Forest productivity may be significantly greater in an atmosphere enriched with carbon dioxide, according to findings released today that challenge recent reports that question the importance of carbon dioxide fertilization.
The study, performed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 10 other institutions in the United States and Europe, revealed a strong relationship between productivity of forest plots in the current atmosphere
Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to block the runaway cell division behind some cancers, said the researchers.
Significantly, their insights arose not just from meticulous biochemical studies, but also from using sophisticated simulation techniques to p
Pairing the targeted therapy Herceptin with chemotherapy in patients with early stage breast cancer significantly increases disease-free survival time in women who test positive for a genetic mutation that results in a particularly aggressive form of the disease, according to large, international study.
The study also tested Herceptin with a chemotherapy combination that eliminated Adriamycin, an anthracycline commonly used to treat breast cancer but a drug that, when used with He
The Johns Hopkins scientists who first created “mighty mice” have developed, with pharmaceutical company Wyeth and the biotechnology firm MetaMorphix, an agent that’s more effective at increasing muscle mass in mice than a related potential treatment for muscular dystrophy now in clinical trials.
The new agent is a version of a cellular docking point for the muscle-limiting protein myostatin. In mice, just two weekly injections of the new agent triggered a 60 percent increa
International research team reports on the Earth-like surface of Saturn’s moon Titan
Conditions on Saturn’s moon Titan, with its dense atmosphere, are similar to those on Earth early in our solar system. Pictures and spectral analysis of Titan’s surface, recorded by an international scientific team including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), show a dried-out “river” landscape. Evaluating the data has now shown that methane on
It’s a scene football fans will see over and over during the bowl and NFL playoff seasons: a player, often the quarterback, being slammed to the ground and hitting the back of his head on the landing.
Sure, it hurts, but what happens to the inside of the skull? Researchers and doctors long have relied upon crude approximations made from test dummy crashes or mathematical models that infer – rather loosely – what happens to the brain during traumatic brain injury or concuss
A team of ASU researchers led by Nongjian Tao and Peiming Zhang has developed a new, breakthrough technique for the detection of DNA mutations.
Their results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate for the first time, the possibility of directly identifying these mutations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), by means of measuring the electrical conductance of a single DNA molecule.
SNPs are buried in the 3 billion
Asthma patients who don’t respond to steroid treatment suffer repeated asthma attacks, and are at greater risk of dying from the condition. Researchers from King’s College London have found that vitamin D3 could substantially improve the responsiveness of these patients to steroid treatment, offering them hope of an improvement in their condition. Their results are published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Asthma is usually treated very effectively with inhaled s
New simulations of 21st-century climate show that human-produced changes in land cover could produce additional warming in the Amazon region comparable to that caused by greenhouse gases, while counteracting greenhouse warming by 25% to 50% in some midlatitude areas. The simulations from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) show the importance of including land cover in computer-model depictions of global change. The results will be published in the December 9 issue of Science.
Women with breast cancer face increased risk of developing a second cancer
A new large-scale study on women with breast cancer found a 25 percent increase in the risk of developing a new non-breast cancer compared to women without cancer. The study, published online December 8, 2005 in the International Journal of Cancer, the official journal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), is available via Wiley InterScience.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer a
Opening a new door to an effective vaccine and therapy for a disease that strikes thousands annually, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School discovered that the bacteria that causes the intestinal disease Cholera spreads in the environment in much the same way it infects humans. Appearing in the December 8 issue of the journal Nature, the study investigates the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and its ability to attach to a host, enabling it to multiply and adding to the risk of infecting humans.
Patients speak out regarding impact on intimacy, relationships and careers
Results released today from the Voices of UC survey of 1,000 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients underscore the extensive burden of the disease. UC is a debilitating chronic disease affecting more than 500,000 Americans, for whom there is no medical cure. While UC affects more people in the United States than multiple sclerosis or cystic fibrosis, general awareness of the disease is disproportionately lower.
Scientists for years have been at a loss to explain unexpectedly high levels of mercury in fish swimming the rivers and streams of areas like eastern Oregon, far away from industrial sources of mercury pollution such as coal-fired power plants.
New University of Washington research suggests mercury can be carried long distances in the atmosphere, combining with other airborne chemicals as it travels. These compounds are much more water-soluble and therefore are more easily rem
A brain chemical recently found to boost trust appears to work by reducing activity and weakening connections in fear-processing circuitry, a brain imaging study at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has discovered. Scans of the hormone oxytocin’s effect on human brain function reveal that it quells the brain’s fear hub, the amygdala, and its brainstem relay stations in response to fearful stimuli. The work at NIMH and a collabor
Life on Earth may owe its existence to tiny microorganisms living in the oceans, but the effect of human-induced change on the vital services these microbes perform for the planet remains largely unstudied, says a report released today by the American Academy of Microbiology, entitled Marine Microbial Diversity: The Key to Earth’s Habitability.
“Since life most likely began in the oceans, marine microorganisms are the closest living descendants of the original forms of life,” says Jenni
While the rupture zones of recent major earthquakes are immune to similar-sized earthquakes for hundreds of years, they could be vulnerable to even bigger destructive temblors sooner than scientists suspect, according to analysis by University of Colorado seismologist Roger Bilham.
Bilham and his research colleagues explained that the magnitude 9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake of December 2004 showed scientists that a giant earthquake can rupture through a region with a recent histor
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