavours are evoked by music or words (lexical-gustatory synaesthesia), space structures by time units, colours by music, etc. Experts on Exp...

New book presents methods to poke and prod individual molecules

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. Single-molecule biologythe revolutionary field that deals with the study of individual macromoleculesis undergoing rapid growth. Tremendous technical advances have made it possible to probe molecules one by one, and to produce dynamic images as they twist, twirl, wobbl...

First individual genome sequence published

Independent sequence and assembly of the six billion base pairs from the genome of one person ushers in the era of individualized genomics Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), along with collaborators at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the University of California ...

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons

Opening a whole new interface between nanotechnology and neuroscience, scientists at Harvard University have used slender silicon nanowires to detect, stimulate, and inhibit nerve signals along the axons and dendrites of live mammalian neurons. Harvard chemist Charles M. Lieber and colleagues re...

'Jumping genes' contribute to the uniqueness of individual brains

Brains are marvels of diversity: no two look the same -- not even those of otherwise identical twins. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found one explanation for the puzzling variety in brain organization and function: mobile elements, pieces of DNA that can jump from...

Team Invents Device For Weighing Individual Molecules

Physicists at the California Institute of Technology have created the first nanodevices capable of weighing individual biological molecules. This technology may lead to new forms of molecular identification that are cheaper and faster than existing methods, as well as revolutionary new instruments ...

Duke Chemists Isolating Individual Molecules Of Toxic Protein In Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease

To understand the formation of the brain-clogging deposits that cause such disorders as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, Duke University chemists have figured out how to capture and "micromanipulate" the single molecular building blocks of the deposits. Their aim is to understand the detaile...

Scientists find universal rules for food-web stability

...edator-prey links increase the stability of small webs, but destabilize larger webs. Natural ecosystems consist of interwoven food chains, in which individual animal or plant species function as predator or prey. Potential food webs not only differ by their species composition, but also vary in their stabili...

Venomous sea snakes play heads or tails with their predators

...hally venomous predators such as sea snakes. Traditionally the only evidence of a defence behaviour strategy in sea snakes has been documented in individual cases, when a snake was exposed to and aware of an imminent danger. This research is the first record of a combined false-head-behaviour and false-hea...

Understanding how weeds are resistant to herbicides

... to that data base and get gene sequence data." Another outcome of having this genomic data is to be able to design markers so you can fingerprint individual waterhemp plants and use that information to do population genetic studies. "If you see herbicide resistance in northern Illinois and a year later ...

New hope for fisheries

...vealed in this paper," says Pamela Mace, a co-author from the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries. "We need to move much more rapidly towards rebuilding individual fish populations and restoring the ecosystems of which they are a part, if there is to be any hope for the long-term viability of fisheries and fishin...

Family planning a major environmental impact

...ssions about climate change, we tend to focus on the carbon emissions of an individual over his or her lifetime," said Paul Murtaugh, an OSU professor of statisti... the overwhelming importance of reproductive choice, Murtaugh said. When an individual produces a child and that child potentially produces more descendants in t...

Global curbs on overfishing are beginning to work

...tas coupled with strategically placed fishing closures, ocean zoning, selective fishing gear, community co-management and economic incentives (such as individual transferable quotas). "Exploitation rates have more than halved since the early 1990s," Dr Fulton says. "This means that management is setting the ...

'Microfluidic palette' may paint clearer picture of biological processes

...ent from any other location. Similarly, if three separate drugs were injected into the palette where the microchamber contained a culture of cells, individual cells at different locations in the chamber would be exposed to different combinations of the drugs. In a single experiment, one could easily study th...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...r been obtained, and the first from membrane protein nanocrystals among the most resistant to crystallization. Although the microcrystals weren't individual protein specimens, and while the 9.0.1's x-ray beams aren't as bright or as rapidly pulsed as SLAC's LCLS will be, the experiment demonstrated the jet...

Sex in the Caribbean: Environmental change drives evolutionary change -- eventually

...ccurring in species over the last 10 million years in the Caribbean. "The two forms are unmistakable," explained O'Dea. "You can clearly see the first individual that founded a sexual colony, while a clonal colony preserves the fragment from the previous colony from which it cloned." As predicted, clonal bryo...

Microbes and their hosts -- exploring the complexity of symbiosis in DNA and cell biology

...enetic, ecological, and physiological means to maintain the functional flexibility that allows them to meet the needs of an ant colony rather than the individual ants that make up the colony. Their thought-provoking review of the impact of symbiotic lifestyle on genetic variation and microbial adaptation is ent...

All-in-1 nanoparticle: A Swiss Army knife for nanomedicine

...anotechnology . "This is the first time that a semiconductor and metal nanoparticles have been combined in a way that preserves the function of each individual component," said lead author Xiaohu Gao, a UW assistant professor of bioengineering. The current focus is on medical applications, but the research...

121 breeding tigers estimated to be found in Nepal

...e population of tigers by 10 per cent within the first 5 year period of the plan implementation. "Tigers can not be saved by the effort of a single individual or a single organization," said Mr. Gopal Prasad Upadhyay, Director General, DNPWC. "The transboundary relation with India needs to be strengthened fu...

Placenta-derived stem cells may help sufferers of lung diseases

... Dr. Parolini, cells delivered via intra-peritoneal transplant, regardless of the cells being allogenic or xenogenic (host's own cells or from another individual respectively), the procedure resulted in a significant anti-fibrotic effect on the lab animals. A "consistent" reduction in lung fibrosis, says Dr. P...

Researchers capture bacterial infection on film

...into the embryos and observing their interaction with the insect's immune system using time-lapse confocal microscopy. The researchers can also tag individual bacterial proteins to follow their movement and determine their specific roles in the infection process. The scientists are hoping to use this syst...

DOE-funded research projects win 46 R&D 100 Awards for 2009

...vanced technology developed to protect critical laser systems from pulses that contain incorrect bandwidth for amplification. The device inspects each individual laser pulse, which is traveling at the speed of light, and then determines if the pulse meets the bandwidth requirements to avoid self-destruction dur...

Ants more rational than humans

...ical outcome is based on apparent constraint: most individual ants know of only a single option, and the colony'...in collective decision-making in ants, the lack of individual options translated into more accurate outcomes by ...e not changed." "Typically we think having many individual options, strategies and approaches are beneficial,...

Noise pollution negatively affects woodland bird communities, says CU-Boulder study

...ed environment -- the team worked with energy companies to shut down gas pad compressors for several hours each week, allowing researchers to identify individual nests and determine nesting success. The researchers found that 32 different bird species nested in the quiet areas undisturbed by noise pollution,...

Newly discovered gene fusion may lead to improved prostate cancer diagnosis

...Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "We believe this is a first step toward providing patients with specific therapies that target individual cancer variants, and hope these findings will help doctors diagnose a patient's specific disease," explains Dr. Rubin. Novel Gene Fusion Sheds Lig...

Music is the engine of new U-M lab-on-a-chip device

...moves. If I play a three-note chord, three move, and so on. And because the cavities don't communicate with each other, I can vary the strength of the individual notes within the chords to move a given drop faster or slower." Burns describes the set-up as the reverse of a bell choir. Rather than ringing a b...

C. difficile spores spread superbug

... sporicidal agent was necessary to reduce environmental spore contamination enough to eliminate transmission. Further results detailing the success of individual hospital disinfectants will be published in the coming months. Today's publication provides a step towards reducing the burden on healthcare system...

Chasing tiny vehicles

...a highly sensitive microscopic technique to pursue individual nanoparticles as they make their way into target c...age. This highly sensitive method works by tagging individual particles with a dye that acts like a "molecular l...n to characterize and describe in great detail the individual steps along this path. "Our new approach has also ...

Aware, Inc. Announces Q2'09 Earnings Conference Call

...webcast is also being distributed through the Thomson StreetEvents Network. individual investors can listen to the call at www.earnings.com , Thomson's individual investor portal, powered by StreetEvents. Institutional investors can acces...

Frost & Sullivan: North American Government Biometrics Markets Thrive With Active R&D Thrust

...tions will spearhead the utilization of multimodal technology. This multi-factor authentication will buffer security by overcoming the shortcomings of individual technologies and contributing to the long term growth of the North American biometrics market. Vendors can hope to magnify chances of success...

$29.4 million grant establishes CTSI at NYU in partnership with Health and Hospitals Corporation

...rchers' talent, collaborative imagination, and entrepreneurial spirit." The NYU-HHC CTSI will focus on three primary objectives: Leveraging the individual expertise and ongoing collaboration of NYU Langone Medical Center and HHC researchers to facilitate discoveries in the laboratory that can be moved qu...

Sex involved in plant defense

...by the plant, the specialized plant-eaters are attracted to them. Johnson says the nuanced results make sense. "Sex shuffles up genes and allows individual plants to get rid of bad genes and keep good ones," he said. "That helps them evolve defenses against generalist herbivores. Though there are short-te...

A complete view of complexity in science and society in a new authoritative reference work

...ng, DNA computing, earthquake and tsunami prediction, applications of chaos, fractals and self-organization, intelligent systems and machine learning, individual consciousness, social networking, economic processes, and ground and air traffic management. The renowned scientist, author and editor, Dr. Robert A....

Telomeres resemble DNA fragile sites

...r at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Using a technique called SMARD, the researchers observed the dynamics of replication across individual DNA molecules the first time this technique has been used to study telomeres. In the absence of TRF1, the fork often stalled for a considerable amoun...

Exploring standards to advance microbial genomics

... and her colleagues ⎯ in partnership with environmental metagenomics to provide a more holistic understanding of microbial communities and their individual members. Kyrpides also suggests several innovative approaches for easing the data processing bottleneck accompanying the exponential increase in gen...

Systems biology recommended as a clinical approach to cancer

... understood, an assessment of the overall biochemical network, not just the individual molecular mechanisms involved, is needed. A more complete picture of the sy...own that the behavior of dynamic systems are more than just the sum of the individual components. The VBI-Wake Forest collaborative group was established in resp...

Research shows that 'invisible hand' guides evolution of cooperative turn-taking

...nimals shaped by natural selection to pursue their individual self-interests." The researchers say that playi...t" copying in each time period whatever the other individual did in the previous period can explain synchroniz...n-taking can evolve in organisms that pursue their individual self-interests robotically. The researchers sta...