Learn in Biological News

Scientists learn why the flu may turn deadly

As the swine flu continues its global spread, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others. In their research study published online in the Journal of Leukocyte Biolog...

K-State using Second Life island to help high school students learn earth science

A mysterious island that moves through time. Travelers in search of answers. It sounds something like the science fiction television show "Lost," but it also describes a new approach to teaching earth sciences to high school students. Iris Totten, an associate professor of geology at Kansas ...

Biologists learn structure, mechanism of powerful 'molecular motor' in virus

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have discovered the atomic structure of a powerful "molecular motor" that packages DNA into the head segment of some viruses during their assembly, an essential step in their ability to multiply and infect new host organisms. The researchers, from Purdue Unive...

How mirror neurons allow us to learn and socialize by going through the motions in the head

The old adage that we can only learn how to do something by trying it ourselves may have to be revised in the light of recent discoveries in neuroscience. It turns out that humans, primates, some birds, and possibly other higher animals have mirror neurons that fire in the same pattern whether per...

Practice as well as sleep may help birds learn new songs

Practice as well as sleep may help birds learn new songs The reorganization of neural activity during sleep helps young songbirds to develop the vocal skills they display while awake, University of Chicago researchers have found. Sleep is well known to have a role in a broad range of learn...

Researchers learn that some 'good cholesterol' isn't good enough

If you think your levels of "good cholesterol" are good enough, a new study published in the December 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that you may want to think again. In the report, researchers from the University of Chicago challenge the conventional wisdom that simply having high lev...

Bumblebees learn the sweet smell of foraging success

Bumblebees use flower scent to guide their nest-mates to good food sources, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London. For any animal, finding food on its own can be time consuming and inefficient; social animals such as bees reduce these problems by informing their peers of...

Parents shape whether their children learn to eat fruits and vegetables

Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler's eating patterns for his or her lifetime. To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at ...

Scientists learn how food affects the brain

In addition to helping protect us from heart disease and cancer, a balanced diet and regular exercise can also protect the brain and ward off mental disorders. "Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," said Fernando Gmez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and ph...

Migrating songbirds learn survival tips on the fly

(Kingston, ON) Migrating songbirds take their survival cues from local winged residents when flying through unfamiliar territory, a new Queen's University-led study shows. It's a case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," says biologist Joseph Nocera, who conducted the research while working...

Visual technology enables brain to learn in new ways

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- New technology at Tufts University's Center for Scientific Visualization is enabling researchers to translate the most abstract, complex scientific concepts into clearer, more precise 3-dimensional images than conventional visualization systems can create. Funded b...

Breast cancer cells have to learn to walk before they can run

La Jolla, CA Early-stage breast cancer that has not yet invaded the surrounding tissues may already contain highly motile cells, bringing the tumor one step closer to metastasis, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their study, published in the Dec. 30 issue of th...

Penn researchers shine the light of venus to learn how the herpes virus invades cells

PHILADELPHIA - University of Pennsylvania researchers have uncovered an important step in how herpes simplex virus, HSV-1, uses cooperating proteins found on its outer coat to gain entry into healthy cells and infect them. Further, the studys authors say, they have demonstrated the effectiveness...

Humans appear hardwired to learn by 'over-imitation'

New Haven, Conn.Children learn by imitating adultsso much so that they will rethink how an object works if they observe an adult taking unnecessary steps when using that object, according to a Yale study today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Even when you add time pressure,...

Doctors learn to control their own brains' pain responses to better treat patients

Physicians apparently learn to shut off the portion of their brain that helps them appreciate the pain their patients experience while treating them and instead activate a portion of the brain connected with controlling emotions, according to new research using brain scans at the University of Chi...

Scientists learn structure of enzyme in unusual virus

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Biologists have determined the three-dimensional structure of an unusual viral enzyme that is required in the assembly of new viruses. The Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus infects a green alga called chlorella, transferring its DNA into host cells. Once inside the chl...

Common fish species has 'human' ability to learn

Although worlds apart, the way fish learn could be closer to humans' way of thinking than previously believed, suggests a new research study. A common species of fish which is found across Europe including the UK, called the nine-spined stickleback, could be the first animal shown to exhibit an...

Researchers learn what sparks plant growth

A secret long held by plants has been revealed by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. The new discovery, which builds on more than a decade of painstaking surveillance of cellular communication between different types of plant tissues, shows clearly for the first time how plants "decide" t...

Scientists learn the origin of rogue B cells

Doctors have long wondered why, in some people, the immune system turns against parts of the body it is designed to protect, leading to autoimmune disease. Now, researchers at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), in...

Mice learn tasks that may help treat human psychiatric disorders

Mice that couldn't be dissuaded from the object of their attention by a piece of sweet, crunchy cereal may help researchers find new treatments and cures for human disorders like autism and Parkinson's disease. For the first time, a psychiatric test for monitoring many human mental abnormalities ...

Immune system police learn early and sometimes badly

Regulatory T cells, which function like immune system police, learn early in life what to protect, and that may include viruses, bacteria and tumors, researchers have shown. Using genetically manipulated mice and technology that enables a snapshot of the repertoire of antigen receptors that dete...

Cultural transmission in bats: When listening for dinner, bats learn from their neighbors

In an exciting study that provides new understanding of how animals learn--and learn from each other--researchers have demonstrated that bats that use frog acoustic cues to find quality prey can rapidly learn these cues by observing other bats. While numerous examples are known of instances where p...

How low can you go? Ants learn to limbo

Have you ever tried to do the limbo? For ants it's a way of life! Scientists at the University of Zurich have discovered that ants are able to learn how to visually judge the height of horizontal barriers so that they can successfully crawl under it without slowing down. Tobias Seidl will be presen...

Poison dart frog mimics gain when birds learn to stay away

Studying neotropical poison dart frogs, biologists at the University of Texas at Austin uncovered a new way that the frog species can evolve to look similar, and it hinges on the way predators learn to avoid the toxic, brightly colored amphibians. In the Mar. 8 issue of Nature, Catherine Darst a...

Paleontologists learn how not to become a fossil

The best way to avoid becoming a fossil is to be small and live in deep, tropical waters. So say four paleontologists who have published a detailed, global study of clam preservation. Their work is intended to enhance evolutionary studies by determining what's missing from the fossil record and why...

Scientists learn to predict protein-stabilizing ability of small molecules

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among American men. It is estimated that one in six males will develop the disease during his lifetime. However, promising new treatment options have been developed to help combat this threatening disease. One of the most innovat...

Neurons generated in the adult brain learn to respond to novel stimuli

New brain cells that develop in the olfactory system of adult mice appear to play a role in the brain different from that of older neurons. The new olfactory neurons are especially sensitive to novel stimuli, preferentially learning to respond to new odors. This level of flexibility suggests that...

Researchers learn how blood vessel cells cope with their pressure-packed job

UCSD scientists have gained a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases. UCSD researchers stretched cells in a workout chamber the size of a credit card to gain a better understanding of how ...

Researcher says flu responders can learn from 1918 epidemic

A doctoral student's research brings lessons and insight to a looming pandemic If health officials and media prognosticators are accurate, this coming winter may bring with it one of the most sweeping, deadly outbreaks of killer flu that the world has ever seen. While that prospect would terri...

Argonne to showcase science and technology at community open house

...s in energy, environment and national security and learn more about science and technology. Argonne cond...ue facilities. Let your imagination soar as you learn about the wonders of science, explore technology i...puters work together in solving logic puzzles learn about the science of toys Walk through an acc...

Moving to the US increases cancer risk for Hispanics

... by 2050. Ramirez, who was not involved in this research, said it is important to conduct studies like this to better understand these differences and learn what predisposes different population groups to certain types of cancer, in order to improve health outcomes. Pinheiro and colleagues evaluated th...

Abnormal brain circuits may prevent movement disorder

... involving a motor system that is revved up and idling at high speed, making it difficult to integrate the information needed to plan movements and to learn new motor skills. It was not suspected that these otherwise healthy individuals had such difficulties since doctors only saw those who presented with ...

K-State researchers say after-school programs should promote activity, healthy nutrition

...re is not opportunity for training to be an effective physical activity leader." Dzewaltowski said it is important for children in middle school to learn healthy lifestyle behaviors, and the after-school setting is an effective place for obesity prevention. Since many schools do not provide opportunitie...

Urban water ecology at the ESA annual meeting

... its yearly water loss. "We need to understand what implementing these greenroofs at the whole watershed scale can do," she says. "Getting people to learn about this technology and providing incentives is the first step." ...

Study links virus to some cases of common skin cancer

...ot more prevalent than we initially thought." To learn if people with SCC harbored the virus, Toland, wor...ants to test normal skin in healthy individuals to learn how common this virus is in people generally and to learn whether the virus actually integrates with the hos...

New computer simulation helps explain folding in important cellular protein

...ing approach is to investigate the thermodynamics of protein folding through examining the energy landscape," Landau explained. "By doing this, we can learn about the characteristics of proteins including possible folding pathways and folding intermediates. Thus, it allows us to bridge the gap between stat...

After dinosaurs, mammals rise but their genomes get smaller

...chael Lynch, who led the study. "If we are correct, we have shown how to bring ancient genomic information together with the paleontological record to learn more about the past." And the present. Lynch says the data he and his colleagues analyzed suggest human genomes are still undergoing a contraction...

Discovery to aid in future treatments of third-world parasites

...eau Institute. Because cytokines travel through the body to relay critical information, it is difficult to identify the cells that produce them and to learn about their role. Trudeau investigators have devised cytokine "reporter mice" for tracking cells that produce the signature cytokine of the so-call...

URI researcher sheds light on 'man-eating' squid; finds them timid, nonthreatening

...ry. The URI researcher's dive was more than just a personal test. It was part of a scientific examination of the species some call "red devil" to learn more about their physiology, feeding behavior and swimming abilities. Humboldt squid feed in surface waters at night, then retreat to great dept...

URI researcher sheds light on 'man-eating' squid; finds them timid, non-threatening

...ry. The URI researcher's dive was more than just a personal test. It was part of a scientific examination of the species some call "red devil" to learn more about their physiology, feeding behavior and swimming abilities. Humboldt squid feed in surface waters at night, then retreat to great dept...