The tropical mantis shrimp has the most sophisticated eyes of any creature on the planet, yet it often lives at murky depths where the only light is a filtered, dim blue. Why does it need such complex vision?
Marine biologists and physiologists have now discovered at least one use for these eyes in the deep, blue ocean: to see the fluorescent markings mantis shrimp use to signal or threaten one another.
The shrimps’ characteristic spots are easy to see in shallow water but o
The system developed by the Moscow scientists with the financial assistance of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises will instantly allow to detect and measure gas micro-bubbles being formed in blood inside the pump oxygenator. A small device which looks like some kind of a bracelet on the arterial line of the pump oxygenator and is connected to the computer will be recording all bubbles, searching for potentially dangerous ones an
Brazilian scientists claim to have restored feeling to patients paralysed for two years or more, reports Marina Murphy in this issue of Chemistry & Industry Magazine.
The report previews research carried out at the University of San Paulo, Brazil. Scientists lead by Tarciscio Barros at the University’s School of Medicine harvested stem cells from the blood of 30 patients with spinal cord injury and reintroduced them via injection into the artery supplying the damaged area. After a few month
Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1-mm soil-dwelling roundworm with 959 cells, may be the best-understood multicellular organism on the planet. As the most “pared-down” animal that shares essential features of human biology—from embryogenesis to aging—C. elegans is a favorite subject for studying how genes control these processes. The way these genes work in worms helps scientists understand how diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s develop in humans when genes malfunction. With the publication of a genome s
Endoscopic fetal treatment increases survival to 73 percent for a severe defect that hampers lung growth — comparison group in a randomized trial increases survival to 77 percent with standard care in an expert neonatal intensive care unit
Newborns with a severe birth defect that hampers lung growth have an equal chance of survival whether they are treated with maternal/fetal surgery or receive their first operation after birth — if the infant receives life support from the moment o
Breast cancer is the most common and the second-most fatal malignant tumour amongst women who live in industrialised countries. Moreover, when present in young women, it would appear that a genetic predisposition is involved. This predisposition can be due to a number of causes and, amongst the most common, lie the alterations in the gene suppressors of the tumours. The lack of efficiency in these genes may be due to the fact that they are altered (mutated), they are not expressed, or they do not fun
Large, deep earthquakes have shaken the central Puget Sound region several times in the last century, and nerves have been rattled even more often by less-powerful deep quakes. New University of Washington research suggests the magnitude of these temblors might depend on just where beneath the Earth’s surface they occur.
Events such as the 2001 Nisqually earthquake and large quakes in 1965 and 1949 happened in what is called the Wadati-Benioff zone, an area deep below the surface where
First-ever blood test for mesothelioma being developed
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) have reported the development of a blood test for mesothelioma, a highly aggressive lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
A PNRI team led by Dr. Ingegerd Hellstrom, and an Australian team, led by Dr. Bruce Robinson, of the University of Western Australia, conducted the research, which appears in the November 15th issue of Lancet. The new test promises a si
Findings hold promise for developing new botulism therapies
Scientists have identified several key molecules that block the activity of a toxin that causes botulism–an important first step in developing therapeutics to counter the disease.
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) are useful as therapeutic agents for treating a wide variety of muscle dysfunctions in humans, and are used cosmetically to reduce wrinkles. Paradoxically, the seven serotypes of BoNT, designated A through G,
A research team led by engineers at Purdue University and physicists at the University of Chicago has made a discovery about the formation of drops that could lead to new methods for making threads, wires and particles only a few nanometers wide.
Such nano-threads, wires and particles could, in turn, have numerous applications, including new kinds of composite materials, electronic circuits and pharmaceutical products, said Osman Basaran, a professor in Purdue’s School of Chemical Engineeri
Researchers have used ultraviolet light to “weld” a key regulatory protein to its RNA targets, creating a new tool that can be used to identify novel proteins involved in a variety of human diseases.
Using this technique, the researchers have identified an array of RNA molecules regulated by the RNA-binding protein, Nova, which has been implicated in an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease. The researchers believe their technique may help in finding the RNA targets of other proteins involved
Researchers have found subtle damage in the brains of HIV-positive patients whose viral load is effectively suppressed by anti-retroviral therapy. In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) used a combination of MRI brain imaging, recording of electrical brain activity, and behavioral tests to compare the size and function of brains of HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy with those of healthy subjects.
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Researchers at Jefferson Medical College and Duke University have used gene therapy to help damaged heart cells regain strength and beat normally again in the laboratory. The work takes the scientists one step closer to eventual clinical trials in humans.
Walter Koch, Ph.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine of the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his colleagues at Duke used a virus to carry a gene into t
RNA, often thought of as merely the chemical messenger that helps decode DNA’s genetic instructions for making proteins, can itself play a crucial role in regulating protein expression. Not surprisingly, this regulation occurs through proteins that bind to RNA. All cells in the body, especially nerve cells in the brain, use and regulate RNA in an exquisite fashion.
Scientists have previously shown that defects in RNA binding underlie several human brain disorders, but their RNA targets
It took from the beginning of time until 1950 to put the first 2.5 billion people on the planet. Yet in the next half-century, an increase that exceeds the total population of the world in 1950 will occur.
So writes Joel E. Cohen, Ph.D., Dr.P.H., professor and head of the Laboratory of Populations at The Rockefeller University and Columbia University, in a Viewpoint article in the November 14 issue of the journal Science.
In “Human Population: The Next Half-Century,” Cohen examin
Primping and passing time with peers may serve a serious purpose, suggests a new study by a UCLA-led team of primate researchers.
The more time wild female baboons spend in the company of other adult baboons, particularly while occupied with grooming activities, the more likely their offspring are to live until their first birthday, the team reports in the Nov. 14 issue of Science.
“Until now, social scientists assumed that because females invest a lot in social relationships, the
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