comes in Biological News

When it comes to brain damage, blankets take the place of drugs

Have you ever covered yourself with a blanket to stave off the shivers? A new study shows that a blanket can also help alleviate shivering in patients who have been cooled to prevent brain damage. Patients with brain injuries or dangerously high fevers are often cooled to reduce their core body...

'First aid' for brain cells comes from blood

In acute ischemic stroke, the blood supply to the brain is restricted. Initially, brain cells die from lack of oxygen. In addition, ischemia activates harmful inflammatory processes in the affected area of the brain. For the first time, scientists at the Neurology Clinic at Heidelberg University H...

Red wine vs. white? It makes no difference when it comes to breast-cancer risk

SEATTLE The largest study of its kind to evaluate the effect of red versus white wine on breast-cancer risk concludes that both are equal offenders when it comes to increasing breast-cancer risk. The results of the study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, were publishe...

Tom Cruise smile comes with a sunburn price

UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching is not only a con, but is dangerous to your eyes and skin, says a Royal Society of Chemistry journal. The light treatment gives absolutely no benefit over bleaching without UV, and damages skin and eyes up to four times as much as sunbathing, reports a study in...

When it comes to sleep research, fruit flies and people make unlikely bedfellows

You may never hear fruit flies snore, but rest assured that when you're asleep they are too. According to research published in the January 2009 issue of the journal GENETICS ( http://www.genetics.org ), scientists from the University of Missouri-Kansas City have shown that the circadian rhythms...

Studies offer guide as protein interaction mapping comes of age

BOSTON--During the past 20 years, researchers have identified thousands of cell protein interactions, with the ultimate goal of inventorying all that occur within cells of various organisms a comprehensive catalogue known as the interactome. Such information will be critical to understanding the ...

A BBVA Foundation project comes up with a system enabling detection of cetacean hearing loss

December 17, 2008. A research project supported by the BBVA Foundation and led by Michel Andr, director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics at the UPC (Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya) has developed the world's first portable system for measuring cetacean hearing sensitivity. This aud...

Human connection to our nation's fisheries comes alive through oral history project

Voices from the Fisheries , an archive of oral histories of recreational and commercial fishermen and the communities and families that rely on them, documents the human experience with the nation's coastal, marine and Great Lakes environments and living marine resources. Social scientists Sus...

When it comes to forest soil, wildfires pack 1-2 punch

For decades, scientists and resource managers have known that wildfires affect forest soils, evidenced, in part, by the erosion that often occurs after a fire kills vegetation and disrupts soil structure. But, the lack of detailed knowledge of forest soils before they are burned by wildfire has ha...

When it comes to female red squirrels, it seems any male will do

Researchers have found that female red squirrels showed high levels of multimale mating and would even mate with males that had similar genetic relatedness, basically mating with their relatives. Researchers from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and the University of She...

Mouse study: When it comes to living longer, it's better to go hungry than go running

BETHESDA, Md. (May 14, 2008) A study investigating aging in mice has found that hormonal changes that occur when mice eat significantly less may help explain an already established phenomenon: a low calorie diet can extend the lifespan of rodents, a benefit that even regular exercise does not achi...

Forests could benefit when fall color comes late

Do those fall colors seem to show up later and laterif at all? Scientists say we can blame increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for prolonging the growing season of the trees. And that may actually be good news for forestry industries. Writing in the current issue of the jour...

When it comes fighting to C. difficile, the Palme d'Or goes to soap and warm water

Montreal, 20 September 2007 - Hospitals world-wide battle nosocomial infections on a daily basis. One of the most difficult bacteria to combat is Clostridium.difficile. To help ensure the best control methods possible, Dr. Michael Libman, Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the McGi...

Eavesdropping comes naturally to young song sparrows

Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to and learning the tunes sung by their neighbors. University of Washington researchers exploring how male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) acquire their song reperto...

Latent memory of cells comes to life

New Danish research has examined the mechanisms behind latent cell memory, which can come to life and cause previously non-existent capacities suddenly to appear. Special yeast cells for example, can abruptly change from being of a single sex to hermaphrodite. Researchers from the Niels Bohr In...

Breathing easy: When it comes to oxygen, a bug's life is full of it

Because of new imaging technology, researchers are getting a better understanding of a physiological paradox: how insects, which have a respiratory system built to provide quick access to a lot of oxygen, can survive for days without it. The insect respiratory system is so efficient that resting ...

Leading reason for corneal transplants comes into focus

Guided by families with an unusual number of cases, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered the genetic origins of at least one form of Fuchs corneal dystrophy, FCD, the leading reason for corneal transplantation in the United States. In one form or another, FCD's trademark deterioration of t...

When it comes to gene transcription, random pauses aren’t quite so random, study finds

Of the thousands of proteins produced in our cells, few are as important as the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP), which has the unique ability to faithfully copy genetic information from DNA. In fact, all organisms--from bacteria to people--depend on RNAP to initiate the complex process of protein synt...

Giant deep-sea tubeworm's meal ticket comes in as a skin infection

Giant tubeworms found near hydrothermal ventsmore than a mile below the ocean surface donot bother to eat: lacking mouth and stomach,they stand rooted to one spot. Fornourishment, they rely completely onsymbiotic bacteria that live within theirbodies to metabolize the sulphurous volcanicsoup in whi...

For diseases, when it comes to sharing a home, only close relatives will do

Being more generous to close relatives is a common theme in both our daily interactions and our understanding of how organisms resolve conflicts in nature. In a paper from July issue of The American Naturalist, biologists Britt Koskella (Indiana University), Tatiana Giraud (Université Paris-Sud), a...

What comes first…the chicken, the egg, or the bad attitude?

Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered that chickens raised for meat can choose whether or not they'll funnel the nutrients they eat towards themselves or their eggs. That phenomenon of 'reproductive attitude' is a headache for producers who must figure out how to deal with les...

When it comes to cell entry, being average has its advantages

When it comes to gaining entry into cells, size matters. A team from Brown University and the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research has created a model that explains how viruses and other bioparticles slip inside cells without a special protein coating called clathrin. The secret, it seems, is...

To sea or not to sea: When it comes to salmon sex, size sometimes doesn't matter

The ones that stay and the ones that stray are biological puzzles among Pacific salmon, of whom the vast majority ?but not all ?travel thousands of miles to sea and back to the streams where they hatched. There are chinook salmon populations in Idaho in which an occasional male stays put and matu...

Growth in the sea comes down to a struggle for iron

Scientists know that injecting iron into some major regions of the oceans can stimulate the growth of diatoms and other phytoplankton, but something odd occurs as these tiny marine plants continue to grow. They begin to starve in the midst of plenty, acting as though iron, an essential nutrient, st...

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

...e conducted at a place with expertise in an effort to minimize false-positive results, which often lead to biopsy. This will minimize the anxiety that comes along with such a diagnosis. Patients should consult with an expert in advance and stay in contact with them to see how the science may be changing ov...

Lead-based consumer paint remains a global public health threat

...f the study. The UC team reports their findings in the journal Environmental Research online ahead of publication on Aug. 4, 2009. The report comes on the tail of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's enforcement of heightened restrictions on lead in American consumer paints, which will ta...

Animal and plant communication at the ESA Annual Meeting

...r within their hollowed-out thorns and food in the form of nectar and protein. The ants, in return, defend the tree viciously, attacking anything that comes near from other insects to birds and small mammals. One species of bug, however, has exploited this system. These insects, in the family Coreidae...

New hope for fisheries

...n to reducing exploitation rates below MMSY, there are several other measures that can reduce fishing impacts on ecosystems. "Fishing at maximum yield comes at a significant cost of species collapses," explains Heike Lotze, a co-author from Dalhousie University. "But even low levels of fishing do change ma...

Little-known protein found to be key player

... is fitting that the discovery of a new protein capable of fusing membranes comes 10 years after the demonstration that SNAREs can fuse lipid bilayers," said... grow new pieces and connect those pieces together. That's where the fusion comes in." Daga said the discovery will lay the foundation for a deeper under...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...ick pulse of tightly focused x-rays can be diffracted from a microcrystal or even a single protein or virus in solution. The pulse is so brief that it comes and goes before any of the atoms can move, freezing their orientation like a strobe light. Just as important, a sufficiently brief pulse may terminate...

Chasing tiny vehicles

...whether an approach was even promising or not. "It's like a black box," Bruchle says. "You put something in at one end, then wait and see if anything comes out at the other end. What happens in between is anyone's guess." Now, his workgroup has employed highly sensitive single-molecule fluorescence micros...

Healing power of aloe vera proves beneficial for teeth and gums, too

...s of the plant, only a few have been used for medicinal purposes. "Thankfully, consumers with sensitive teeth or gums have a number of choices when it comes to their oral health, and aloe vera is one of them," says AGD spokesperson Eric Shapria, MS, DDS, MAGD, MA. "If they are interested in a more alternat...

New theory on why male, female lemurs same size

... When it comes to investigating mysteries, Sherlock Holmes has nothing on Rice University biologist Amy Dunham. In a newly published paper, Dunham offers a new theor...

A 'heart healthy' diet and ongoing, moderate physical activity may protect against cognitive decline

... considerable research, much less is known about how this relationship is impacted by the Alzheimer's risk gene Apolipoprotein E (APOE). The APOE gene comes in three types, or alleles, known as e2, e3, and e4. Each person gets one type of APOE from each parent, making the possible combinations: e2/e2, e2/e...

Researchers achieve major breakthrough with water desalination system

...The system could also be used in the event of emergencies to provide a quick source for fresh drinking water where it is needed most." "The work comes out of necessity, certainly for California, but there are also many places around the world that share our same challenges," Cohen said. "I feel we ha...

Hush little baby... Linking genes, brain and behavior in children

... It comes as no surprise that some babies are more difficult to soothe than others but frustrated parents may be relieved to know that this is not necessarily a...

Mount Sinai's Dr. Benjamin tenOever to be honored by White House

...h President Barack Obama. The highest honor bestowed by the country on young professionals in the early stages of their research careers, the award comes with $500,000 in research funding over a five year span. The Department of Defense, which nominated Dr. tenOever, will match this amount, giving him $...

Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'

...sphere, sulfates were scarce. Without sulfates, iron and manganese oxides may have been essential in converting methane to carbon dioxide. "Sulfate comes mostly from oxidative weathering of rocks," said Beal. "Oxygen is needed for this to occur." While manganese and iron oxides are made in today's ox...

Male seahorses like big mates

... Male seahorses have a clear agenda when it comes to selecting a mating partner: to increase their reproductive success. By being choosy and preferring large females, they are likely to have more and ...

Investing wisely to save the Great Barrier Reef

...these funds will achieve very little. Careful targeting of the investment is crucial. "Scientists estimate that 70 per cent of sediment pollution comes from just 20 per cent of the total catchment area. Our task is to build a model that helps decision makers invest wisely." The decision support pro...