Tone

Yellowstone microbes fueled by hydrogen, according to U. of Colorado study

Microbes living in the brilliantly coloredhot springs of Yellowstone National Park use primarily hydrogen forfuel, a discovery University of Colorado at Boulder researchers saybodes well for life in extreme environments on other planets and couldadd to understanding of bacteria inside the human body.A team of CU-Boulder biologists led by Professor Norman Pace, one ofthe world's leading expe...

NASA links nanobacteria to kidney stones and other diseases

Nanobacteria (NB), a novel self-replicating, mineralizing agent, has been identified by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists as a potential culprit in kidney stone formation among astronauts. With the potential for future exploratory space missions to the moon and Mars, longer missions, and exposure to the elements of outer space, health is a major concern for astronaut...

Gladstone investigators discover how resting T cells avoid HIV infection

Scientists have discovered the mechanism that enables some CD4 T cells -- the main target of HIV -- to thwart the virus. The discovery, reported on April 13 in the online version of Nature, could open the door to an entirely new strategy for preventing the spread of HIV infection in the body's cells, according to the senior author of the study, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Direc...

Leave it to salmon to leave no stone unturned

Like an armada of small rototillers, female salmon can industriously churn up entire stream beds from end to end, sometimes more than once, using just their tails. For decades ecologists have believed that salmon nest-digging triggered only local effects. But a University of Washington researcher writes in this month's BioScience journal that the silt, minerals and nutrients that are unlea...

U of M study examines kidney stone prevention in astronauts

As the space shuttle Discovery prepares to launch on July 1, researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified a way for astronauts to reduce their risk of developing kidney stones while in space. Astronauts lose calcium in their bones and strength in their muscles while in space because of the zero-gravity environment. This calcium can end up in their kidneys, putting them at ri...

Use of stone hammers sheds light on geographic patterns of chimpanzee tool use

In a finding that challenges a long-held belief regarding the cultural spread of tool use among chimpanzees, researchers report that chimpanzees in the Ebo forest, Cameroon, use stone hammers to crack open hard-shelled nuts to access the nutrient-rich seeds. The findings are significant because this nut-cracking behavior was previously known only in a distant chimpanzee population in extreme west...

Taking the wrinkles out of motoneuronal disease

A winner of UniQuest's 2006 Trailblazer innovation competition, Dr Frederic Meunier, is developing a treatment for motoneuronal diseases based on modifying botox –the popular anti-wrinkle treatment. Motoneuronal diseases cause a degeneration of the nerve pathways controlling muscle activity. The diseases are severe and physically debilitating disorders which lead toprogressive weakness an...

Dinosaurs -- stones did not help with digestion

The giant dinosaurs had a problem. Many of them had narrow, pointed teeth, which were more suited to tearing off plants rather than chewing them. But how did they then grind their food? Until recently many researchers have assumed that they were helped by stones which they swallowed. In their muscular stomach these then acted as a kind of 'gastric mill'. But this assumption does not seem to be co...

Gladstone investigators identify a new protective action for the powerful anti-HIV factor, APOBEC3G

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) have identified a previously unknown function of APOBEC3G (A3G), a protein that acts against HIV, a finding that may lead to new approaches for controlling HIV infection. The research, conducted by scientists...

Cloned mice created from fully differentiated cells, a milestone in cloning research

New research dismisses the notion that adult stem cells are necessary for successful animal cloning, proving instead that cells that have completely evolved to a specific type not only can be used for cloning purposes, but they may be a better and more efficient starting point. As proof, researchers report they created two mouse pups from a type of blood cell that itself is incapable of dividing...

Linking DNA and histone methylation

In the May 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Michael Carey (UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center) and colleagues lend new insight into the mechanism of epigenetic silencing of euchromatic genes. Dr. Carey emphasizes that "The study provides a new direction to understand how histone and DNA methylation, two phenomena that play a significant role in stem cell differentiation and cancer, can...

The chimpanzee stone age

Researchers have found evidence that chimpanzees from West Africa were cracking nuts with stone tools before the advent of agriculture, thousands of years ago. The result suggests chimpanzees developed this behaviour on their own, or even that stone tool use was a trait inherited from our common ancestor. Julio Mercader, Christophe Boesch and colleagues found the stones at the Noulo site in Cote...

Why aren't humans furry? Stone-Age moms could be the answer

Medical Hypotheses, an Elsevier publication, has announced the winner of the 2006 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory. Written by Judith Rich-Harris, author of The Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike, the article, "Parental selection: a third selection process in the evolution of human hairlessness and skin color" was judged to best embody the spirit of the journal. The £1,000 prize, launched...