A novel method to measure circadian cycles
Everyone knows morning people and late-night owls. The variation in individual circadian rhythms is an anecdotal as well as experimentally verified fact. But, until now, to systematically study circadian differences (and thereby hope to rout out the underlying genetic causes), scientists have had to rely on prolonged behavioural observation. To screen for and identify circadian rhythm variation...Marine bacterium suspected to play role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles
Scientists successfully grow 'dwarf belonging to the sea' in laboratoryScientists are now revisiting, and perhaps revising, their thinking about how Archaea, an ancient kingdom of single-celled microorganisms, are involved in maintaining the global balance of nitrogen and carbon. Researchers have discovered the first Archaea known to oxidize ammonia for energy and metabolize carbon dioxide by su...Web model of influenza-host lifecycles will aid scientists in creating anti-viral drugs
A "starry sky" map linking the myriad interactions between the influenza virus and its human host will help guide researchers in creating new anti-viral drugs, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The on-line map, part of a project called Reactome, is intended to teach scientists about parts of the influenza lifecycle they might not be familiar with, and to help researchers...Cycles of cell death, proliferation key to liver cancer
Research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine shows that liver cancer is likely caused by cycles of liver cell death and renewal. The research, appearing online the week of June 19 in advance of publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscores the importance of JNK1-mediated cell death and compensatory proliferation. T...MIT's ocean model precisely mimics microbes' life cycles
Scientists at MIT have created an ocean model so realistic that the virtual forests of diverse microscopic plants they "sowed" have grown in population patterns that precisely mimic their real-world counterparts. This model of the ocean is the first to reflect the vast diversity of the invisible forests living in our oceans-tiny, single-celled green plants that dominate the ocean and produ...Technology cycles from advantage to necessity to disadvantage
There is a continual cycle for o...El Ni?o cycles linked to cholera outbreaks
About 11 months after the start of an El Ni?o event in the equatorial Pacific, hospitals thousands of miles away in Bangladesh can expect a surge of cholera cases, according to the first mathematical model to link climatic cycles with subsequent cholera outbreaks. Details of the climate-disease model are reported in the latest issue of the journal Science by ecologists at C...Regular exercise linked to extended menstrual cycles
According to a new study, moderate exercise may extend the time a woman has between her menstrual periods. The research supports one theory on why regular physical activity has been linked to a lower breast cancer risk. //Some evidence suggests that hormonal changes brought on by exercise may help lower the chances of breast cancer developing. However, the authors of the new study poin...Sleep cycles may be related to metabolism
US scientists have found out that mice with a mutation of a gene that controls the circadian clock tend to eat more and gain weight.// The circadian clock is a cellular mechanism that sets various rhythmic activities inside the organisms. It is this clock that sets the rhythm of sleep and wake patterns in all animals. In earlier studies, scientists had been able to find ou...Motorcycles Cause Greater Pollution
Passenger cars cause less pollution than motorcycles, according to the results of a recent study. The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research’s Martin Weilenmann and Ana-Marija Vasic conducted // the study which revealed that the hydrocarbons emission of motorcycles 16 times higher than that of cars, and in the case of carbon monoxide, it was found to be three times more. Th...