ear in Biological News

High carbon dioxide levels cause abnormally large fish ear bones

Rising carbon dioxide levels in the ocean have been shown to adversely affect shell-forming creatures and corals, and now a new study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has shown for the first time that CO2 can impact a fundamental bodily structure in fish. A ...

Wet ear wax and unpleasant body odors signal breast cancer risk

If having malodorous armpits (called osmidrosis) and goopy earwax isn't bad enough, a discovery by Japanese scientists may add a more serious problem for women facing these cosmetic calamities. That's because they've found that a gene responsible for breast cancer causes these physical symptoms. T...

Preventing ear infections in the future: Delivering vaccine through the skin

An experimental vaccine applied the surface of the skin appears to protect against certain types of ear infections. Scientists from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report their findings today at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Micr...

House Ear Institute, TGen and Belgian researchers identify gene in age-related hearing loss

LOS ANGELES, Calif. Dec. 2, 2008 Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, accounts for 30 percent of all hearing loss. So, why do some people lose their hearing as they get older but other people can still hear a pin drop? The answer may be in a study released online in the journal Human...

Root or shoot? EAR calls the shots

La Jolla, CA Controlled by a tightly regulated choreography that determines what should go up and what should go down, plants develop along a polar axis with a root on one end and a shoot on the other. While studying why a defective TOPLESS gene causes plant embryos to develop into a seedlin...

World first research to speed up cure for ear infections

Fast tracking the healing process for common ear infections will be the focus of ground-breaking research by WA's Lions Ear and Hearing Institute (LEHI). The research will aim to understand why some eardrums heal by themselves (and why some do not heal at all) by identifying which genes are respo...

Frog’s ear canal may provide insights for understanding human hearing loss

A rare frog that lives in rushing streams and waterfalls in east-central China is able to make itself heard above the roar of flowing water by communicating ultrasonically, scientists reported March 16 in the journal Nature. Attributes that enable the frog to hear ultrasounds are made possible by t...

Douglas-fir, geoducks make strange bedfellows in studying climate change

...emperatures in the northeastern Pacific Ocean dating back to 1880. When Black first began publishing comparisons of tree rings and the otoliths or ear bones of long-lived fish, he attracted the attention of climate change scientists. "We found that chronologies for rockfish living at the 300-mete...

Our brain looks at eyes first to identify a face

...on's age. "In order to identify a face in an image, the brain always processes information with the same low resolution, of about 30 by 30 pixels from ear to ear, ignoring distance and the original resolution of the image," Keil says. "Until now, nobody had been able to explain this peculiar phenomenon a...

Discovery of a water snake that startles fish in a way that makes them flee into its jaws

...n their brains that initiates the escape, which biologists call the "C-start." Fish ears sense the sound pressure on each side of their body. When the ear on one side detects a disturbance, it sends a message to the fishes' muscles causing its body to bend into a C-shape facing in the opposite direction ...

UCLA scientists discover ultrasonic communication among frogs

... capable of hearing or producing. Key parts of the ear must be specially adapted to detect ultrasounds. ...arins he should go to China to see "a frog with an ear canal like a human," Narins recalled. Narins t...trasounds due to the highly unusual presence of an ear canal. That research was published March 16, 2006,...

Scaling the wall of deafness

...ators involved in the normal development and survival of cells in the inner ear and are necessary for proper hearing," says Prof. Avraham. "Until now scien...ts that microRNA mutations may also cause abnormal development of the inner ear in embryos and deafness in newborns. MicroRNAs are tiny pieces of RNA, t...

Case Western Reserve University receives $1.66m grant from NIH for otoprotection research

... Program (R01) to explore the impact of several molecular pathways on inner ear dysfunction in Ushers syndrome. Usher Syndrome (USH) is a clinically an...nt or regeneration therapies have not really solved the deafness problem of ear diseases," said Zheng. "An alternative to replacing lost hair cells is to p...

Lehigh researcher awarded $1.8 million NIH grant

...e auditory system processes sound information. The ear and the brain work in tandem to determine the loca...c devices substitute for damaged structures in the ear that may not function properly, and can restore he...bout the process of how information moves from the ear to the brain, less is understood about efferent fe...

Study offers clues to beating hearing loss

...rstanding the causes of some forms of deafness. The Leeds team has discovered that the myosin 7 motor protein - found in the tiny hairs of the inner ear that pick up sound - moves and works in a different way from many other myosins. Dr Michelle Peckham from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biol...

MIT: Using touch to help deaf people

...rformance, says Reed. As part of their project, the researchers have done several studies on the frequency reception ability of the skin. The human ear can perceive frequencies up to 20,000 hertz, but for touch receptors in the skin, optimal frequencies are below 500 hertz. Using a laboratory setu...

UNH researchers studying spiny dogfish, Gulf of Maine's mini shark

...ross-sectioned and examined for bands, or annuli, that are laid down each year. The ages of fish are often determined by the annuli on otoliths (inner ear bones), dorsal or pectoral fin spines. The second dorsal fin spine was previously used to identify the ages of dogfish, but often with imprecise r...

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

...nduct for the purposes of hearing. Instead, they pick up sound waves through their jaws which transmit the information directly to the middle or inner ear where it is processed then relayed to the brain. The work of the BBVA Foundation project team will help develop bioindicators of the damage caused by...

CT scans reveal that dinosaurs were airheads

...ble that these armored dinosaurs could recognize individuals based on the voice," said Witmer, who noted that his research team's studies of the inner ear revealed a hearing organ that probably had the capability to discriminate these subtle vocal nuances. Though Witmer found few similarities between ...

Space researchers developing tool to help disoriented pilots

...es in craft movement in the atmosphere and in space and how the human inner ear functions in both environments. The inner ear helps control the sense of orientation. The researchers are putting emph...

1,000 tags reveal mysteries of giant bluefin tuna

... Atlantic. The tagging data were recently confirmed using a completely different technique, based on chemical analysis of the tunas' "otoliths," or ear bones, which retain a characteristic chemical signature depending upon where the tuna was originally spawned. A unique aspect of this study, publis...

Genes that control cell death fingered in age-related hearing loss

...ge, and changes in the delicate cells in the inner ear that translate a sound into a signal that the brai...tudy, looking at genes whose activity in the inner ear differed greatly between normal mice and those wit...osure to loud noise wherever possible, and wearing ear protection when working with power tools or huntin...

Key to function of dinosaur crests found in brain structure

...g calls that could have been used in communication, perhaps to call for mates or warn others of predators. The CT scans documented a delicate inner ear that confirms that the dinosaurs could hear the low-frequency calls produced by the crest. "We were surprised to see just how large the centers of ...

Brain structure provides key to unraveling function of bizarre dinosaur crests

...mates or warn others of predators. The CT scans documented a delicate inner ear that confirms that the dinosaurs could hear the low-frequency calls produce... the available information is put together, including the digital brain and ear casts, the evolutionary relationships of the species, and the growth patter...

Scientists Find new migratory patterns for Mediterranean and Western Atlantic bluefin tuna

...ur next highest priority." The authors use a novel approach to investigate migratory behaviors. "We examined the chemical composition of the fish's ear stonethe otolithto identify individuals from different nurseries," said Rooker. "Chemical signatures in the form of stable carbon and oxygen isotope r...

Atlantic tuna return thousands of miles to birthplace to spawn

...ed, "Natal Homing and Connectivity in Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Populations," Rooker and fellow researchers examine the chemical composition of the fish's ear bone the otolith to identify individuals from different nurseries. Chemical signatures in the form of stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios serve...

NIH's Genes, Environment and Health Initiative adds 6 studies

...icine, Baltimore; $1.1 million. Genetic Risk to Stroke in Smokers and Nonsmokers in Two Ethnic Groups. Louis Pasquale, M.D., Massachusetts Eye and ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Boston, $850,000. Genes and Environment Initiative in Glaucoma. Data from the genome-wide association studies ...

Molecular evolution is echoed in bat ears

...China Normal University in Shanghai, studied a gene called Prestin that codes for a protein of the outer hair cells - the tiny structures in the inner ear that help to give mammals their sensitive hearing (Prestin is linked to deafness in humans). They looked at the Prestin DNA sequence in a range of ...

Biophysical method may help to recover hearing

...o overcome hearing deficits, and potentially remedy even substantial hearing loss. The authors propose a method of retuning functioning regions of the ear to recognize frequencies originally associated with damaged areas. Details are published August 29th in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Bi...

GN Netcom Introduces Innovative Noise Blackout Technology

... all day use. Enhancing the comfort is a removable ear hook and a selection of eight Jabra Eargels(TM) wh... -- 250 hours standby time -- 33 foot range -- 8 ear gels and one ear hook provided for added comfort -- .35 ounces in ...

New breastfeeding study shows most moms quit early

...gepub.com/cgi/reprint/24/3/278 . Breast milk is considered healthiest for babies because it is easily digested and provides antibodies that prevent ear infections and other illnesses. Earlier work by Forste supports research highlighting the link between breastfeeding and infant survival. Many pers...

Like eavesdropping at a party

...est to you, but we all have the ability to keep an ear out for other interesting conversations going on t...ium coming through the closest channel through one ear while the other ear 'listens' to the calcium coming through distant ch...

Ultrasonic frogs can tune their ears to different frequencies

...gs of the National Academy of Sciences . The research team also included scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Eye and ear Infirmary (at Harvard Medical School). The discovery was made when researchers examined the eardrums of an unusual frog, Odorrana tormota , which ...

Sounding out heart problems automatically

...age of medical graduates cannot properly diagnose heart conditions using a stethoscope, the researchers explain, and the poor sensitivity of the human ear to low frequency heart sounds makes this task even more difficult. The automatic classification of heart sounds based on Ari and Saha's technique coul...

MED-EL's new MAESTRO

...cosmetic appeal. It is the only system with a FineTuner remote control, allowing easy adjustment of settings, without removing the processor from the ear and without interrupting hearing. The processor also includes a standard input jack for connection to FM systems, assistive listening devices even i...

How to build a plant

... kernel-bearing ears. Both sets of flowers begin as bisexual but with development, the female structures in the tassel and the male structures in the ear are arrested. By analyzing the mutant tasselseed4 (t4), Hake and her colleagues found that the t4 microRNA is important in determining the sex and ce...

Killer whales, blind bats, discriminating dolphins, mating birds

...em. In turn, the bat's auditory representation of space guides its actions: ear movements, head aim, flight path, and the features of subsequent ultrasonic...r instance, sounds emitted by an object to the left will arrive at the left ear a bit sooner and louder (interaural time difference and interaural level di...

Brown to host conference on advances in neurotechnology

... the brain sends signals that cause muscles to twitch and arms and legs to move. They are peering more intently into the inner workings of the eye and ear and are developing devices that can replicate broadly how they work. The technologies they have created the implants, the probes, the electrical s...

Female concave-eared frogs draw mates with ultrasonic calls

...: She emits a high-pitched chirp that to the human ear sounds like that of a bird. This is one of seve... have energy in the ultrasonic range. The recessed ear structure protects an eardrum that is 1/30 the thi...detect very high frequency sounds. The unusual ear structure and the high-pitched calls are likely an...

Looking at neurons from all sides

...ts to use the technology to monitor stimulation of the acoustic nerve optically. Those scientists hope to reinstate hearing in lab animals whose inner ear receptors do not work. ...