Yale School of Medicine researchers report in Nature Immunology how infection fighting mechanisms in the body can distinguish between a virus and the healthy body, shedding new light on auto immune disorders.
The infection fighters in question, toll-like receptors (TLRs), function by recognizing viral, bacterial or fungal pathogens and then sending signals throughout the immune system announcing that an infection has occurred.
Viruses change features to avoid being r
Almost half of the Paraguay River Basin that includes vast Pantanal wetlands already transformed into grazing and crop lands
Deforestation from increased grazing and agriculture has destroyed 17 percent of the native vegetation in Brazil’s Pantanal, considered the world’s largest wetland.
A new study published by Conservation International sounds an alarm for the Paraguay River Basin, which includes the Pantanal. Continued deforestation at the current rate would cause
WHAT:
NIH-funded scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a technique for detecting changes in flu viruses that would precede a virus’s ability to infect humans and cause epidemics. The new, publicly available tool, called a glycan array, could be used to monitor the emergence of flu strains that efficiently infect humans, including those of avian origin. The technology was developed by the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, a “glue grant” project sponsor
A new paper in the January 15th issue of G&D provides the structural basis by which FGF8 splice isoforms (FGF8a and FGF8b) differ in their ability to pattern embryonic brain. FGF8b differs from FGF8a solely by the presence of 11 additional amino acids at its N-terminus.
However, only FGF8b can transform midbrain to cerebellum whereas FGF8a causes an overgrowth of midbrain. Dr. Moosa Mohammadi’s research team has solved the crystal structure of FGF8b in complex with the FG
In an upcoming G&D paper, Dr. Albert Baldwin and colleagues (UNC School of Medicine) lend new insight into an alternate mechanism of p53 inactivation in tumor cells. The researchers found that the putative oncoprotein Bcl-3, which is expressed in some leukemias and solid tumors, potently suppresses p53 activation through a mechanism that involves the controlled upregulation of Hdm2 gene expression.
Additionally, they found that Bcl-3 is activated by DNA damage and is required for p53 to
Work presented at American Astronomical Society meeting
MIT scientists and colleagues have found a black hole that has chiseled a remarkably stable indentation in the fabric of space and time, like a dimple in one’s favorite spot on the sofa.
The finding may help scientists measure a black hole’s mass and how it spins, two long-sought measurements, by virtue of the extent of this indentation. Using NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, the team saw identical p
MIT/Harvard work reported at American Astronomical Society
Scientists have found new evidence that black holes are performing the disappearing acts for which they are known.
A team from MIT and Harvard has found that a certain type of X-ray explosion common on neutron stars is never seen around their black hole cousins, as if the gas that fuels these explosions has vanished into a void.
This is strong evidence, the team said, for the existence of a theoretical bor
Tests at leading magnetic labs shed light on nanotube mystery
In new experimental research appearing in this week’s issue of Physical Review Letters, a Rice University-led team of nanoscientists and electrical engineers has flipped the switch on ’dark excitons’ in carbon nanotubes by placing them inside a strong magnetic field.
The research offers new insight into the fundamental optical properties of semiconducting nanotubes, hollow straw-like molecul
New research shows that global climate processes are affecting southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) in the South Atlantic. A thirty-year study by an international team of scientists found a strong relationship between breeding success of whales in the South Atlantic and El Nino in the western Pacific. The results are published this week in the On-line journal Biology Letters.
Southern right whales migrate from the South Atlantic to the Southern Ocean to feed. Scientists
Geopolymers with the potential for use as refractory castable
From the most technologically aware city dwellers to remote jungle tribes, almost the entire population of the earth know polymeric materials as plastics. Although some plastics are oven proof and can readily withstand high temperatures, they generally melt or burn at extreme temperatures.
Inorganic polymers are different and show promise for use in elevated temperature applications. Inorganic polymers made f
Increasing RN staff saves 6,700 lives and 4 million patient days each year
A study in the January/February 2006 issue of the journal Health Affairs concludes that increasing the number of registered nurses and hours of nursing care per patient would save 6,700 lives and 4 million days of patient care in hospitals each year.
The research by UCLA’s Jack Needleman, Ph.D., and Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., also finds tha
Two new studies show the ’eating habits’ of black holes at the center of young galaxies
An analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest view of the universe offers compelling evidence that monster black holes in the centers of galaxies were not born big but grew over time through repeated galactic mergers.
“By studying distant galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), we have the first statistical evidence that supermassive black-hole growth i
Astronomy buffs who jumped at the chance to use their home computers in the SETI@home search for intelligent life in the universe will soon be able to join an Internet-based search for dust grains originating from stars millions of light years away.
In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA’s Stardust spacecr
Black holes are creating havoc in unsuspected places, according to a new study of images of elliptical galaxies made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The discovery of far-reaching explosive activity, due to giant central black holes in these old galaxies, was a surprise to astronomers.
The Chandra data revealed an unsuspected turmoil in elliptical galaxies that belies their calm appearance in optical light. Astronomers believe massive clouds of hot gas in these galaxies hav
In the most comprehensive study of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the enigmatic supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers — using nine ground and space-based telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope and the XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory — have discovered that Sgr A* produces rapid flares close to the innermost region of the black hole in many different wavelengths and that these emissions go up and down together.
This insight into the frequent bursts of r
For the past few months, Bob O’Dell has been mapping the winds blowing in the Orion Nebula, the closest stellar nursery similar to the one in which the sun was born.
New data from the Hubble Orion Heritage Program, a major observational effort by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 and 2005, have given the Vanderbilt astronomer the information he needs to measure the stellar winds with unprecedented detail, and he reported his early results on Jan. 11 at the annual meeting of the American
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