Temp

Climate model links higher temperatures to prehistoric extinction

Virginia Commonwealth University immunologists studying mast cells, known to play a central role in asthma and allergic disease, have identified a hormone-like molecule that can kill these cells by programming them to die in studies with mice. The findings move researchers another step closer to understanding the life cycle of mast cells, and may help researchers develop new treatments fo...

Temperature regulates circadian clock in zebrafish

The biological clock controls the circadian rhythms of a wide range of physiological and behavioral processes, from fluctuating hormone levels to sleep-wake cycles and feeding patterns. While it's well known that circadian clock elements sense and respond to light cycles, much less is known about how daily temperature cycles affect the clock's timing mechanism in vertebrates. In the open-access...

Elevated temperature enhances success of viral cancer therapy

A therapeutic approach for battling cancer that is based on infection with a specially designed virus similar to the one that causes the common cold has shown promise in clinical trials. Now, new research suggests that fever might be a useful weapon in the fight as well. The study, published in the July issue of Cancer Cell, demonstrates that tumor cells are even more sensitive to viral therapy a...

Taking evolution's temperature: Researchers pinpoint the energy it takes to make a species

Comfortable living is not why so many different life forms seem to converge at the warmer areas of the planet. The finding - by researcher...

Time of day tempers tadpoles' response to predators

To a tiny tadpole, life boils down to two basic missions: eat, and avoid being eaten. But there's a trade-off. The more a tadpole eats, the faster it grows big enough to transform into a frog; yet finding food requires being active, which ups the odds of becoming someone else's dinner. Scientists have known that prey adjust their activity levels in response to predation risk, but new res...

Researchers find cause of frontotemporal dementia

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is the second major form of dementia. Under the direction of Christine Van Broeckhoven, researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) affiliated to the University of Antwerp have recently discovered that the progranulin growth factor plays an important biological role in the development of this form of dementia. Because progranulin i...

Ocean temperature predicts spread of marine species

Scientists can predict how the distance marine larvae travel varies with ocean temperature ?a key component in conservation and management of fish, shellfish and other marine species ?according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most marine life, including commercially important species, reproduces via larvae that drift far along ocean currents before retu...

Radiologists attempt to solve mystery of Tut's demise

Egyptian radiologists who performed the first-ever computed tomography (CT) evaluation of King Tutankhamun’s mummy believe they have solved the mystery of how the ancient pharaoh died. The CT images and results of their study were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Ashraf Selim, M.D., radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital, Cair...

Chemotherapy temporarily affects the structures of the human brain

Researchers have linked chemotherapy with short-term structural changes in cognitive areas of the brain, according to a new study. Published in the January 1, 2007 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that within 12 months of rec...

Temperament linked to onset of cancer and early death in female rats

Female rats that are apprehensive of new experiences as infants maintain that temperament and die earlier from mammary and pituitary tumors than do their more adventuresome sisters, according to new research by a team based at the University of Chicago. The apprehensive rats were more likely to have irregular reproductive cycles than adventuresome rats, and that disruption could account fo...

Rising ocean temperatures, pollution have oysters in hot water

Oysters exposed to high water temperatures and a common heavy metal are unable to obtain sufficient oxygen and convert it to cellular energy, according to a new study presented at The American Physiological Society conference, Comparative Physiology 2006. The study showed how cadmium, a heavy metal, reduces the oyster's tolerance of warmer water temperatures and makes it more vulnerable d...

Temple University Hospital investigates treatment for cervical dysplasia

Temple University Hospital's Center For Women's Health is participating in a national study to determine the safety and effectiveness of an investigational treatment for cervical dysplasia. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 500,000 women are diagnosed with high-grade cervical dysplasia each year, with roughly 10,000 cases progressing to cervical cancer. For numerous w...

Sleep enforces the temporal sequence in memory

We have usually quite strong memories of past events like an exciting holiday or a jolly birthday party. However it is not clear how the brain keeps track of the temporal sequence in such memories: did Paul spill a glass of wine before or after Mary left the party? Previous findings from a research group headed by Jan Born at the University of Lübeck have confirmed the widely held view th...

Healthy coral reefs hit hard by warmer temperatures

Coral disease outbreaks have struck the healthiest sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where for the first time researchers have conclusively linked disease severity and ocean temperature. Close living quarters among coral may make it easy for infection to spread, researchers have found. "With this study, speculation about the impacts of global warming on the spread of infectious d...