tracks in Biological News

International team tracks clues to HIV

Rice University's Andrew Barron and his group, working with labs in Italy, Germany and Greece, have identified specific molecules that could block the means by which the deadly virus spreads by taking away its ability to bind with other proteins. Using computer simulations, researchers tested ...

'Fingerprinting' method tracks mercury emissions from coal

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers have developed a new tool that uses natural "fingerprints" in coal to track down sources of mercury polluting the environment. The research is published in today's online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology . Mercury...

Emory paleontologist reports discovery of carnivorous dinosaur tracks in Australia

The first fossil tracks belonging to large, carnivorous dinosaurs have been discovered in Victoria, Australia, by paleontologists from Emory University, Monash University and the Museum of Victoria (both in Melbourne). The tracks are especially significant for showing that large dinosaurs were liv...

Early treatment stops epilepsy in its tracks

New Haven, Conn.Yale School of Medicine researchers have shown for the first time that it is possible to suppress the development of epilepsy in genetically predisposed animalswhich could open the door to treating epilepsy as a preventable disease. According to the study published this month i...

New imaging technique tracks traffic patterns of white blood cells

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have just developed an advanced imaging technique to capture the movement of the microdomains of leukocytes or white blood cells. Microdomains are restricted areas on the surface of the cells in which receptors and signaling molecules accumulate during ...

Ghost protein leaves fresh tracks in the cell

Spectrin and ankyrin are two essential proteins acting like bricks and mortar to shape and fortify cell membranes. But distinguishing which protein is the brick and which is the mortar has turned out to be difficult. New evidence suggests that spectrin can do both jobs at once. Ron Dubreuil, asso...

Precision biochemistry tracks DNA damage in fish

Like coal-mine canaries, fish DNA can serve as a measure of the biological impact of water and sediment pollution--or pollution clean-up. That's one of the conclusions of a new study* by researchers from the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Univ...

New tool tracks brain development in babies

Researchers have used a new technique to monitor brain development in infants and detect disturbances in white matter, according to a study in the July issue of Radiology. Carola van Pul, Ph.D., and colleagues from Máxima Medical Center in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, studied seven normal infants ...

Research tracks whales by listening to sounds

Researchers have developed a new tool to help them study endangered whales ?autonomous hydrophones that can be deployed in the ocean to record the unique clicks, pulses and calls of different whale species. Those efforts are leading to some surprising findings, including the discovery by a team o...

Magnetic probe successfully tracks implanted cells in cancer patients

By using MRI to detect magnetic probes of tiny iron oxide particles, an international research team for the first time has successfully tracked immune-stimulating cells implanted into cancer patients for treatment purposes. "In four of the eight patients, MRI revealed that the implanted cells we...

U. of Colorado researcher identifies tracks of swimming dinosaur in Wyoming

Editor : Visit this webpage for pictures and videos! With their long stalks and feathery arms, marine animals known as sea lilies look a lot like their garden-variety namesakes. Perhaps because of that resemblance, scientists had always assumed that sea lilies stayed rooted instead of moving...

MERIS monitoring tracks planetary photosynthesis levels

Daily multispectral observations from Envisat's MERIS sensor are being combined with a sophisticated processing algorithm and powerful Grid computing to reveal global photosynthesis activity on land. This permits researchers to trace the state of health of terrestrial plant cover, identifying areas...

Venom doc tracks down snake bioweapons

Bryan Grieg Fry, Ph.D., a scientist from the University of Melbourne, Australia, has conducted the first comprehensive analysis of the origin and evolution of one of nature's most sophisticated bioweapons: snake venom. His results are reported in the March issue of the journal Genome Research. Ve...

Down Under dinosaur burrow discovery provides climate change clues

...specialist in trace fossils including tracks, scat and burrows Martin is known for detecting subtle paleontology clues. He also identified the first tracks of a large, carnivorous dinosaur in Victoria, and the first fossil crayfish burrows from the same area. Martin teaches a seminar at Emory on modern...

Scientists track chemical changes in cells as they endure extreme conditions

... of a cell's biochemical and metabolic activity, such as spikes in levels of free radicals and organic acids. Specifically, the infrared microscope tracks the instantaneous response of hydrogen bond structures in cellular water as their immediate surroundings change. The spectral measurements indicate ch...

Double success for Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia scientists working on chromosome segregation

... cells have the same genetic information as their mother, with reduced risk of cancer. When segregating, chromosomes attach and move along proteins tracks (the mitotic spindle), from the centre of the cell to the poles. The centromere is the area of the chromosome that directs this attachment by controll...

Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 2009

...H -- Superconductor citations . . . An independent analysis of the field of high-temperature superconductors conducted by ScienceWatch.com, which tracks global trends and performance in research, shows Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Amit Goyal ranks No. 1 worldwide in the total number of citations an...

Yale team identifies key to potential new treatment for allergy-induced asthma

...ing treatments aimed at the immune system suggest that additional physiological mechanisms may be involved in asthmatic inflammation. The new study tracks the role of the ion channel protein TRPA1. While the exact function of TRPA1 in the airway inflammation of asthma is not completely understood, scient...

Two new studies on circadian rhythms

...mpensation: why the 24-hour circadian rhythm does not change with temperature when metabolism is so affected. A related study, in Molecular Cell , tracks a clock protein in action, mapping hundreds of highly choreographed modifications and interactions to provide the first complete view of regulation ac...

Grasslands: The future of sustainable agriculture

...f grassland today, and look at the benefits grass-based agriculture can provide when grass is treated as an essential resource. "Past Is Prologue," tracks the history of grassland farming, emphasizing some of the philosophical arguments that advocate for grasslands as a vital component of an evolving Ame...

Story tips From the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- May 2009

...onsumed more than 1 million CPU hours and gathered more than 1 terabyte of data. Unlike previous codes, this one provides far greater resolution as it tracks individual particles in a given state and simultaneously simulates plasma at the edge and core. This research was funded by the Department of Energy O...

Cancer Genomics Browser gives cancer researchers a powerful new tool

... for exploring the human genome, the UCSC Genome Browser now averages one million page requests every week. It displays data and annotations in linear tracks that parallel the DNA sequences of the dozens of genomes in the browser. But this type of display doesn't work well with clinical data from large ...

Missing piece of plant clock found

...sts previously had identified two primary feedback loops in the plant daily clock one that detects the onset of light in the morning and another that tracks when light fades in the evening. "The best way to construct a robust clock would be to connect the loops so that they both communicate that inform...

Lower increases in global temps could lead to greater impacts than previously thought, study finds

...on unique and vulnerable systems, with increasing levels of adverse impacts as temperatures increase further. Risk of extreme weather events, which tracks increases in extreme events with substantial consequences for societies and natural systems. Examples include increase in the frequency, intensity, o...

A budding role for a cellular dynamo

... plays a crucial role in early stages of embryonic development. In yeast cells, as in all other cells, actin fibers serve as internal "railways" or tracks that give the cell directionality and provide the wherewithal for transporting various molecular and membrane-bound cargoes from one end of the cell t...

Cell 'anchors' required to prevent muscular dystrophy

...apart. The researchers also discovered that ankB stabilized a set of structures found in all cells, called microtubules. These structures are like tracks for the molecular motors that carry the dystrophin molecules from the site where they are made to their specific destination. Ankyrin B helps microtub...

A case of mistaken dino-identity

... resolution Jan. 7 to change the name of the state dinosaur from Pleurocoelus to Paluxysaurus jonesi to correctly name the massive sauropod whose tracks and bones litter the central Texas Jones Ranch. Peter Rose is the scientist behind the name change: His master's level study of dinosaur bones at SMU...

Mayo Clinic: Brain disorder suggests common mechanism may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases

...ayo Clinic. Molecules, vesicles and organelles within a cell are constantly carried via a network of crisscrossing microtubules that act like the tracks of an elaborate railroad system. Because, for the most part, neurons do not regenerate or divide as do other cells in the body, trafficking cargo effi...

Dartmouth researchers find new protein function

...ubule End Tracking and Drives Chromosome Movement." "Before this study, it had been shown that kinesin motors either walked along their microtubule tracks or functioned to break microtubules apart," says Jon Kull, the senior author on the paper, associate professor of chemistry at Dartmouth, and a 1988 D...

New movement models tested at the Smithsonian in Panama

...arch Institute, where they set up a multi-user Automated Radio Telemetry System on the large forest dynamics plot on Barro Colorado Island. The system tracks up to 200 animals, seeds or other moving objects around the clock, and makes data available on the Web. Sensor systems mounted on satellites and on ...

Discovery of giant roaming deep sea protist provides new perspective on animal evolution

... AUSTIN, TexasGroove-like tracks on the ocean floor made by giant deep-sea single-c...covered the grape-sized protists and their complex tracks on the ocean floor near the Bahamas. This is the f...re to observe their movement and investigate other tracks in the area. Matz says the giant protists' bubb...

Paleontologists doubt 'dinosaur dance floor'

... dance floor" and concluded there were no dinosaur tracks there, only a dense collection of unusual potholes...covery Site at Johnson Farm. They saw dinosaur tracks en route, but none in the pockmarked "dance floor." "There simply are no tracks or real track-like features at this site," Breitha...

Major source of radon exposure overlooked at former Ohio uranium-processing plant

...estimates for the K-65 silos," explains Hornung. "But when we studied radon tracks on film placed on window glass in the Fernald plant, we found evidence of a...re radon exposure at the various plant locations. By studying the number of tracks left on the film by radon decay products, they found the second radon sourc...

Global Viral Forecasting Initiative receives $11M to implement pandemic early warning system

...neering and important work." Through collaborative studies in Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lao PDR, Madagascar, and Malaysia, GVFI tracks emergent pandemics to their source, working to provide potentially vital months or years of advanced warning before the next HIV or SARS emerges on th...

'A dinosaur dance floor'

..., averaging a dozen per square yard in places. The tracks once were thought to be potholes formed by erosion. The site is so dense with dinosaur tracks that it reminds geologists of a popular arcade gam... a dinosaur dance floor because there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks." "There mus...

Researchers uncover world's oldest fossil impression of a flying insect

...t month. The pair will present other trace fossils from the site, including tracks of amphibians and precursors to reptiles, at the Annual Meeting of the Geol... of primitive flying insects. He also points out that "there are no walking tracks leading up to the body impression, indicating that it came from above." ...

Digital zebrafish embryo provides the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate

...ts many new insights into embryonic development. Movies of the digital embryo and the underlying database of millions of cell positions, divisions and tracks will be made publicly available to provide a novel resource for research and scientific training. To get from one cell to a complex organism, cells...

Earliest animal footprints ever found -- discovered in Nevada

...illion years earlier than had been thought. The tracks -- two parallel rows of small dots, each about 2 m...crisp shadow. He immediately suspected that the tracks were made by an arthropod, such as one resembling ...eriod, about 520 million years ago. Another set of tracks found in South China date back to 540 million year...

UC Davis researchers discover new drug target for inflammatory disease

...n actually works to advance inflammation. The potential impact of the finding on our ability to block inflammation and stop the disease process in its tracks is enormous." Protein sPLA2-IIA has been a major drug discovery target for years, but efforts to counteract the protein have yielded mixed results...

MIT: Preventing forest fires with tree power

...inels along the nation's borders to detect potential threats such as smuggled radioactive materials. The U.S. Forest Service currently predicts and tracks fires with a variety of tools, including remote automated weather stations. But these stations are expensive and sparsely distributed. Additional sens...