The in Biological News

Navigating in the ocean of molecules

This release is available in German . Tracking down new active agents for cancer or malaria treatment could soon become easier - thanks to a computer program with which researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund aim to facilitate the search for suitable ...

Climbing to new heights in the forest canopy

With summer in full swing, many plants are at their peak bloom and climbing plants, like clematis, morning glories, and sweet peas, are especially remarkable. Not only are these plants beautiful, but their ability to climb walls and trellises is an impressive feat of biological engineering that ha...

Symposium to discuss geoengineering to fight climate change at the ESA Annual Meeting

Geoengineering techniques aim to slow global warming through the use of human-made changes to the Earth's land, seas or atmosphere. But new research shows that the use of geoengineering to do environmental good may cause other environmental harm. In a symposium at the Ecological Society of America...

Moving to the US increases cancer risk for Hispanics

PHILADELPHIA Results of a new study confirm trends that different Hispanic population groups have higher incidence rates of certain cancers and worse cancer outcomes if they live in the United States, than they do if they live in their homelands. "Hispanics are not all the same with regard to...

Beautiful plumage: Feather color and sex start the species revolution

Faculty of 1000, the leading scientific evaluation service, has highlighted research providing evidence for the evolution of a new species. Birds use plumage colour to recognize and select potential mates. A mutation of a single DNA base can lead to a striking colour change, as demonstrated by ...

Climate change poker: The barriers which are preventing a global agreement

As the world's environment ministers, government officials, diplomats and campaigners prepare to attend the COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 to unite in the battle against climate change in one of the most complicated political deals the world has ever seen, the increasingly complex...

delSECUR CORPORATION Announces Agreement to Purchase the Intellectual Property Assets of the Corporation

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- delSECUR CORPORATION, a Nevada Corporation, (Pink Sheets: DLSC) announced today that its Board of Directors has accepted, subject to the approval of the majority of the shareholders entitled to vote, an agreement to purchase the Intellec...

Neuropathic pain: The sea provides a new hope of relief

A compound initially isolated from a soft coral ( Capnella imbricata ) collected at Green Island off Taiwan, could lead scientists to develop a new set of treatments for neuropathic pain chronic pain that sometimes follows damage to the nervous system. Currently this form of pain is very poorly ...

Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting

Advances in ecology increasingly reveal that conventional agricultural practices have detrimental effects on the landscape ecology, creating problems for long-term sustainability of crops. In a series of sessions at the Ecological Society of America's Annual Meeting, ecologists will present their ...

Animal and plant communication at the ESA Annual Meeting

Animals and plants communicate with one another in a variety of ways: behavior, body patterns, and even chemistry. In a series of talks at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting, to be held August 3-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ecologists explore the myriad adaptations for exchanging ...

DNA computation gets logical at the Weizmann Institute of Science

Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, remote from the regular computer user. Nonetheless, Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, research students in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute's Biological Chemistry, and Comp...

Urban water ecology at the ESA annual meeting

Increasingly, human urban development overlaps with habitat for wild animals and plants, creating environments that degrade natural landscapes. But people, animals and plants all have in common the need for healthy, sustainable freshwater ecosystems. In a series of presentations at the Ecological ...

Extraterrestrial platinum was 'stirred' into the Earth

A research program aimed at using platinum as an exploration guide for nickel has for the first time been able to put a time scale on the planet's large-scale convection processes. The research is reported in a Nature paper titled "Progressive mixing of meteoritic veneer into the early Earth's...

Structure of protective protein in the eye lens revealed

The human eye lens consists of a highly concentrated mix of several proteins. Protective proteins prevent these proteins from aggregating and clumping. If this protective function fails, the lens blurs and the patient develops cataracts. Two research groups at the Department of Chemistry of the Te...

Recovery act-funded research projects aid communities across the country

In the five months since passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), thousands of research-related awards have been made, supporting important scientific efforts across the country. ARRA delivered the largest increase in basic research funding in American history - $21.5...

Reducing risk of hospitalization in the elderly

Older adults who have less strength, poor physical function and low muscle density are at higher risk of being hospitalized compared to adults with more strength and better function. That's the finding of a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society . The study also found that ...

Humans 'damaging the oceans'

Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world's oceans in profound and damaging ways is outlined in a new scientific discussion paper released today. Man-made carbon emissions "are affecting marine biological processes from genes to ecosystems over scales from rock pools to ocean ...

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

Hungry, sexual organisms replaced well-fed, clonal organisms in the Caribbean Sea as the Isthmus of Panama arose, separating the Caribbean from the Pacific, report researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The fossil record shows that if...

Freshwater fish at the top of the food chain evolve more slowly

Durham, NC For avid fishermen and anglers, the largemouth bass is a favorite freshwater fish with an appetite for minnows. A new study finds that once they evolved to eat other fish, largemouth bass and fellow fish-feeders have remained relatively unchanged compared with their insect- and snail-e...

Fox Chase researchers uncover one force behind the MYC oncogene in many cancers

Philadelphia (July 27, 2009) DLX5, a gene crucial for embryonic development, promotes cancer by activating the expression of the known oncogene, MYC, according to researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center. Since the DLX5 gene is inactive in normal adults, it may be an ideal target for future anti-...

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

New Rochelle, NY, July 28, 2009The unique association between microorganisms and their hosts, whether insects, plants, or mammals, provides a fascinating view into how microbial symbionts adapt to changing biological environments. Insights into the diversity and complexity of symbiotic relationshi...

University of Toronto helps to 'barcode' the world's plants

An international team of scientists, including botanists from the University of Toronto, have identified a pair of genes which can be used to catalogue the world's plants using a technique known as DNA barcoding a rapid and automated classification method that uses a short genetic marker in an or...

Study reveals a reprogrammed role for the androgen receptor

BOSTONThe androgen receptor a protein ignition switch for prostate cancer cell growth and division is a master of adaptability. When drug therapy deprives the receptor of androgen hormones, thereby halting cell proliferation, the receptor manages to find an alternate growth route. A new study by...

Scientists track impact of DNA damage in the developing brain

Switching off a key DNA repair system in the developing nervous system is linked to smaller brain size as well as problems in brain structures vital to movement, memory and emotion, according to new research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists. The work, published in the Aug...

Knee injuries may start with strain on the brain, not the muscles

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---New research shows that training your brain may be just as effective as training your muscles in preventing ACL knee injuries, and suggests a shift from performance-based to prevention-based athletic training programs. The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is one of the f...

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes MIRTEC With the 2009 Award for Automated Optical Inspection Product Innovation of the Year

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the automated optical inspection (AOI) equipment market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes MIRTEC with the 2009 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation of the Year for its innovative MV-7xi...

Stop and smell the flowers -- the scent really can soothe stress

Feeling stressed? Then try savoring the scent of lemon, mango, lavender, or other fragrant plants. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels. Their study appears in ...

Biodiesel on the wing: A 'green' process for biodiesel from feather meal

Scientists in Nevada are reporting development of a new and environmentally friendly process for producing biodiesel fuel from "chicken feather meal," made from the 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste that accumulate annually in the United States alone. Their study is scheduled for the Jul...

The value of variation: Ecologists consider the causes and consequences

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Consider the case of the three-spine stickleback. These tiny fish that thrive in oceans and in fresh water might appear to be the same, yet ecologists are finding that they are actually a diverse collection of very specialized individuals. Understanding the ecological causes ...

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

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Music, rather than electromechanical valves, can drive experimental samples through a lab-on-a-chip in a new system developed at the University of Michigan. This development could significantly simplify the process of conducting experiments in microfluidic devices. A paper on...

SRI announces selection by the National Cancer Institute as a Chemical Biology Consortium center

Menlo Park, Calif.July 22 , 2009SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, announced today that SRI's Center for Cancer Research was selected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a leading role in the newly-formed "Chemical Biology Consortium" (CBC), a...

Genetic tests advertised directly to the consumer

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (July 20, 2009) Genetic testing services have recently begun to be advertised directly to the patient, and the results of the consumers' response can affect public health, as well as the future adoption of pharmacogenetic/genomic testing...

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

Amsterdam, 21 July 2009 - In the July issue of Biomaterials , published by Elsevier, researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) report on the first lab-grown motor nerves that are insulated and organized just like they are in the human body. The model system will drastically improv...

Reveal the enemy

This release is available in German . Bacterial diseases are usually detected by first enriching samples, then separating, identifying, and counting the bacteria. This type of procedure usually takes at least two days after arrival of the sample in the laboratory. Tests that work faster...

A global model for the origin of species independent of geographical isolation

The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "specia...

Smaller plants punch above their weight in the forest, say Queen's biologists

New findings from Queen's University biologists show that in the plant world, bigger isn't necessarily better. "Until now most of the thinking has suggested that to be a good competitor in the forest, you have to be a big plant," says Queen's Biology professor Lonnie Aarssen. "But our research...

Reintroduced Chinese alligators now multiplying in the wild in China

The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today that critically endangered alligators in China have a new chance for survival. The WCS's Bronx Zoo, in partnership with two other North American parks and the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of the State Forestry Administration ...

The last supper of the hominids establishes the times they lived at the sites

In the French cave of Arago, an international team of scientists has analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals hunted by Homo heidelbergensis . It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological si...

'Show me the money!' MDA greenlights grants

TUCSON, Ariz., July 13, 2009At a time when federal and private funds for biomedical research have become scarce, the Muscular Dystrophy Association reasserts its leadership in the fight against muscle diseases by announcing grants to innovative research projects throughout America and in Canada. ...

Innerscope Research Adds to Its Advisory Board Two Pioneers in the Measurement and Application of Emotional Engagement

MIT professor Sandy Pentland, former Advertising Research Foundation Chief Research Officer Dr. Joseph Plummer Provide Key Insights BOSTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Innerscope Research (R), a revolutionary biometric media research firm, announced today that it has added two new members to...