A new, sharper picture of the nano-machine that translates our genetic program into proteins promises to help researchers explain how some types of antibiotics work and could lead to the design of better ones.
The high-resolution snapshots of the bacterial ribosome were captured by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) with the lab’s Advanced Light Source, which generates intense beams of X-rays that can reve
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that a protein associated with causing neurodegenerative conditions may, when appearing in normal amounts, actually protect against neurodegeneration.
The findings, appearing in today’s issue of the journal Cell, have surprised the researchers, because an excess of the same specific protein – alpha-synuclein – causes Parkinson’s disease.
“It’s the first time that anyone has shown that synuclein has
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have deciphered a key part of the regulatory code that governs how motor neurons in the spinal cord connect to specific target muscles in the limbs.
The researchers said that understanding this code may help guide progress in restoring motor neuron function in people whose spinal cords have been damaged by trauma or disease. The studies suggest that the code — which involves members of the family of transcription factors encoded
A study led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides another important step in our understanding of the critical role that the brain’s molecular pathways play in the development of obesity and related disorders.
The findings, reported in the November 4, 2005 issue of the journal Cell, demonstrate for the first time that the neuronal pathways that help to keep body weight stable diverge at the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) to regulate ei
Researchers have utilised more than a decade’s worth of data from radar altimeters on ESA’s ERS satellites to produce the most detailed picture yet of thickness changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet.
A Norwegian-led team used the ERS data to measure elevation changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2003, finding recent growth in the interior sections estimated at around six centimetres per year during the study period. The research is due to be published by Scienc
University of Navarra researcher, Xabier Sevillano, recently defended his PhD thesis on a novel procedure for the elimination of organic waste from water. The chemist’s work involved studying how one of the most noxious substances, phenol, could be eliminated. National and European legislations limit the dumping of this product. Nevertheless, many companies generate this toxic product in such a way that contamination of water by phenol is frequent.
To fight this contamination, Xabier
EuroStemCell researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute have made an important new discovery about the role of oxygen in development. Their research, published this week in Developmental Cell, may shed light on the processes at work in tumour development and has implications for successfully growing stem cells in the laboratory.
Scientists have observed that stem cells grow more easily as undifferentiated cells when oxygen levels are reduced. But until this week, they didn’t kno
Western Governments seem to have learned many of the lessons of how to cope with thyroid cancers in the aftermath of a nuclear accident, a prominent thyroid specialist stated on Monday.
Professor Michael Sheppard is part of the WHO team which was sent to Chernobyl in the wake of the accident, to review how those affected were coping with the disaster. He believes that the UK, as well as other developed Western countries, have taken on many of the lessons of the accident.
In examinations of children with serious reading and writing difficulties German and Swedish researchers have now succeeded in demonstrating for the first time the contribution of a specific gene.
About five million Germans have serious learning difficulties when it comes to reading and writing. It is frequently the case that several members of the same family are affected. So hereditary disposition seems to play an important role in the occurrence of dyslexia. Scientists at th
European space technology will boost the performance of at least one boat during this year’s Transat Jacques Vabre international sailing contest. The race starts on Saturday from Le Havre in France, and ends in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Marc Thiercelin and his sailing partner Eric Drouglazet will be competing in Thiercelin’s 60-foot yacht ProForm. The yacht has more efficient solar cells, lighter batteries and an intelligent power management system, all based on technology
Polluting carbon dioxide emissions generated by the food industry are the target of a new £800,000 research project involving The University of Nottingham.
Experts will look at new ways of cutting the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) created by the food processing industry — a major energy consumer through its reliance on cooking, refrigeration, freezing and air compressor systems.
The Carbon Vision project will be one of the biggest investigations ever undertaken into t
Solar research at PSI takes a leap into the future today with the opening of the High-flux Solar Simulator. With this new instrument scientists will be able to carry out experiments under extremely high temperatures, independent of the weather.
The Laboratory for Solar Technology at PSI and the Professorship in Renewable Energy Carriers at ETHZ are jointly conducting research in high-temperature thermo-chemical processes to efficiently transform concentrated solar energy into sto
The UK’s Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB), published by Which?, has identified an important error in standard guidelines on fetal varicella syndrome. This finding has major implications worldwide for advice given to women with chickenpox in late pregnancy.
Fetal varicella syndrome is an uncommon but potentially fatal condition that can affect the unborn child of a pregnant woman who catches chickenpox. It can cause problems such as skin loss or scarring, under-development or we
Our view of wild birds is mostly positive. They are a lovely sight as they soar through the air or drift lazily on updrafts. But there is a downside to this beauty. Birds are reservoirs for all manner of infectious disease and we can do little about it, according to an article in the November 2005 issue of Microbiology Today, the quarterly magazine of the Society for General Microbiology.
“Wild birds carry several important human and animal diseases,” explains Dr Keith Jones of Lancaster
The Cretaceous that lasted approximately from 135 through 65 million years ago was the period of drastic changes in biosphere. It was at that time that mass extinction of dinosaurs and other reptiles took place; birds and mammals came to take their place. In the early Cretaceous, the first flowering plants appeared, they quickly occupied the dominant position overland and settled in diverse ecotopes. These large-scale processes, thanks to which the Earth gradually acquired the contemporary appeara
Interesting facts have been discovered in phytoimmunity sphere by the Russian-Belorus group of biochemists in the framework of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Belorus Foundation for Basic Research projects. To protect themselves from pathogenic fungi, which penetrate plant tissues with the help of proteinase proteins, vegetables produce inhibitors to these proteinases. A peculiar “arms race” is taking place between them.
Animals’ immune system cells are aimed at resista
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