Environmental metagenomics diagnosing extreme environments, tapping opportunities for clean energy
In his recent State of the Union speech President Bush said technology is the best way to break the nation's addiction to oil. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) is directing the technology of DNA sequencing to scan the environment for processes that will lead to cheaper and easier to produce biofuels. "Through DNA sequencing and the tools of molecular biolog...Researchers discover how bacteria sense their environments
When humans taste or smell, receptors unique to each nerve cell detect the chemical and send signals to the brain, where many cells process the message to understand what we are smelling or tasting. But a bacterium is just a single cell, and it must use many different receptors to sense and interpret everything around it. Bacteria can sense in their environments changes in molecular conce...Common carp sheds new light on surviving in extreme environments
The research team found that the protein myglobin - thought to act as an oxygen store in the heart and muscle cells of humans and vertebrate animals - also exists in many other tissues of the common carp, enabling it to survive in low oxygenated environments. Myglobin is found in large quantities in diving mammals such as whales and seals and helps them remain submerged for long periods...Proteins may behave differently in natural environments
When in an environment similar to that in which they exist naturally, proteins and multiprotein assemblies may demonstrate actions or dynamics different than those they exhibit when in the static form in which they are most often studied, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current issue of the journal Structure. In a study using electron cryomicroscopy, Dr....How trees manage water in arid environments
Water scarcity is slowly becoming a fact of life in increasingly large areas. When Constance Brown moved from Arizona to Indiana two years a...Global Momentum for Smoke-Free Indoor Environments at Tipping Point
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Association of European Cancer Leagues describe the growing momentum for //indoor smoking bans in countries across the globe. They identify Ireland’s pioneering 2004 comprehensive indoor smoking ban as a likely tipping point for fundamental change in social norms and public health worldwide. Since 2004, in only a few y...