Needed in Biological News

Herbicide diversity needed to keep Roundup effective

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Using a diverse herbicide application strategy may increase production costs, but a five-year Purdue University study shows the practice will drastically reduce weeds and seeds that are resistant to a popular herbicide. Excess usage of glyphosate-resistant crops has led t...

New crops needed for new climate

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO 2 and dr...

New crops needed for new climate

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO 2 and dr...

Drugs needed to preserve eggs for reproduction need to be given in stages

AUGUSTA, Ga. Cryoprotectants needed to preserve eggs for reproduction need to be given in stages, albeit rapid ones, say scientists who have developed a mathematical model that predicts optimal time for loading and unloading these drugs. Their studies in Rhesus monkey eggs, which are very simi...

Conference tackles technology needed to address climate change

We have the will but do we have the technology? The second Climate Change Technology Conference (CCTC 2009) is being held May 13 to 15, 2009 at McMaster University to look at developing practical engineering and administrative responses to climate change and global warming. Among the guest spe...

Decisive action needed as warming predictions worsen, says expert

Stanford, CA Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising more rapidly than expected, increasing the danger that without aggressive action to reduce emissions the climate system could cross a critical threshold by the end of the century, warns a leading member of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergove...

Experts agree: Environmental standards needed for biofuels

EAST LANSING, Mich. The United States lacks the standards to ensure that producing biofuels from cellulose won't cause environmental harm, says a distinguished group of international scientists. But because the industry is so young, policymakers have an exceptional opportunity to develop incentiv...

More research needed to make good on biofuel promise, experts say

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - While cellulosic biofuels derived from grasses, crop residues and inedible plant parts have real potential to be more efficient and environmentally friendly than grain-based biofuels like corn ethanol, more research and science-based policies are needed to reap these benefit...

Better understanding of blood vessel constrictor needed to harness its power for patients

To harness endothelin-1's power to constrict blood vessels and help patients manage high blood pressure or heart failure, scientists must learn more about how endothelin functions naturally and in disease states, says a Medical College of Georgia researcher. Despite strong laboratory evidence t...

Action needed now for Minnesota to reach goals in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2015

The state of Minnesota must act now if it wants to reach its Minnesota Next Generation Energy Act goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2015, according to a team of University of Minnesota transportation and public policy researchers. The research team, which will release ...

Major progress in technology needed for 25 percent renewable energy use to be affordable

Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today. Produced by...

Healthy rivers needed to remove nitrogen

CORVALLIS, Ore. Healthy streams with vibrant ecosystems play a critical role in removing excess nitrogen caused by human activities, according to a major new national study published this week in Nature. The research, by a team of 31 aquatic scientists across the United States, was the first t...

People not always needed to alleviate loneliness

New research at the University of Chicago finds evidence for a clever way that people manage to alleviate the pain of loneliness: They create people in their surroundings to keep them company. Biological reproduction is not a very efficient way to alleviate ones loneliness, but you can make up ...

Immediate action needed to save corals from climate change

(December 13, 2007) The journal Science has published a paper today that is the most comprehensive review to date of the effects rising ocean temperatures are having on the worlds coral reefs. The Carbon Crisis: Coral Reefs under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification, co-authored by seven...

More comprehensive analysis of Klamath River basin needed to aid decision makers

WASHINGTON -- Two recent scientific studies attempt to better understand the Klamath River basin ecosystem. However, a new report from the National Research Council says for the studies to prove more useful for decision makers, a comprehensive analysis of the basin should be completed to identify...

Vaginal reconstruction not needed for most inter-sex females, Hopkins study shows

Dispelling a common myth, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center say vaginal reconstruction should be a matter of preference for most teens or adult women born with a type of inter-sex condition marked by the presence of both female and male genitals. The findings of the research are ...

Stronger EPA leadership needed to improve water quality in Mississippi River

WASHINGTON The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must take a more aggressive leadership role in implementing the Clean Water Act if water quality in the Mississippi River and the northern Gulf of Mexico is to improve, says a new report from the National Research Council. EPA has failed to use ...

Avian flu threat: New approach needed

As the first globally co-ordinated plan for the planet's gravest health threats is hatched by government ministers from around the world this weekend, a new report sets out a 10-point plan for this new, globalised approach to infectious diseases such as avian flu. Ministers of health and agricu...

Experts agree: to protect the environment, biofuel standards are needed

Millbrook, NY October 9th, 2008 The United States lacks the policies needed to ensure that cellulosic biofuel production will not cause environmental harm, says a distinguished group of international scientists. The paper, published in the October 3rd issue of the journal Science, urges decisio...

Pregnant patients lose out in breast cancer treatment; a new approach is needed

Berlin, Germany: Pregnant breast cancer patients can be treated as closely as possible to existing guidelines for non-pregnant patients, with few ill effects, a scientist told the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) today (Wednesday 16 April). Dr. Sibylle Loibl, Assistant Profess...

Everglades phosphorus limits on the right track, but more is needed

DURHAM, N.C. State and federal standards for phosphorus releases into the Everglades seem sufficient to protect the huge wetlands resident plants and animals from damage, but pollutant levels still reach double or triple safe levels near some of the Everglades outer edges. A six-year study led...

Faster, low cost sequencing technologies needed to drive era of personalized medicine

DNA testing is transforming health care and medicine, but current technologies only give a snapshot of an individual's genetic makeup. Any patient wanting a complete picture of their inherited DNA, or genome, would drop their jaw at the sight of the bill -- to the current tune of $10 million or mor...

Cancer virus protein needed for successful infection

New research shows that a protein made by a cancer-causing virus that was thought to be unimportant for its replication is in fact critically needed by the virus to initiate an infection and to reproduce. The study examined the human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and a protein it makes ca...

Gene needed for butterfly transformation also key for insects like grasshoppers

It is a marvel of nature that a creature such as a caterpillar changes into something quite different, a butterfly. Contrast that with a grasshopper, which looks largely the same from the time it hatches through its adult stage. New University of Washington research shows that a regulatory gene ...

Molecular research suggest shift needed in how some drugs are created

The first close-up look at a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule involved in immune response in mammals suggests that researchers "should rethink what they are doing" in creating drugs based on a fruit-fly model, scientists say. Reporting in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology, research...

Womb needed for proper brain development

The brains of babies born very prematurely do not develop as well as those who are carried to full-term, according to new research presented today at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sandra Witelson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences...

Quick identification needed to save Florida's citrus industry from devastating disease

The recent discovery of citrus greening (huanglongbing) in samples collected from trees in South Florida poses a definite threat to Florida's $9 billion commercial citrus industry. Proper identification and eradication methods are needed to reduce the amount of crop loss caused by this disease, say...

Clear rules needed to govern deep sea bioprospecting: UNU

Vast genetic resources ?"blue gold" on the international deep sea floor ?need protection from unfettered commercial exploitation, warns a new report from the Japan-based United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Increasingly recognized as important to humankind for their...

AIDS expert says global strategy needed to combat feminization of HIV/AIDS

Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., a Johns Hopkins physician and scientist, who has spent the best part of the last 25 years leading major efforts to combat HIV and AIDS throughout the world, is calling for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic. Quinn, a pr...

NIH stimulus funding supports Emory biomedical scientists

... stress. Pediatric heart development: Children's hearts respond differently to medications and surgery than adults' hearts, and more information is needed to guide pediatric heart specialists. This project looks at physiological properties of human heart tissue in pediatric patients. Student research...

More than half of Texas physicians do not always recommend HPV vaccine to girls

...nal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Two years after the FDA approved the vaccine, the study suggests that additional efforts are needed to encourage physicians to follow these national recommendations," said Jessica Kahn, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Ch...

Women often opt to surgically remove their breasts, ovaries to reduce cancer risk

...s is an ongoing conversation that needs to be addressed and individualized for each patient." Likewise, Evans suggested that additional studies are needed to help evaluate the communication efforts and methods between doctors and/or counselors and women at risk for breast cancer. Questions to be raised s...

Venomous sea snakes play heads or tails with their predators

...g the similarity between the head and the tail. The reason for this mixture of behaviour and coloration results from a developed defence strategy needed when the snake is probing for prey. Despite being extremely venomous sea snakes are susceptible to attack from several predators such as sharks, large...

Abnormal brain circuits may prevent movement disorder

... characteristic circuit 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 onl...

Hormone levels contribute to stress resilience

...mpounds like DHEA might be used to protect military personnel from the negative impact of operational stress." Clearly, additional research is still needed but these findings are a step forward in the quest to help prevent or better treat the symptoms of stress-related disorders that these high-risk indiv...

Pinhead-size worms + robot = new antibiotics

... antibiotic drought, scientists in Massachusetts are describing successful use of a test that enlists pinhead-sized worms in efforts to discover badly needed new antibiotics. Their study appeared in ACS Chemical Biology , a monthly journal. Frederick Ausubel and colleagues note in the new study that ex...

Neuropathic pain: The sea provides a new hope of relief

...ive for some sufferers. However, many patients do not respond to these currently available drugs. "New, effective and safe painkillers are urgently needed for patients with neuropathic pain," says Dr Zhi-Hong Wen, who played a key role in a research study searching for novel compounds that have potential...

Lead-based consumer paint remains a global public health threat

...ing produced overseas, Clark says that lead paint exposure remains a serious global health threat. "A global ban on lead-based paint is drastically needed to protect the more than three billion people who may be exposed in the countries allowing distribution of lead-containing paints as well as Americans...

Agricultural research key to food security

...oncentration on agricultural research in the South. Writing in the spring issue of the TWAS Newsletter, el-Beltagy outlines the steps that will be needed to ensure that developing countries can take advantage of cutting-edge agricultural technologies, such as genomics and nanotechnology, that have the p...

New hope for fisheries

...stocks that we examined sixty-three percent remained below target and still needed to be rebuilt." "Across all regions we are still seeing a troubling tre...ld in terms of management success by not waiting until drastic measures are needed to conserve, restore and rebuild marine resources. Some other regions are c...