A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thought–at a rate of 9 percent per decade. If these melting rates continue for a few more decades, the perennial sea ice will likely disappear entirely within this century, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere that accelerate the melting process.
Perennial sea ice floats in the polar oceans and remains at the end of the summer, when the ice cover is at its
Rearrangements of the mixed lineage leukemia gene, MLL, are associated with aggressive leukemias in both children and adults. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that one portion of the MLL protein is an enzyme that “edits” the so-called histone code, a series of modifications to proteins associated with DNA that influence how and when certain genes are turned on and off. Their findings are presented in the November issue of Molecular Cell.
When functi
Researchers examine aging in wild insects for first time
A unique insect has given researchers the opportunity to study aging in the wild for the first time.
“Aging – or senescence – has been seen under controlled conditions in the lab, but never before in insects living in their naturally evolved habitat,” says U of T zoology doctoral candidate Russell Bonduriansky. “Our study of antler flies shows these animals do age in the wild.”
Bonduriansky and co-researcher C
A report of an individual infected with a second strain of HIV despite effective drug treatment following the first infection has researchers concerned.
“For the first time, we’ve shown it is possible for an individual to become infected with two closely related strains of HIV,” says Bruce D. Walker, M.D., a grantee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Published in this w
Artificial cells, or liposomes, are a promising area in biotechnology and nanotechnology, and now they have a new power source. An experimental finding has revealed a new method for converting light to stored chemical energy within the cells.
A team headed by Arizona State University chemistry professors Thomas Moore and Devens Gust has developed a light-powered molecular pump that shuttles calcium ions through a phospholipid membrane – calcium ion pumping that resembles various key cellula
Nearly 40 years ago scientists were startled to discover that the eye, far from being a still camera, actually has cells that respond to movement. Moreover, these cells are specialized to respond to movement in one direction only, such as left to right or right to left.
Now, in a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, have finally detailed the cellular circuit responsible for motion detection in the eye’s retina.
Think of it as finding the ultimate genetic engineers.
A plant biologist at Michigan State University has harvested clues about genes that coordinate the development of plant parts that must work together.
The work, published in the Nov. 28 issue of the British science journal Nature, points to a single mechanism that regulates the growth of related parts in flowers – kind of a genetic project manager.
“This is why we’re not just a discombobulated collection
Representatives from 14 international, national, and regional organisations from around the world meeting in Brazil have agreed to form a World Federation of Science Journalists, recognizing the increasing international nature of science communication.
The new organization is designed to bridge scientists and society worldwide by creating a network for the exchange of information, improving access to scientific and technical sources and facilitating training and education of journalists par
Researchers at Leeds have identified the gene which gives us bigger brains – the evolutionary attribute separating us from other animals. The gene came to light during a study by Geoff Woods, Jacquie Bond and Emma Roberts into the disease microcephaly, in which people are born with a smaller brain (and head).
Dr Woods, a clinical geneticist at St James’’s, noticed a high instance of microcephaly among his Pakistani patients. He found that, in the 1960s, a dam project in Pakistani-c
A new study of snow accumulation on Canada’s highest mountain provides strong evidence that significant climate change has occurred in Western Canada over the past 150 years.
The study, which will appear in the Nov. 28th issue of Nature, examines climate change over the past 300 years and provides evidence that both surface and atmospheric temperatures have risen in Western Canada since the middle of the 19th century. Led by University of Toronto physicist, Professor Kent Moore, the
For wearers of prosthetic or false limbs, the comfort and effectiveness of the socket fit is crucial. New ways of measuring and solving socket pressure points – using load analysis techniques from the aircraft industry – have been developed by engineering and computing researchers at the University of the West of England.
A team from UWE’’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences has just been awarded a grant of £52,000 by the charity Remedi to further their res
The first outbreak of the evolution of multicellular organisms falls on the Wend, the last period of the Proterozoic (Precambrian), about 620-550 million years ago. At that time, climate of our planet was rather cold, and glaciers that covered the single supercontinent nearly reached the equator. The cold is beneficial for the evolution of sea creatures.
In modern seas, significant concentrations of dissolved oxygen, phosphates, and the organic matter provide for a high biological productiv
Collapse in the mines can be foreseen in advance and the caving-in location and time can be identified. This has become possible due to the basic research carried out by scientists of the Ioffe Physical & Engineering Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Specialists of INTERUNIS company have undertaken to embody the above concepts in a prototype model of the device.
The system will consist of the ’’case on wheels’’ containing the computer and signal processing cards, and several sensors (
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) and the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) jointly announced organizational changes which aim to strengthen research relationships throughout Europe to better support Web technology development.
The change of W3C European Host from INRIA to ERCIM will take place on 1 January 2003. The change allows W3C to better leverage research relationships througho
Physical fertility of typical Mekong delta soils (Vietnam) and land suitability assessment for alternative crops with rice cultivation
Most of the soils in the Mekong delta, Vietnam are formed and developed during the Holocene period. The first Viet people came to reclaim and exploit this plain at the beginning of the 17th century. As a result, in the middle of the 19th century, the Mekong delta had become the largest region of agricultural production, essentially rice produce for ma
Researchers funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences have determined the structure of a protein with a surprising feature in it: a knot. This is the first time a knot has been found in a protein from the most ancient type of single-celled organism, an archaebacterium, and one of only a few times a knot has been seen in any protein structure.
This very unusual protein shape finding is a result from the NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative, a 10-year effort to determine 10,0
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