Butterfly flight simulator sheds light on epic migration
During their winter migration to Mexico, monarch butterflies depend on an internal clock to help them navigate in relation to the sun, scientists have found.
By studying monarchs inside a specially designed flight simulator, the researchers have gathered what they believe is the first direct evidence of the essential role of the circadian clock in celestial navigation. The study appears in the journal Science, publishe
A crucial part in the battle to prevent outbreaks of deadly disease across the world lies with ecologists, an MSU professor says.
Preserving biodiversity and wildlife habitats are at the foundation of global health, says Jianguo “Jack” Liu, an ecologist who is the lead author for a Policy Forum in the May 23 issue of Science magazine.
The article outlines ways to protect biodiversity in China’s vast system of nature reserves. But Liu said the issues span farther than China, and
Niobium clusters display non-metallic properties at ultra-cold temperatures
The May 23 issue of the journal Science answers that question with an account of the surprising behavior exhibited by nanometer-scale clusters of the metal niobium. When the clusters are cooled to below 20 degrees Kelvin, electrical charges in them suddenly shift, creating structures known as dipoles.
“This is very strange, because no metal is supposed to be able to do this,” said Walter de Heer, a p
As concerns rise about the ecological impacts of genetically modified crops, a new Indiana University study urges a pragmatic approach to dealing with “transgenes” that escape from crop plants into the wild. Use of transgenic crops is becoming more common as farmers reap benefits from the plants’ decreased susceptibility to disease and increased marketplace value.
IU biologist Loren Rieseberg and former postdoctoral fellow John Burke (now at Vanderbilt University) reported in the May 2
Mice without Fkbp6 gene have significantly reduced testes, completely lack sperm cells
A gene that belongs to a family of genes implicated in heart disease has been found to be essential for male fertility but has no impact on female fertility, researchers at U of T, along with colleagues in New York and Japan, have discovered.
“This gene – Fkbp6 – is a member of a family of genes that have been implicated in immunosuppression and heart disease,” says Dr. Josef Penninger, pr
China’s Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam project ever, has been seen by ecologists as an environmental disaster in the making. With construction scheduled to be completed later this year, little can be done to stop it, but some Chinese and American ecologists point out that the dark cloud of the environmental consequences does have a silver lining – an unprecedented opportunity to do environmental science.
In an article forthcoming in the May 23 issue of Science, Arizona State Univers
Hydrothermal vents and cold seeps were discovered more than 20 years ago, yet remarkably little is known about the biodiversity of these chemosynthetic ecosystems. Deep-sea vents and seeps occur in very different geological settings, yet in both types of systems, microbial primary production supports an abundance of large invertebrates, such as giant tubeworms, clams, and mussels.
These animals in turn provide refuge for a diverse invertebrate fauna. Because seeps are considered to be more
A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has solved structures of a bacterial protein called pilin, which is required for infection by pathogens that cause human diseases like meningitis, gonorrhea, diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, and cholera.
In the latest issue of the journal Molecular Cell, the TSRI group reports two key structures of these pilins and discoveries about their assembly into fibrous “pili.” Because a whole class of bacterial pathogens require the ass
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have gained new insights into the causes of human deafness and balance disorders by studying the inner ear of chickens.
The research provides new clues as to why birds can replace critical cells in the inner ear and humans cannot. Loss of these so-called sensory hair cells in humans is a leading cause of deafness and impaired balance due to aging, infectious disease and exposure to loud noise. The study will be published in
Mice lacking only one copy of the gene for CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) appear to be significantly more susceptible to kidney disease and failure than normal mice. Moreover, the mutation appears to impair the elimination of proteins that accumulate in the kidney, a previously unidentified process.
The study, which will be published in the May 23 issue of the journal Science, is the first to suggest that proteins normally pass into the kidneys and that kidney disease may result from an ina
ESA telemedicine technology enables specialist physicians to perform detailed patient consultations from hundreds of kilometres away.
High-resolution video images and data signals sent via satellite links have already made ’’teleconsulting’’ a routine procedure in one part of Europe. The Agency’’s involvement with satellite telemedicine began back in 1996, when ESA provided a satellite communication system to link Italian hospitals with a field hospital in Sarajevo in Bosnia, enablin
There are many mysterious objects seen in the night sky which are not really well understood. For example, astronomers are puzzled by the “jets” emerging from planetary nebulae. However, the S-shaped jet from Henize 3-1475 is the most perplexing of all.
“Jets” are long outflows of fast-moving gas found near many objects in the Universe, such as around young stars, or coming from black holes, neutron stars, and planetary nebulae, for example. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged th
Almost every week we hear of a new genome sequence being completed, yet turning sequence information into knowledge about what individual genes do is very difficult. An article published in Journal of Biology this week will simplify this task, as it describes a new online tool that dramatically improves predictions of how individual genes are regulated. Dr. Wyeth Wasserman and his team have created this powerful new two-step method for identifying which regulators of gene expression, called
A microbiological survey of households finds little significant difference in levels of bacteria or antibiotic resistance between those that use antibacterial cleaning products and those who do not. Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine report their findings today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“The use of biocides, also called antibacterials, has become increasingly popular for regular household use. While originally developed to contr
A study of a common wild mouse by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists has found evidence of dramatic evolutionary change in a span of just 150 years, suggesting genetic evolution can occur a lot faster than many had thought possible.
The findings are the first report of such quick evolution in a mammal and appear in the May 22 issue of the journal Nature.
Oliver Pergams, a conservation biology researcher with the Chicago Zoological Society in Brookfield, Ill. and visiting
Ultracold experiment opens door for basic studies in quantum computing
Physicists at Rice University have completed the first real-time measurement of individual electrons, creating an experimental method that for the first time allows scientists to probe the dynamic interactions between the smallest atomic particles.
The research, which appears in the May 22 issue of the journal Nature, is important for researchers developing quantum computers, a revolutionary type of compu
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