off in Biological News

Drinking milk in the morning may help stave off lunchtime hunger

Now there's a new reason for the weight-conscious to drink fat free milk at breakfast time, suggests a new study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . Researchers in Australia found that drinking fat free milk in the morning helped increase satiety, or a feel...

Your brain on -- and off -- caffeine

Ever miss your daily cup of coffee and subsequently get a pounding headache? According to reports from consumers of coffee and other caffeinated products, caffeine withdrawal is often characterized by a headache, fatigue, feeling less alert, less energetic and experiencing difficulty concentrating...

Just in time for spring: Scientists find the cellular on and off switch for allergies and asthma

If you're one of the millions who dread the spring allergy season, things are looking up. A research study appearing in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology ( http://www.jleukbio.org ) shows how a team of American scientists have identified a previously unknown cellular switch ...

Beyond 'ooh-ooh, aah-aah'-- expert on monkey communication kicks off Darwin series, May 5

Robert Seyfarth, a noted expert on monkey communication, will present "Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind" from 5-6:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 5, in Room 130 Sharp Hall at the University of Delaware. The lecture will kick off the University of Delaware's Year of Darwin Celebration, w...

'Super reefs' fend off climate change, study says

NEW YORK (April 23, 2009) The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today a study showing that some coral reefs off East Africa are unusually resilient to climate change due to improved fisheries management and a combination of geophysical factors. WCS announced the results of the study at th...

Patience pays off with methanol for uranium bioremediation

MADISON, WI, FEBRUARY 23, 2009 The legacy of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy development has left ground water and sediment at dozens of sites across the United States and many more around the world contaminated with uranium. The uranium is transported through ground water as uranyl (U6+). In ...

Scientists discover 'hot spot' for toxic HABS off Washington coastline

A new study funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation reveals that a part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Washington state from Canada's British Columbia, is a potential "hot spot" for toxic harmful algal blooms affecting the Washington and British Columbia coasts. Understa...

'Hot spot' for toxic harmful algal blooms discovered off Washington coast

A part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Washington state from Canada's British Columbia, is a potential "hot spot" for toxic harmful algal blooms affecting the Washington and British Columbia coasts. Marine scientists found that under certain conditions, toxic algal cells from an ...

Large DNA stretches, not single genes, shut off as cells mature

Experiments at Johns Hopkins have found that the gradual maturing of embryonic cells into cells as varied as brain, liver and immune system cells is apparently due to the shut off of several genes at once rather than in individual smatterings as previous studies have implied. Working with mous...

UNC study: Text messaging may help children fight off obesity

CHAPEL HILL Many children love sending and receiving text messages through their cell phones sometimes to the great annoyance of their parents. But now a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests this technology could be used to reduce children's chances of becom...

Research shows that time invested in practicing pays off for young musicians

A Harvard-based study published October 29 in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE , led by Drs. Gottfried Schlaug and Ellen Winner has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental trainingnot only in tests of auditory di...

Brookhaven scientists take off for southeastern Pacific climate study

UPTON, NY - During October and November 2008, some 150 scientists from 40 institutions in eight nations - including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory - will take part in an international field experiment designed to make observations of critical c...

Robot vehicle surveys deep sea off Pacific Northwest

The first scientific mission with Sentry, a newly developed robot capable of diving as deep as 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) into the ocean, has been successfully completed by scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Washington (UW). The veh...

Sesame seed extract and konjac gum may help ward off Salmonella and E. coli

A new study in SCI's Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows that konjac gum and sesame seed extract may offer protection against different strains of E. coli and Salmonella bacteria. The study by Dr Petra Becker et al from Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlan...

Outdoor enthusiasts scaring off native carnivores in parks

Berkeley -- Even a quiet stroll in the park can dramatically change natural ecosystems, according to a new study by conservation biologists from the University of California, Berkeley. These findings could have important implications for land management policies. The study compared parks in the...

Penguins setting off sirens over health of world's oceans

Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist. Oil pollution, depletion of fisheries and rampant coastli...

EuroDYNA takes lid off the genome

European researchers have made significant progress unravelling how genes are governed and why this sometimes goes wrong in disease. The key lies in the dynamic ever-changing structure of the chromatin, which is the underlying complex of protein and DNA making up the chromosomes in which almost al...

Fishing throws targeted species off balance, Scripps study shows

Fishing activities can provoke volatile fluctuations in the populations they target, but its not often clear why. A new study published in the journal Nature by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and colleagues has identified the general underlying mechanism. Rese...

Flying off course

This release is available in German . Halle/Saale. Migratory birds make mistakes in terms of direction, but not distance. These are the findings of a team of ornithologists and ecologists from the University of Marburg, the Ornithological Society in Bavaria and the Helmholtz Centre for E...

Researchers confirm dead zone off Texas coast since 1985

COLLEGE STATION Researchers at Texas A&M University have confirmed for the first time that a dead zone has existed off the Texas coast for at least the past 23 years and will likely remain there, causing potential harmful effects to marine life in the area. Steve DiMarco, associate professor ...

Oregon researchers study widespread areas of low oxygen off northwest coast

A team of scientists studying the California Current a slow-moving mass of cold water that travels south along the coast from British Columbia to Baja California are seeing increasing areas of water off Washington and Oregon with little or no oxygen, possibly resulting in the deaths of marine an...

Scientists obtain core samples from subsea fault system off Japan

The third expedition of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programs Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) completed its mission off the Kii Peninsula today. The expedition science party, 26 scientists representing 10 countries, set forth on Dec. 19, 2007, aboard the drilling vessel Ch...

Smithsonian study: Sediment prediction tools off the mark

A recent study led by Smithsonian ecologist Kathy Boomer suggests it is time for a change in at least one area of watershed management. Boomer has been examining the tools scientists and managers use to predict how much sediment runs into the Chesapeake Bay, and by her account, they are way off th...

Northwestern Memorial trial may wean kidney transplant patients off antirejection drugs

CHICAGO After a transplant surgery, anti-rejection drugs for the organ recipient are a must, but with prolonged use can have serious side effects, including infections, heart disease and cancer. A team led by Joshua Miller, MD, a researcher at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine,...

Major study concludes that global warming is killing off coral

If world leaders do not immediately engage in a race against time to save the Earth's coral reefs, these vital ecosystems will not survive the global warming and acidification predicted for later this century. That is the conclusion of a group of marine scientists from around the world in a major ...

Wind power explored off California's coast

In many ways, wind energy seems an ideal energy source. Fields of mighty turbines spinning in rhythm could harness carbonless power and shuttle it off to homes and industries. But questions remain about the feasibility of wind parks: How much will they cost" Can this unpredictable energy source be...

Piddling fish face off threat of competition

Aggressive territorial male Mozambique tilapia fish (Oreochromis mossambicus) send chemical messages to rival males via their urine. They increase urination, have smellier urine and store more in their bladders than less aggressive males, according to research published in the open access journal ...

HATS off to combat asthma

Two University of Nottingham studies exploring the causes and treatment of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) could lead to the development of drugs to battle these debilitating conditions. The Division of Respiratory Medicine at the University has been awarded a total of ...

Penn researchers find monkeys able to fend off AIDS-like symptoms with enhanced HIV vaccine

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that using an immune system gene to enhance a vaccine used to study HIV in macaque monkeys provides the animals with greater protection against simian HIV (SHIV) than an unmodified vaccine. This multi-...

Researchers identify how to switch off cancer cell genes

Los Angeles, Nov. 12, 2007-- A new study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) identifies how genes are silenced in cancer cells through distinct changes in the density of nucleosomes within the cells. The findings, published in the Nov. 13 issue of the journal Cance...

Too much sugar turns off gene that controls the effects of sex steroids

(Vancouver November 8, 2007) Eating too much fructose and glucose can turn off the gene that regulates the levels of active testosterone and estrogen in the body, shows a new study in mice and human cell cultures thats published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This discover...

Flies can turn off their immune response

The immune response is actively turned on to target and destroy foreign infectious elements, but in the interests of self-preservation, it is just as important to turn the immune system off to avoid damage to oneself by friendly fire. The fruit fly Drosophila has served as a good model for the ind...

Four, three, two, one . . . pterosaurs have lift off

Pterosaurs have long suffered an identity crisis. Pop culture heedlessly and wrongly lumps these extinct flying lizards in with dinosaurs. Even paleontologists assumed that because the creatures flew, they were birdlike in many ways, such as using only two legs to take flight. Now comes w...

When she's turned on, some of her genes turn off

AUSTIN, TexasWhen a female is attracted to a male, entire suites of genes in her brain turn on and off, show biologists from The University of Texas at Austin studying swordtail fish. Molly Cummings and Hans Hofmann found that some genes were turned on when females found a male attractive, but...

Chang'e-1 -- new mission to Moon lifts off

A bold new mission to the Moon was launched today by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA). Change-1 blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, Sichuan, atop a Long March 3A rocket. Change-1 represents the first step in the Chinese ambition to land robotic explorers on the...

U-M researchers discover gene switched off in cancer can be turned on

A gene implicated in the development of cancer cells can be switched on using drugs, report researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. The finding could lead to a new class of targeted cancer therapies with potential to benefit many different cancer types. Popular n...

The price of vanity: Mating with showy males may reduce offspring's ability to fight off pathogens

In many animals, males advertise to potential mates with showy traits, many of which are linked to testosterone levels. However, a new study suggests that, in fish, choosing a flashier mate may cause future generations to be more susceptible to pathogens. In the January 2007 issue of The American...

Brain fends off distractions

Dutch researcher Harm Veling has demonstrated that our brains fend off distractions. If we are busy with something we suppress disrupting external influences. If we are tired, we can no longer do this. Social-psychologist Veling proved that the brain selects incoming information to remember usef...

Eating protein boosts hormone that staves off hunger

The amount of a hunger-fighting hormone can be increased by eating a higher protein diet, researchers report in the September issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. The hormone, known as peptide YY (PYY), was earlier found by the researchers to reduce food intake by a third ...

Seals protect brain, conserve oxygen by turning off shivering response on icy dives

Seals shiver when exposed to cold air but not when diving in chilly water, a finding that researchers believe allows the diving seal to conserve oxygen and minimize brain damage that could result from long dives. The researchers presented the study at The American Physiological Society's conferen...