turns in Biological News

New phorid fly species turns red imported fire ants into 'zombies'

OVERTON Zombie fire ants may not sound like a cool thing, but wait a minute, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert. On April 29, on the grounds of the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton in East Texas, Dr. Scott Ludwig released fire ants infected with a new type of...

Stem cell breakthrough: Monitoring the on switch that turns stem cells into muscle

In a genetic engineering breakthrough that could help everyone from bed-ridden patients to elite athletes, a team of American researchersincluding 2007 Nobel Prize winner Mario R. Capecchihave created a "switch" that allows mutations or light signals to be turned on in muscle stem cells to monitor...

New aerosol observing technique turns gray skies to blue

Tiny, ubiquitous particles in the atmosphere may play a profound role in regulating global climate. But the scientists who study these particles -- called aerosols -- have long struggled to accurately measure their composition, size, and global distribution. A new detection technique and a new sat...

Hind wings help butterflies make swift turns to evade predators, study finds

ITHACA, N.Y. New tires allow race cars to take tight turns at high speeds. Hind wings give moths and butterflies similar advantages: They are not necessary for basic flight but help these creatures take tight turns to evade predators. "To escape a predator, you don't have to be fast, you just h...

How chromosomes meet in the dark -- Switch that turns on X chromosome matchmaking

A research group lead by scientists at the University of Warwick has discovered the trigger that pulls together X chromosomes in female cells at a crucial stage of embryo development. Their discovery could also provide new insights into how other similar chromosomes spontaneously recognize each ot...

Scripps research scientists identify blood component that turns bacteria virulent

LA JOLLA, CA, November 20, 2008Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute have discovered the key chemical that signals Bacillus anthracis , the bacterium that causes anthrax, to become lethal. This finding opens up new avenues of exploration for the development of treatments for bacterial in...

TORC at UH turns to virtual world of Second Life for new study

The University of Houston department of health and human performance is launching an international effort to recruit 500 participants for a study promoting healthy dietary habits and physical activity. The study will take place entirely in the virtual world of Second Life (SL). ...

A molecular switch turns on the flame in 'nature's blowtorch'

Waltham, MAUncontrolled reaction of organic compounds with oxygen is easy: we call it fire. But nature often needs to do oxidations very specifically, adding oxygen to a particular carbon atom in a complicated molecule without disturbing anything else. Usually, this job falls to an enzyme called...

UC Davis researchers discover how HIV turns food-poisoning into lethal infection

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) Nearly half of all HIV-positive African adults who become infected with Salmonella die from what otherwise would be a seven-day bout of diarrhea. Now, UC Davis School of Medicine scientists have discovered how salmonella becomes lethal for AIDS patients. Their findings also i...

Breakthrough research turns the tide on water-borne pathogen

Waltham, MACryptosporidium parvum is a tiny yet insidious waterborne parasite that wreaks havoc worldwide. This parasite is a major cause of diarrhea and malnutrition in small children in developing countries, and causes severe disease in AIDS and other immune compromised patients in the developed...

Ant parasite turns host into ripe red berry, biologists discover

Berkeley -- A newly discovered parasite so dramatically transforms its host, an ant, that the ant comes to resemble a juicy red berry, ripe for picking, according to a report accepted for publication in The American Naturalist. This is the first example of fruit mimicry caused by a parasite, the c...

Simple recipe turns human skin cells into embryonic stem cell-like cells

A simple recipeincluding just four ingredientscan transform adult human skin cells into cells that resemble embryonic stem cells, researchers report in an immediate early publication of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press. The converted cells have many of the physical, growth and genetic...

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...

OHSU turns innovations into commercial opportunities at record pace

PORTLAND, Ore. By most measures of an academic medical centers success in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, fiscal year 2007 was a banner year for Oregon Health & Science University. OHSU researchers disclosed 132 inventions, more than in any previous year in the universitys historyan...

Chemistry turns killer gas into potential cure

Despite its deadly reputation, the gas carbon monoxide (CO) could actually save lives and boost health in future as a result of leading-edge UK research. Chemists at the University of Sheffield have discovered an innovative way of using targeted small doses of CO which could benefit patients wh...

Testosterone turns male juncos into blustery hunks -- and bad dads

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The ability to ramp up testosterone production appears to drive male dark-eyed juncos to find and win mates, but it comes with an evolutionary cost. Big fluctuations in testosterone may also cause males to lose interest in parenting their own young, scientists have learned. ...

Smoking turns on genes -- permanently

Smoking tobacco is no longer considered sexy, but it may prove a permanent turn on for some genes. Research published today in the online open access journal BMC Genomics could help explain why former smokers are still more susceptible to lung cancer than those who have never smoked. A Canadia...

Leukemia drug turns mini-molecules up, cancer genes down

New research shows that a form of vitamin A used to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia induces changes in an unusual class of small molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) in the leukemic cells. The study also shows that three of these miRNAs inhibit the action of two genes important for cancer devel...

Jefferson researchers uncover new way nature turns genes on and off

Peering deep within the cells of fruit flies, developmental biologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia may have discovered a new way that genes are turned on and off during development. If they're right, and the same processes are at work in higher organis...

Hopkins researchers discover genetic switch that turns off an oxygen-poor cell's combustion engine

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized role played by the gene HIF-1 as it helps cell survive when a lack of oxygen decreases production of an energy-rich molecule called ATP and increases production of toxic molecules. ATP supplies energy the cell needs to perform eac...

Programmable cells: Engineer turns bacteria into living computers

Ed : Sadly no picture is available; however, you can find one in an article from last year , describing the group's research. In a step toward making living cells function as if they were tiny computers, engineers at Princeton have programmed bacteria to communicate with each other and produc...

Lack of enzyme turns fat cells into fat burners

Lack of the enzyme, acetyl CoA carboxylase 2 or ACC2, appears to turn the adipose or fat cells of mice into fat burners, explaining in part why the animals can eat more and weigh less than their normal counterparts, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers. The report that appears online today i...

UC San Diego engineer provides insights to decades-old DNA squabble

... actually lie on opposite sides of the fiber such that the linker DNA is straight. (The nucleosome is the basic unit of chromatin that consists of two turns of DNA wrapped around a protein spool). Arya and his team have developed a very sophisticated model of chromatin that is computationally accessible...

Parasites ready to jump

...derived from transposons. The researchers in Frstemann's group were able to identify a protein that is essential for the production of endo-siRNAs. It turns out that this is a previously unknown variant of the protein "Loquacious". In Drosophila, Loquacious can bind to specific RNA molecules that serve as ...

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

... of the brain, for example, and say that is the area responsible for our concept of self or that part is the source of our morality," says Hanson. "It turns out the brain is much more complex and flexible than that. It has the ability to rearrange neural connections for different functions. By examining th...

Scripps-led study shows ocean health plays vital role in coral reef recovery

...ng occurs when the tiny zooxanthellae, living with the tissues of coral polyps, which are responsible for their vibrant colors, are lost and the coral turns white in color. The fast-recovering were corals collected from Turneffe Atoll, which is farther offshore than the main Belize Barrier Reef and ...

University of Minnesota research leads to new technology to protect human health

...tion facilities. Melamine deaminase works by breaking one of the C-N bonds in melamine to release ammonia, which can be detected by a simple test that turns the liquid blue. Jennifer Seffernick, a research associate in Wackett's lab, discovered the enzyme while conducting research on biodegradation of s-tr...

Baylor researchers unravel mystery of DNA conformation

...ved in the base flipping back to its "perfect spring" state. When the molecule is overwound, it assumes a "Pauling-like DNA" state in which the DNA turns itself inside out to expose the bases -- much in the way Pauling had predicted. Zechiedrich and her colleagues theorize that the base flipping, de...

Mystery E. coli genes essential for survival of many species

...d at the University of Dundee has examined the genome sequence of this workhorse of the laboratory and spotted three previously unknown genes that, it turns out, are essential for the survival of E. coli and one out of the three could also be implicated in cancer or developmental abnormalities in humans....

Research shows that 'invisible hand' guides evolution of cooperative turn-taking

...xample, people living together often agree to take turns washing up the dishes after meals or taking their ...lude apes, monkeys, birds, and antelopes that take turns grooming each other, and mating pairs of Antarctic penguins that take turns foraging at sea while their partners incubate eggs...

Clinical trial shows quadriplegics can operate powered wheelchair with tongue drive system

..., left and stop/neutral tongue commands, the subjects maneuvered a powered wheelchair through an obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 10 turns and was longer than a professional basketball court. Throughout the course, the users had to perform navigation tasks such as making a U-turn, backing...

Scientists find a biological 'fountain of youth' in new world bat caves

... too far off the mark when he searched Florida for the Fountain of Youth," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal . "As it turns out, one of these bat species lives out its long life in Florida. Since bats are rodents with wings, this chemical clue as to why bats beat out mice i...

New MRI technique could mean fewer breast biopsies in high-risk women

...e professor of biomedical engineering and medical physics. "Many of these lesions turn out to be difficult to classify and lead to biopsy." Yet, it turns out that with the right kind of MRI scan, radiologists can visually identify a cancerous lesion based on characteristics about its shape. For example,...

Stem cell surprise for tissue regeneration

...itution's Department of Embryology, with colleagues, have overturned previous research that identified critical genes for making muscle stem cells. It turns out that the genes that make muscle stem cells in the embryo are surprisingly not needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury...

Energy-saving method checks refrigerant level in air conditioners

...conditioning and refrigeration systems, liquid refrigerant evaporates in a heat exchanger called an evaporator, cooling the air. The refrigerant vapor turns back into a liquid in another heat exchanger called a condenser. During these evaporation and condensing steps, the refrigerant undergoes dramatic tem...

'The Vision Revolution': Eyes are the source of human 'superpowers'

...nquiring "why" vision evolved as it has over millions of years, Changizi made a startling discovery: human beings do, indeed, have superpowers. And it turns out that these superpowers, all related to vision, have been instrumental in shaping the way we interact with and see the world. The end result of ...

Crustacean shell with polyester creates mixed-fiber material for nerve repair

...n Zhang, a UW professor of material science and engineering and lead author of a paper now available online in the journal Advanced Materials . "This turns out to be very difficult." After an injury that severs a peripheral nerve, such as one in a finger, nerve endings continue to grow. But to regain c...

Protein linked to change in tissue that surround and support breast tumors

...e Society in Washington, DC, the scientists report that the protein, AIB1 (Amplified in Breast Cancer 1), has a shorter form known as AIB1delta3 which turns breast tissue more fibrous. The researchers say this shorter form may contribute to the dense breast tissue that is a known risk factor for breast can...

Dioxins in food chain linked to breastfeeding ills

...'s research focuses on a transcription factor known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor, or AhR. When pollutants enter the body they bind to AhR, which then turns on certain genes responsible for detoxification. By using dioxin to activate AhR, researchers have learned that dioxin impairs the ability to fight of...

Researchers create freestanding nanoparticle films without fillers

...le television and computer screens. A key component in the transistors in integrated circuits is an insulating layer that separates the gate, which turns current flow on and off, from the channel through which the current flows. Traditionally, semiconductor manufacturers have used silicon dioxide for th...