When industrious ants go too far

Nature is full of mutually beneficial arrangements between organismslike the relationship between flowering plants and their bee pollinators. But sometimes these blissful relationships have a dark side, as Harvard biologist Megan Frederickson describes in an article for the May issue of The Ameri...

The egg makes sure that sperm don't get too old

In contrast to women, men are fertile throughout life, but research at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has now shown that a fertilising sperm can get help from the egg to rejuvenate. The result is an important step towards future stem cell therapy. The risk of chromos...

How cold is too cold for newborn calves?

GLASGOW, MONTANA (February 26, 2009) It has been estimated that in the United States, nearly 100,000 calves die of cold stress annually, costing livestock producers millions of dollars a year and resulting in a desperate need for effective mitigation strategies. Consequently, a University of Miam...

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy nearly doubles risk of having a heavy baby

(PORTLAND, Ore.) October 31, 2008 A study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research of more than 40,000 women and their babies found that women who gained more than 40 pounds during their pregnancies were nearly twice as likely to have a heavy baby. Published in the November issue of O...

Researchers discover that growing up too fast may mean dying young in honey bees

Hilton Head, SCReactive oxygen species (ROS) occur as a by-product of aerobic metabolism and impair cellular function by damaging proteins, nucleotides and lipids. Organisms possess a variety of anti-oxidant mechanisms to mitigate the effects of ROS, and the oxidative stress model of aging and se...

Modest CO2 cutbacks may be too little, too late for coral reefs

Stanford, CAHow much carbon dioxide is too much? According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) greenhouse gases in the atmosphere need to be stabilized at levels low enough to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." But scientists have ...

Alcohol consumption can cause too much cell death, fetal abnormalities

The initial signs of fetal alcohol syndrome are slight but classic: facial malformations such as a flat and high upper lip, small eye openings and a short nose. Researchers want to know if those facial clues can help them figure out how much alcohol it takes during what point in development to ...

Summer heat too hot for you? What is comfortable?

Extreme heat or cold is not only uncomfortable, it can be deadlycausing proteins to unravel and malfunction. For many years now, scientists have understood the molecular mechanisms that enable animals to sense dangerous temperatures; such as extremely high temperatures that directly trigger he...

Colorectal cancer screening rates still too low

PHILADELPHIA Although colorectal cancer screening tests are proven to reduce colorectal cancer mortality, only about half of U.S. men and women 50 and older receive the recommended tests, according to a report in the July 2008 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention , a journal o...

Mars' water appears to have been too salty to support life

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A new analysis of the Martian rock that gave hints of water on the Red Planet -- and, therefore, optimism about the prospect of life -- now suggests the water was more likely a thick brine, far too salty to support life as we know it. The finding, by scientists at Harvard Un...

Research suggests parts of UK could be too hot for wine making by 2080

Increasing summer temperatures could mean some parts of southern England are too hot to grow vines for making wine by 2080, according to a new book launched today (26 May 2008). The author, Emeritus Professor Richard Selley from Imperial College London, claims that if average summer temperatur...

Research suggests parts of UK could be too hot for wine-making by 2080

Increasing summer temperatures could mean some parts of southern England are too hot to grow vines for making wine by 2080, according to a new book launched today (26 May 2008). The author, Emeritus Professor Richard Selley from Imperial College London, claims that if average summer temperatur...

Too much or too little weight gain poses risks to pregnant mothers, babies

CHAPEL HILL Women who gain more or less than recommended amounts of weight during pregnancy are likely to increase the risk of problems for both themselves and their child, according to a new report by the RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence-based Practice Cente...

Variety is the spice of life: too many males, too little time...

Female Australian painted dragon lizards are polyandrous, that is, they mate with as many males as they can safely get access to. This promiscuous behaviour is often found in species where male quality is dubious and there are high levels of infertility in the male population. Female painted drago...

Amazon corridors far too narrow, warn scientists

Protected forest strips buffering rivers and streams of the Amazon rainforest should be significantly wider than the current legal requirement, according to pioneering new research by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Published in the journal Conservation Biology on March 21, t...

Curry-derived molecules might be too spicy for colorectal cancers

SINGAPORE -- Curcumin, the yellowish component of turmeric that gives curry its flavor, has long been noted for its potential anti-cancer properties. Researchers from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, report on an apparent improvement upon nature: two molecular analogues of curcumin that demon...

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

CHICAGO (July 17, 2009) - The aloe vera plant has a long history of healing power. Its ability to heal burns and cuts and soothe pain has been documented as far back as the 10th century. Legend has it that Cleopatra used aloe vera to keep her skin soft. The modern use of aloe vera was first recogn...

Despite 'peacenik' reputation, bonobos hunt and eat other primates too

Unlike the male-dominated societies of their chimpanzee relatives, bonobo societyin which females enjoy a higher social status than maleshas a "make-love-not-war" kind of image. While chimpanzee males frequently band together to hunt and kill monkeys, the more peaceful bonobos were believed to res...

Location, location, location important for genes, too

COLUMBUS, Ohio Cells become cancerous mainly because they lose control of their growth. To better understand how this happens, a new study at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center looks at four genes that help regulate cell growth in embryos and that contribute to cancer in adults. ...

Less can be more, for plant breeders too

Imagine you are a rice breeder and one day within a large field you discover a plant that has just the characteristics you have been looking for. You happily take your special plant to the laboratory where you find out that the spontaneous, beneficial event was due to inactivation of a single gene...

Having the climate cake and eating it, too

Is it possible to solve climate change, reduce poverty and save biodiversity at a single stroke" It might seem like a dream, but this is exactly the issue that is being discussed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Bali 3-14 December 2007. The key is to include reduced emis...

It's never too late to get it back! Aging interrupted

Much research has shown that reduced calorie intake can increase health and longevity. Professor Stephen Spindler (University of California) and his collaborators* have discovered that reducing calorie intake later in life can still induce many of the health and longevity benefits of life-long calo...

New technologies coming too fast for Indian farmers

The arrival of genetically modified crops has added another level of complexity to farming in the developing world, says a sociocultural anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Glenn D. Stone, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences...

New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing

New research from Columbia University Medical Center may explain why people who are able to easily and accurately recall historical dates or long-ago events, may have a harder time with word recall or remembering the day’s current events. They may have too much memory ?making it harder to filter ou...

MIT device draws cells close -- but not too close -- together

On a popular children's game participants stand as close as possible without touching. But on a microscopic level, coaxing cells to be very, very close without actually touching one another has been among the most frustrating challenges for cell biologists. Now MIT researchers led by Sangeeta Bha...

Bacteria could make new library of cancer drugs that are too complex to create artificially

Researchers at the University of Warwick are examining a way of using bacteria to manufacture a new suite of potential anti-cancer drugs that are difficult to create synthetically on a lab bench. The bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor naturally produce antibiotics called prodiginines. This gr...

Female guppies risk their lives to avoid too much male attention

Sexual harassment is a burden that females of many species face, and some may go to extreme lengths to avoid it. In a new paper from the June issue of the American Naturalist, Darren Croft (University of Wales) and a research team from the University of Leeds suggest that female guppies, a popul...

Implantable pumps extend lives of patients too sick for transplant

Pumps implanted into the chest to maintain circulation can significantly extend the lives of the sickest patients in end-stage heart failure who are not candidates for heart transplantation, according to the results of a clinical trial led by Duke University Medical Center cardiologists. The pump...

Too much water may be as dangerous as too little during long-distance athletic events

Drinking water during a long-distance race may do serious harm rather than keep you safe from injury if you're drinking too much, according to a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Runners or any long-distance athletes who drink too much water during a race could put themselves at jeo...

Why do insects stop 'breathing'? To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers

A new study investigating the respiratory system of insects may have solved a mystery that has intrigued physiologists for decades: why insects routinely stop breathing for minutes at a time. Challenging previous theories, researchers at UC Irvine and Humboldt University propose that insects suc...

Carbon nanoparticles toxic to adult fruit flies but benign to young

...re affected physically. In some, the carbon nanoparticles covered them from wings to legs, which may have impeded their movement or weighted them down too much to climb. In others, the nanoparticles clogged their breathing holes, or spiracles, which may have suffocated them. In other adults, the nanopart...

NIH stimulus funding supports Emory biomedical scientists

... prostate cancer. Understanding hemophilia and other clotting disorders: If your blood has trouble clotting, you might have hemophilia. If it clots too easily, embolisms, heart attacks or strokes can occur. Understanding blood-clotting proteins can improve treatments for inherited hemophilia and cardi...

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

...ent," says session organizer Robert Jackson , director of Duke University's Center on Global Change. Global alterations of Earth's natural cycles have too many uncertainties to be viable with our current level of understanding, he says. One global-scale geoengineering method, termed atmospheric seedin...

Lead-based consumer paint remains a global public health threat

...ysia and Chinahad levels exceeding U.S. regulations. "Although lead poisoning of children is widely recognized as a major public health problem, too little attention is being given to correcting the problem in many parts of the world," says Clark. "Meanwhile, thousands of children continue to be po...

La Jolla Institute discovers novel tumor suppressor

...g the development of abnormal myeloid cells," said Dr. Kawakami. The abnormal cells, which are essentially tumor cells, become overactive and produce too many blood cells leading to myeloproliferative disease, he explained. The researchers also tested the finding by introducing an inactive form of S...

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... Siberia in the west to Yukon in the east. Lying in the rain shadow of the St. Elias Mountains, this great region, now known as Beringia, was cold but too dry for the development of glaciers. Instead, the region consisted of a great Arctic steppe, bound by mountains to the south and continental glaciers ...

UCSF researchers identify new drug target for Kaposi's sarcoma

...g the possibility of using the class of drugs called protease inhibitors against the full herpes family of viruses, which for 20 years has been deemed too difficult to attain. The new drug target, which is known as a protease dimer, could serve as a model for developing new therapeutics for diseases r...

Little-known protein found to be key player

...ped endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a system of interconnected membrane tubes and chambers that's critical for normal cell function. The tests also showed too little atlastin led to a fragmented ER. Flies with defective atlastin were sterile and short-lived. "The endoplasmic reticulum is an ever-changing ...

Humans 'damaging the oceans'

...to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere, or using the seabed to store CO2. However these require far more research to be sure. "It may already be too late to avoid major irreversible changes to many marine ecosystems. As history has shown us, these marine-based changes could have major earth-system...

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

... expression of MYC by transfecting cells with DNA strands containing DLX5. too much DLX5, they found, led to too much MYC. When they knocked out expression of DLX5 in lung cancer cells, it...